The Wand of Gamelon

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon is a video game developed by Animation Magic and released for the Philips CD-i in 1993, on the same day as Link: The Faces of Evil. A follow-up to both games, Zelda's Adventure, arrived in 1994. All three CD-i Zelda games were the product of a compromise between Philips and Nintendo after the two companies failed to release a CD-based add-on for the SNES.

The story begins with the King of Hyrule going off to fight Ganon. He tells Princess Zelda to send Link to help him if he does not return after a month. An entire month passes without word from the King. As instructed, Zelda sends Link to find him, but he doesn't return either. Zelda then decides to venture forth herself to search for Link and her father.

The story is largely told through animated FMVs, in an attempt to make best use of the CD-ROM format. Many backgrounds were taken from the Zelda cartoon and used as backdrops in the game. The cutscenes are notorious for having bad animation, acting, and scripting.

The Wand of Gamelon was the first Zelda game where the player plays as the eponymous princess. It is played using the side-scrolling view introduced in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. For a variety of reasons, it is generally accepted that this game does not play as tightly as Zelda II. These range from the quality of the CD-i controller, to the speed of the gameplay and the jerkiness of the character animations.

Gameplay videos on YouTube