In 1988, Nintendo Company, Limited signed a deal with Sony Group Corporation to begin development of a compact disc read-only memory-based add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that would allow for full-motion video and larger games.[1][2] However in June 1991, Nintendo broke the agreement and instead signed with Sony’s rival, Koninklijke Philips Naamloze Vennootschap, to make the add-on.[1][3] This caused Sony to spin off their add-on into its own console, the PlayStation. Witnessing the SEGA Compact-Disc’s poor reception and sales, Nintendo scrapped the idea of making an add-on entirely.[1][2] As part of dissolving the agreement with Philips, they gave them the license to use characters from their Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series (Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Bowser, Link, Princess Zelda and Ganon) to create four games for Philips’s console, the Compact Disc-Interactive, contracting out to independent studios for development.[4][2][5] These included Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, both released between September 22, 1993 and November 11, 1993;[6][7] Hotel Mario, released in July 1994;[8] and Zelda’s Adventure, released on May 10, 1996.[9] Though based on the Mario and Zelda series, the games are not considered official entries. A Donkey Kong game was apparently in development for the system between 1990 and 1992, and during the 1992–1993 period at Riedel Software Productions, before it was quietly canceled.[10]

Link: The Faces of Evil puts the player in control of Link, who goes on a quest to defeat Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon changes the roles and has the player control Zelda, who sets out to save Link and King Harkinian and defend her kingdom from Ganon. Both travel to a new world (Koridai and Gamelon, respectively) to thwart Ganon’s plans. At the beginning of both games, players have access to only three areas, which are accessed through an in-game map. The two characters only have their swords and shields at this stage. The sword can be used to attack enemies either by stabbing or shooting “Power Blasts”, while the shield can deflect attacks. Link’s sword in The Faces of Evil is known as his Smart Sword, and will not hurt anyone considered friendly. The shield is used whenever the player character is standing still or crouching. They gain new items later on in the game, including lamp oil, rope, and bombs, all of which can be purchased from a shop. Rubies (Rupees in canon Zelda games) can be obtained by stabbing them with the sword after defeating an enemy; after which they can be spent at the shop. The player’s health is measured in “Life Hearts”. Although the player begins the game with only three hearts, there are ways to earn more. Each time the player character is injured, they will lose at least one-half of a heart. The first two times the player runs out of Life Hearts, the player will be given the option of continuing from near the point where their last heart was lost. When the player loses their hearts for the third time, they will be returned to the map and must start the level from the beginning. Returning to the map replenishes their Life Hearts and lives, and they will retain any items and Rubies they picked up.[11][12]

The Faces of Evil’s story begins in Hyrule Castle, where a bored Link discusses the prospects of a new adventure with King Harkinian. His hopes are soon fulfilled, as a wizard named Gwonam arrives on a magic carpet. Gwonam tells them that Ganon and his minions have taken over the island of Koridai, and explains that according to a prophecy, Link is the only one who can defeat Ganon. Link then asks Princess Zelda for a kiss for good luck, but Zelda refuses. Gwonam then transports him to Koridai, explaining that many of Ganon’s minions have established giant stone statues known as “the Faces of Evil” that act as their bases of operation, and that the young boy has to conquer each. Link ventures through the island and conquers all the faces along with defeating their leaders, including Goronu, a reptilian necromancer; Harlequin, a jokester pig; Militron, a fire-breathing armored knight; Glutko, a gluttonous cyclops; and Lupay, a sinister, dangerous three-eyed wolf. During Link’s quest, Gwonam discovers and informs him that Ganon has captured Zelda and imprisoned her in his lair. At one point during his adventure, Link discovers the sacred Book of Koridai, and brings it to a translator named Aypo. Aypo revels to him that the book is the only way to defeat Ganon. Link finally confronts Ganon, who attempts to recruit him with the promise of great power and the threat of death. He then defeats the demon, imprisoning him within the Book of Koridai, before rescuing and awakening Zelda. Gwonam appears and congratulates Link on his success, and then transports the two on his magic carpet. He shows them the liberated and recovering Koriadi, before officially declaring Link the hero of the island.