Zelda: 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 Super Nintendo. It is most notable for its negative reception.

Plot
The story begins with the King of Hyrule stating that he is going to the island of Gamelon, after receiving word from Duke Onkled, the ruler of Gamelon, that he and his island are under attack by the evil forces of Gamelon, to fight Ganon and aid Duke Onkled. 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, taking Impa along with her.

In Gamelon, Zelda does battle with the many creatures working for Ganon, meeting many friendly characters and obtaining a variety of useful items along the way. She also learns that the king has been captured. Eventually, Zelda reaches Duke Onkled's castle, Dodomai Palace, where she learns that he is actually working with Ganon and had helped capture the king. She confronts Onkled and forces him to give her the key to Reesong Palace, where Ganon is. Before fighting Ganon, Zelda must also obtain the Wand of Gamelon, which is the only thing that can defeat him. At Reesong Palace, Zelda uses the wand to imprison Ganon in the Book of Koridai (again), and rescues the king. Duke Onkled is arrested and turned over to the king, and begs for mercy. He is made to "scrub all the floors in Hyrule" as his punishment. Meanwhile, Zelda breaks the mirror of Lady Alma, a woman encountered early in the game, which causes Link to appear, seemingly having been trapped in the mirror, and he has no memory of anything that happened. The story is largely told through animated FMVs, in an attempt to make best use of the CD-ROM format. These cutscenes are notorious for having bad animation, acting, and scripting. The cutscenes, with the exception of the intro and ending, have no backgrounds of their own and are played over the game areas where they appear.

Gameplay
Zelda: 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 The Adventure of Link. For a variety of reasons, it is generally accepted that this game does not play as tightly as The Adventure of Link. These range from the quality of the CD-i controller, to the speed of the gameplay and the jerkiness of the character animations.

The game's different areas are accessed from a world map, where more areas open as the player progresses through the game. Each level has two Triforce symbols which are used to exit to the map, one found at the beginning of the level and another at the end, which "completes" the level when activated. In addition to simply making it to the end of the various stages, Zelda must also collect various items and power-ups that are needed to complete certain tasks or to give to a certain NPC. The enemies in the game include some well-known creatures from the canonical Zelda games, such as Moblins, Octoroks, and Armos, and others created exclusively for the CD-i games. Most of the enemies in the game are also found in Link: The Faces of Evil. The player also collects "rubees" for defeating enemies, which can be used to buy lamp oil, rope and bombs from the store in Sakado.

Characters
Main Article: Characters in Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

The game features several friendly NPCs, all original characters created exclusively for this game, who give Zelda essential information and items. There are also a number of villainous characters who Zelda must defeat to progress through her quest. All of these "bosses" are defeated in one hit, although some require a specific item to kill. Many of them are based off of regular enemies from the main series.

This game is not considered canon as Nintendo had no involvement in its production, and have in fact requested that its existence be denied altogether.