System:
Phillips CDi
Developer: Animation
Magic
Publisher: Phillips
|
Release Dates |
|
 |
1993 |
|
 |
October
10th 1993 |
|
 |
Unreleased |
|
|
|
|
The Wand of Gamelon and
The Faces of Evil were
both released on October
10th 1993, and developed
by Animation Magic, so
technically, they're
quite similar. They
share the side-scrolling
elements of The
Adventure of Link, and
both use cartoon cut
scenes.
When the King of Hyrule
goes on a journey to
make a treat with Duke
Onkled, he goes missing.
Link, the Hero, goes off
in search of the King
and ends up missing too,
so it's left to Princess
Zelda to find them both.
Both Animation Magic
Zelda games draw heavy
criticism; while the
beautiful backdrops are
accepted by fans, the
atrocious animated
cut-scenes that bookend
and pepper the games and
the poor playability
draw the most fire. The
animated cut-scenes were
created by a team of six
Russian animators who
were flown to the US
specifically for the
job, and the jarring
voice acting which
further ruined (or you
could say "completed")
these scenes were all a
result of the game's
insufficient budget and
Phillip's insistence
that all the
capabilities of the CDi
format were used.
However, the CDi machine
wasn't designed as a
games console and many
systems came with a laggy infrared
controller, and other
system limitations
further compounded
control problems. To
make matters worse, the
team of four artists,
three programmers and
one musician were given
little over a year to
create both games.
The only positive legacy
of the Animation Magic
Zelda games have been
the gorgeous backdrops -
they helped create the
most realised Zelda at
the time - but gameplay
and audio were
distinctly average; not
awful, but not worthy of
the "Zelda" label,
either. |