[13] In The Wand of Gamelon, King Harkinian announces his plan to aid Duke Onkled of Gamelon, who is under attack by the forces of Ganon, and orders Zelda to send Link for backup if she does not hear from him within a month. He reassures her that he is taking the Triforce of Courage to protect him, while Zelda’s elderly nursemaid, Impa, promises that the Triforce of Wisdom will ensure the King’s return. An entire month passes without word from the King, so Zelda sends Link to find him. When he too goes missing, Zelda ventures off to Gamelon to find both Link and the King, accompanied by Impa. During the quest, Impa discovers that King Harkinian has been captured by Ganon and that Link was engaged in a battle, with his fate being unknown. As she ventures across the island, Zelda defeats many of Ganon’s minions, including a villainous Gibdo, the three wicked witches of the Fairy Pool, an intimidating Iron Knuckle, an evil Wizzrobe, and Omfak, a gluttonous shape-shifter. Eventually, she rescues a woman named Lady Alma, who gives her a canteen that she claims Link gave her in exchange for a kiss. On reaching Dodomai Palace, it is revealed that Duke Onkled has betrayed the King by willingly collaborating with Ganon by permitting him to take over Gamelon and allow the King’s capture. Zelda storms the palace, defeats Ganon’s henchman, Hektan, and saves a prisoner named Lord Kiro, who accompanied the King before his capture. Kiro reveals the secret entrance to Onkled’s chamber, and when they confront him he reveals the entrance to Reesong Palace, where Ganon has taken residence. Zelda travels to the Shrine of Gamelon to obtain the Wand needed to defeat Ganon, then makes her way to Reesong Palace where she fights him. After incapacitating Ganon with the Wand, she rescues her father. Back at Hyrule Castle, Kiro turns the traitorous Onkled over to the King, begging for mercy. The King orders him to scrub all the floors in Hyrule as punishment. Although Link’s whereabouts are still unknown, a comment by Lady Alma prompts Zelda to throw her mirror against the wall. Link magically materializes from inside the smashed mirror, seemingly having been trapped in it. They decide to celebrate Gamelon’s return to peace with a feast and begin to laugh since all is well again.[14]

Philips insisted that the development studios utilize all aspects of the Compact Disc-Interactive’s capabilities, including full-motion video, high-resolution graphics, and compact disc-quality music. The system, however, had not been designed as a video game console, which resulted in several technical limitations, such as unresponsive controls (especially for the standard infrared controller) and numerous problems in streaming audio, memory, disc access and graphics. Being the first two Nintendo-licensed games released on the Philips Compact Disc Interactive, The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon were given the relatively low budget of approximately $600,000, and the development deadline was set at a little over a year to be split between the two games.[14] The games were developed in tandem by Animation Magic in Cambridge, Massachusetts in order to make more efficient use of the budget, and shared the same graphics engine. The rest of the development team included programmers Linde Dynneson, John O’Brien and John Wheeler (all previous employees of Spinnaker Software), musician Tony Trippi, and freelance writer Jonathan Merritt, who created the scripts and designs. Under the direction of Dale DeSharone, development progressed similarly to that of his game Below the Root, suggested as a forerunner by Retro Gamer‘s John Szczepaniak. Background designs were created by Tom Curry and Rob Dunlavey.[13][14] The animated cutscenes were done by a team of animators from Russia, led by Igor Razboff, who were flown to the United States for the project.[15][16] According to DeSharone, Nintendo’s only input in the games’ development was that Animation Magic ran the design document and character sketches past them for their approval. They were mostly interested in the looks of Link and Zelda. DeSharone thought that the characters were in somewhat of a formation stage back then, because they really did not appear as characters in the original The Legend of Zelda; they were on the box covers. Animation Magic only had The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for reference, and Nintendo then gave them their Nintendo Character Manual for art in terms of the design: box and booklet artwork.