Link: The Faces of Evil

Link: The Faces of Evil is a video game developed by and released for the Philips CD-i in 1993. It was developed in tandem with, and released on the same day as, and followed up a year later by.

A product of a compromise between Nintendo and due to their failure to release a CD-based add-on to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, The Faces of Evil, alongside the other two, are the only  games developed by a non-Nintendo company and released on a non-Nintendo system. Due to the poor quality of the games, including ineptly animated cutscenes, the games have been subject to much criticism, and Nintendo does not recognize them as canon to the Zelda series.

Story
In the now-peaceful land of Hyrule, Link is feeling increasingly useless and bored with no adventures to go on. Suddenly, a wizard named Gwonam arrives on the balcony of Hyrule Castle, informing the King that Ganon and his minions have seized the island of Koridai, and that only Link can defeat him. After being refused a kiss from Princess Zelda, Link goes with Gwonam on his magic carpet to Koridai. He explains to him the "Faces of Evil", giant stone structures in the shape of heads around the island, each of which is controlled by a minion of Ganon and in whose likenesses the faces themselves are made. Link must conquer each of them before fighting Ganon himself, who has his own Face of Evil.

While adventuring through Koridai, meeting numerous characters and fighting monsters, Link learns from Gwonam that Zelda has been captured by Ganon since he left the castle, and is imprisoned in his lair. As Link continues his adventure, he fights and defeats each of the masters of the Faces of Evil: Goronu, Harlequin, Militron, Glutko, and Lupay. He also retrieves the Book of Koridai after defeating Glutko, which is the only item that can defeat Ganon. After all other obstacles have been cleared, Link goes to Ganon's Lair, where he confronts the villain and defeats him by throwing the Book of Koridai at him and magically imprisoning him in it. Ganon drops the key to Zelda's prison chamber, where she is sleeping from a curse placed upon her by Ganon. Link rings a giant gong and wakes Zelda up, exclaiming that he just saved her, though she teasingly says she does not believe him. Gwonam then returns and takes the two back to Hyrule Castle on his carpet, and proclaims Link as the Hero of Koridai.

Gameplay
The Faces of Evil is different from most conventional Zelda games in that it is played using a side-scrolling view, similar to that in. Levels are accessed from a world map, with more areas becoming available as Link progresses through the game. Each level has two Triforce Maps that serve as exits; one at the beginning and one at the end. In addition to simply reaching the second Triforce Map in each stage, some levels also have special items and power-ups in them that are necessary to progress through later areas. Link also encounters several NPC characters in certain stages who provide Link with essential equipment and information, often requiring a specific item in return found somewhere else in the game. Link also collects "Rubies" dropped by defeated enemies, which are used to buy extra equipment from Morshu's shop in the Goronu area.

Character interactions is achieved through the use of full motion video cutscenes, which are activated when Link approaches a character and touches them with his sword. These cutscenes uses voice acting to provide Link with instructions, which makes The Faces of Evil one of the few Zelda games to have voice acting. Very little in-game text is seen otherwise.

Reception
Along with the other two Zelda CD-i games, The Faces of Evil is not considered canon as Nintendo had no involvement in its production. It is also not recognized as a "true" Zelda game by Nintendo and by most fans. The game sold poorly and suffered from critical reception, with key complaints regarding the confusing and unresponsive controls, dull and repetitive gameplay, and poor animation and voice acting used in the game's cutscenes.

This game, along with Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, were frequently used to create "YouTube Poop" remix videos, with characters such as King Harkinian, Gwonam and Morshu being particularly popular.