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Zelda: Links Backyard
This is the much-lauded Zelda: Links Backyard. It's so popular, apparently people went out of their way to hack in cheat codes to max rupees.
This game doesn't need them.
You have to click Link's name to start. Alright flavor, I guess.
So this is a straightforward LttP clone. No items, but you use your sword to cut stuff down, and there's rupees and hearts to collect. Overall, a simple-but-decent game.
Of course, that's not where the charm of the game is. If this game excels at anything, it would be its stellar writing.
Fifteen seconds in and we already have our rival set-up. This guy knows how to ramp up the drama!
Anyway, we have to go to the right side to get the key.
This is based off an older game engine, except this one actually sorta-works. And also, the author is passionate enough to implore anybody playing this game not to kill themselves, so I guess that's a nice gesture.
The monsters are stationary and go down to one hit. You also want to cut down every bush, since some have rupees and you need every single rupee to progress.
We encounter a new enemy, complete with excellent advice on how to tackle it.
Pretty much the same deal as LttP, except we don't have Fairy Dust to wreck it.
There's also these red-hued enemies which simply take multiple hits to die.
Next up is this guy. He doesn't attack you, yet the game implores you to kill him.
In a brilliant move from the game designer, you can simply not kill him. Yes, the game tells you to kill him, but it also won't stop you from not killing him. I wish every game would reward you for taking the non-violent solution.
Anyway, whether or not you murder the defenseless man, the key you need to progress is handily right next to the gate. This game doesn't want to waste your time with lengthy, meandering puzzles.
You need every possible rupee you can collect to pass through here. Thankfully, rupees are either in bushes or out in the open, so collecting them is trivial.
Then the token "push a block on a switch to make an opening" puzzle.
Despite our decision not to kill him, Freaking-junior's older brothers think we killed him. It is all a giant misunderstanding, of course, but they refuse to listen to reason.
It's unfortunate, but we have no choice but to fight these guys.
Thankfully, there are hearts in the corners to give you the energy to fight these fearsome foes.
Their strategy is to just run towards you and bump into you to death. It's pretty easy to swat them away with your sword until they die, though.
After we kill our attackers, Toad taunts us for our wanton murder. What we did was horrible, and we deserve every ounce of scorn he can give us.
Then he decides to kill us.
This puzzle is tricky. The walls that appeared out of nowhere are closing in, so we have to find the key. While a bush spawns right behind you once the walls appear, you may not think to look there first because of the panic of the walls closing in on you. If you can maintain your composure, however, you can use your wits to realize that the one bush that's available may hold the key.
After that, you better hope you have enough time to open the path to Toad!
And with that, we slay Toad. Of course, now we have to live with four murders on our conscience. Thus this game delivers one gut-punch of an ending.
Link will never look at his backyard in the same way ever again.