[15][16] The manual stated that the artwork of Link and Zelda from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was for reference only and not to be used as original art, yet Philips used it on the Compact Disc-Interactive games’ boxes and booklets. In the cutscenes, Link and Zelda’s designs were based on the Valiant Comics adaptation of the The Legend of Zelda (1989) television series. This also explained why Impa was even a factor in The Wand of Gamelon‘s story as a soothsayer, interpreting the wisdom of a pyramid standing in for the Triforce of Wisdom. However, the final designs of Link and Zelda looked different, with Link having blond hair instead of brown and Zelda wearing a sleeveless shirt that bears her midriff. This was because Philips did not have the rights to those initial designs or any design that was not Zelda and Link. While Nintendo co-owned the Zelda television series, they neither had the full rights for the designs of characters like King Harkinian and Ganon, nor their color schemes. This resulted in Ganon looking nothing like his previous designs. Philips could not get the rights to Impa’s color either, so the color of her robe was changed from red to blue. The animators tried to match Link and Zelda’s new designs within a tight deadline. In the end, they could not afford to change every cutscene due to the lack of time and money to do so. Zelda was given the most attention to with this change. Her design only ever changed once between the cutscenes, showing Zelda in her outfit from the television series, while Link’s hair would change color from blond to brown very frequently in The Faces of Evil to the point that it became half and half.[17] The first two games were showcased at the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show, and surprised audiences with their degree of animation.[18]

For voice acting, Animation Magic auditioned local union actors, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists actors, and chose the voices for the game. There was about 10 minutes of cinema in each game, so there was a fair amount of audio to edit.[15][16] Jeffrey Rath, an artistic director at Theater in the Open in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was cast as Link. In a 2010 interview with The Gaming Liberty, Rath stated that he and the other actors would be shown pictures of the characters and given little script backgrounds. There were two-hour recording sessions after roughly 15 minutes of rehearsals. The actors only usually did 2-3 takes.[19] Rath also provided the voice of Dash Daniels (clips) in Pyramid Adventures: Episode 1: Treasures of the Lost Pyramid, which was in development around the same time as the Zelda games, and would be released in 1996. Bonnie Jean Wilbur was cast as Zelda,[20] and her husband Paul Wann played various characters including Gwonam. Both were actors performing in Theater in the Open.[21] Mark Berry provided the voices of King Harkinian and Ganon. Berry responded to a YouTube comment in February 2022 asking if he was familiar with Ganon, confirming that he voiced the character.[22][23] The claim of his role as the King remains unconfirmed, but it still sounds like him. Additional voices were provided by Berry, Jeffrey Nelson, Natalie Brown, Phil Miller, Chris Flockton, John Mahon, Josie McElroy, Jerry Goodwin, Karen Grace and Marguerite Scott. Brown, Flockton and Goodwin had previously worked with DeSharone on two Spinnaker Software games for the Compact Disc-Interactive in 1992, Laser Lords and Alice in Wonderland (Brown and Goodwin are credited under “Animation Voices” (claymation scenes)). Wilber, Wann, Nelson and Brown would later provide voices for another game that Dale DeSharone worked on, Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam in 1994, though their names are unattributed in the credits. Since there is confirmation on Link, Zelda, Ganon and Gwonam’s voices from the games’ credits, Rath, Wilbur and Berry, and the King has been identified as Berry, I thought that I would go over the remaining characters without confirmation on who voiced them, beginning with the ones I was able to identify (this is only speculation and not meant to be concrete fact):

Morshu: YouTuber wavywebsurf did a video on who could have voiced Morshu. Though the character has a deep, baritone-sounding voice like King Harkinian and Ganon, Mark Berry replied to a comment by wavywebsurf asking if he voiced Morshu, saying, “This is not me in the Morshu.” That said, Morshu’s voice clearly lacks the heaviness heard in Berry’s characters and sounds deeper than them and more constrained. For a while I thought that the voice was Paul Wann, because it sounded like the deeper parts of Wann’s credited role as Merlin in Darkened Skye (2002) (specifically when Merlin says “…need…” and “…a new one.”), as well as a deeper Gwonam (when he says “You must conquer each,” and “…you, Link, are the hero of Koridai!”). But now I think that it might actually be Jeffrey Nelson, since Morshu’s voice does not really match with Wann’s actual voice or his characters. Because the voice actors in the Zelda games were recruited in Boston, Massachusetts, the Jeffrey Nelson in those games is definitely not the same person as the voice impressionist of the same name, who was previously thought to have voiced Morshu.
