For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Jackster's Zelda: The Wand Of Gamelon (CD-i) maps.
When the land of Gamelon was attacked by Ganon's forces, King Harkinian of Hyrule travelled there to help his ally, Duke Onkled. But a month passed without hearing from the King, so Princess Zelda sent the hero, Link, to find him, but he also went missing. So, with Impa's accompaniment, Zelda ventures off to Gamelon to find them both, in her first (though non-canonical) leading role in the series that bears her name.
As discussed when Jackster
received the Maps Of The Month honour back in December 2020, the CD-i was released at an interesting time in video gaming when optical disc technology was transforming digital media. The massive increase in storage capacity meant so much more could be done with games, and that usually meant voice acting and full-motion video. A licensing deal between Nintendo and Philips resulted in some interesting (and infamous) games on the CD-i, which showcase these new features. Two of them, Link: The Faces Of Evil and Zelda: The Wand Of Gamelon, came out on the same day, and we've already recognized one of them here, so it's time to honour more of Jackster's work.
Much has been said about how bad these games are, so kudos to Jackster for pushing through to bring us these maps, both unmarked and marked. With the unmarked maps, we can appreciate the graphics of these colourful backgrounds that resemble paintings, rather than tiles bound to grids. They really are gorgeous in their own way. And with the marked maps, we can figure out how to get through these games, if we ever dare to see what the fuss is about. The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom is great, but a truly hardcore Zelda fan can say they managed to save the land of Gamelon.
So to recognize even more effort of enduring the infamous CD-i Zelda games, Jackster's Zelda: The Wand Of Gamelon (CD-i) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for May 2023.
