The Legend of Zelda (Milton Bradley)

The Legend of Zelda
Publisher(s)	Milton Bradley
Release date	1988

The Legend of Zelda is a 1988 board game published by Milton Bradley and based on the video game of the same name. The game involves one to four players going through six worlds as Link while trying to get the largest amount heart chips.

Initial assembly

The game's pieces

When the game is played for the fist time, the player will have to separate the tiles, punch out the heart chips and Link playing piece, fold and put the Link piece into a plastic stand, and put four sword labels and two red labels on the four blank dice, turning them into attack dice.

Gameplay

At the start of the game the players have to turn all of the playing tiles facedown and then place them in their matching world. Each player then takes three heart chips, placing the remaining heart chips next to the board, turning it into the drawpile. Each player then has to take one attack die. Finally, the Link piece will have to be placed on the START space on the board. At the start of the game the youngest player will go first, with the later turns being took clockwise.

Each player moves Link on their turn by rolling the numbered die. Link moves the full number rolled and can moved in the path in the world that Link is in. Link cannot move to the same space multiple times in a single turn. If Link lands on a white space the player's turn ends, while if Link lands on a yellow space the player turns over a tile from the world they are in. If the player flips over a Magic Tile they place it in front of them, ending their turn. A Magic Tile is kept permanently. Once the world's Magic Tile is found any player can move Link to the next world, although they can still stay in the world they are in. If the player turns over a Monster tile each player will have to roll their attack die, which has four sides with a sword and two with a red label. If the amount of swords rolled is equal or greater than the monster's health the monster is defeated. Certain monsters may have hearts. If the players lose to any monster each player puts one of their hearts in the drawpile. If the players defeat a monster with a heart, every player that rolled a sword while battling the monster will draw a heart chip from the drawpile. If the players defeat a monster without a heart, no heart chips are drawn. After battling the monster the monster is left on the board face-up and cannot be fought again. The player who drew the monster tile's turn then ends.

There are two ways the game can be won. If any player runs out of heart chips and does not have a Magic Tile, the game immediately ends. If one of the players collects the Triforce tile in the sixth world, then the player who collected it will roll four attack dice. If all four of them are swords, the player keeps the Triforce tile. If they do not roll four swords, then they can reroll the dice that did not roll a sword. If the player still does not have four swords, the player's turn ends and the next player rolls the dice in the same manner. The player who rolls four swords in two rolls keeps the Triforce tile. At the end of any game each player counts their heart chips, with each Magic Tile being worth one heart and the Triforce tile being worth two. the player with the most heart chips wins. If there is a tie each player tied for fist place rolls four attack dice, with the one who rolled the most swords winning.

Fewer player rule variations

When less than four player are player, several rule variations are made. When only three players are playing, the player that drew a monster card uses two attack dice instead of one while battling the monster. The other players still roll one die. If a monster with a heart is defeated, the players still receive a heart if they rolled at least one sword. In games with only two players, each player takes four heart chips at the start of the game instead of three, and both players roll two dice when battling monsters. If the monster has a heart, in order for a player to receive a heart chip, they need to roll two swords instead of one. A one player game is very different from a multiplayer game. In a one player game the player's objective is instead to go as far as they can through the game's six worlds without losing all of their heart chips, and to see how many heart chips they can collect in each game. In a one player game when fighting monsters they roll four attack dice instead of one, they can lose Magic tiles like heart chips, and immediately gain the Triforce tile once collected.

Gallery

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  Back cover

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  Bomb

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  Fairy

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  Gleeoks

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  Key

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  Raft