I'm super happy someone finally mapped one of the first two CD-i Zelda games.
Those two games might have horrible animations but the background graphics are gorgeous!
That's true. On one hand, the games are maligned for their weird animated sequences, combined with them being for the unpopular and otherwise almost entirely unknown CD-i (especially in contrast to the very mainstream and very popular PlayStation of which its origins are linked) and the bizarreness that Nintendo would lend out the rights of their otherwise incredibly-polished and popular AAA franchises ever, not for one, but MULTIPLE games. The lack of availability of an actual CD-i adds even more intrigue to this, as does Nintendo's pretending that this never happened, so most people only know it for what makes it weird. (Sort of like the Star Wars Holiday Special, which is infamously bad, even joked as such by many people even if they haven't experienced it, though it does have its place in canon, and a LEGO "sequel" that comes out today on Disney+.)
But on the other hand, the face value of the maps themselves are that they are actually quite cool. Imagine, these were done by an artist or artists who are no longer limited to building worlds out of tiles. While you can tell there is still a need to create traversable landscapes, they went wild with the colours and shapes (compared to the "blocky" nature of tile-based graphics). At this point, pre-Ocarina Of Time, there were only a handful of Zelda games to reference, plus their art, and likely some inspiration from The Legend Of Zelda cartoon segment on the Friday episodes of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Considering that, I don't think they did bad at all. I guess now we're used to Zelda games being all over the place with their style, so this actually isn't too weird, really. I like them! Still have to really play them (sheesh, what kind of Zelda fan am I?), but I can at least say, and with Jackster's maps more confidently so, that this at least looks good!
