Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon is a Phillips CD-i title developed by Animation Magic and published by Phillips Media. The game, along with Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda's Adventure and Hotel Mario, came to be when Phillips was given the right to publish and develop games with five Nintendo characters, after the Nintendo decided not to have Phillips develop the CD add-on for the Super Nintendo. The game has been criticized for barely functional controls and poor gameplay.
Plot[]
The player controls Princess Zelda, who must find and defeat Ganon and rescue both King Harkinian and Link to become the heroine of Gamelon.
Gameplay[]
When the player begins this quest, three areas are initially available, accessible through Impa's map. The player can access the areas on the map by moving the on-screen cursor over one of the areas and pressing a button.
At the beginning of the game, the player is only equipped with a sword and shield. The sword is used to attack enemies, fire deadly Power Blasts and communicate with friendly villagers, whereas the shield can deflect projectile attacks thrown at the player. The shield is automatically lifted when the player is standing still or crouching. Other helpful tools, such as lamp oil (for lighting a lamp), rope (for climbing) and bombs (which can destroy some obstacles) are available for a price at the General Shop in Sakado. The rubies that the Merchant takes as currency can be obtained by defeating enemies. Green rupees are worth 1, blue rupees are worth 5 and red rupees are worth 20. To pick up these gems, the player must strike them with the sword before they disappear, unlike most conventional Zelda games where rupees could be collected by simply walking over them.
Zelda's health is measured in "Life Hearts". The number of Life Hearts the player currently has is shown on the upper-left corner of the screen when Zelda is walking around the island. Although the player begins the game with only three hearts, there are ways to earn more. Each time Zelda is injured, she will lose at least one-half of a heart. The first two times Zelda runs out of Life Hearts, the player will be given the option of continuing from near the point where Zelda's last heart was lost. When Zelda loses her hearts for a third time, she will be returned to the map, and the player will have to start the level from the beginning. Returning to the map replenishes Zelda's Life Hearts and lives, and she will retain any items and rubies she picked up.