Anutu: Chris Flockton. Though some of the high-pitched male characters in Alice in Wonderland (such as the White Rabbit and the Dormouse) sound like Jerry Goodwin based on his high-pitched roles in Laser Lords, including one of his credited “Animation Voices” (clip), the closest comparisons to Anutu for Flockton would probably be the March Hare and Humpty Dumpty (before and when falling off the wall), most notably when Anutu says, “Keep GOing, boy, you’re doing REAL well!” Since the voice actors were recruited in Boston, Massachusetts, Flockton could be the same person as the New York-based British actor Christopher Flockton, but he does not list The Faces of Evil in his resume.
Aypo: Paul Wann. Basically the same voice as Gwonam.
Alora: Natalie Brown. Out of the three female Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam characters (Tina Felina, Piedra Sangria and Petra Preatora), the character that sounds the closest to Alora is Petra, with her “We will grind these humans to bits!” being a dead ringer to Alora’s deep, seductive voice, specifically when she says, “Pretty please?” Brown is also credited in The Wand of Gamelon, but surprisingly none of the female characters in that game besides Zelda sound like her, though this could be a result of the two games being developed simultaneously. Alora also sounds like Nathalie Brown’s credited “Animation Voices” in Laser Lords‘ claymation scenes (clip). Sidenote: I listened to the voices of Aunt Olivia Pitt (clips) and Yam (clips) in Pyramid Adventures, and they sound like they might also have been voiced by Brown.
Horgum: Jeffrey Nelson. Sounds like a breathy, more constrained Morshu.
Suprena: Natalie Brown. Same voice as Alora, albeit more regal-sounding. It also sounds like Petra in Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam and Aunt Olivia in Pyramid Adventures.
Goronu: Jeffrey Nelson. His voice sounds like Morshu, only with a deeper, almost electronically-lowered-sounding tone (more noticeably heard when he says, “Find the living and cut their vile throats!” and “…you will beg to join me.”), which none of the other characters seem to have. I initially thought that Jerry Goodwin did the voice since the it sounded vaguely like Sarpedon in Laser Lords and the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland (both of whom have similarly deep voices, albeit without electronic modification and less Morshu-sounding), and also has a sharp rasp similar to the Dodo and Executioner in the latter game, noticeably heard when Goronu says, “You can’t kill me!”
Harlequin: Jeffrey Nelson. Harlequin in The Faces of Evil has this high-pitched nasal voice which sounds different from Paul Wann’s nasally-voiced characters, which by comparison are much lower. The voice is also heard in two other characters in The Wand of Gamelon, and Nelson is credited in both games. Though Nelson’s name is unattributed in Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam‘s credits, the closest comparison to Harlequin’s voice (particularly his scream when defeated) could possibly be this baby mutant in Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam‘s intro.
Militron: Jeffrey Nelson. The voice is mostly constrained, but his “Oh, my goodness, this is awful!” sounds a lot like Morshu’s “…mmmmm, richer!”
Droolik: Jerry Goodwin. The character was rumored in the past to be voiced by Dan Castellaneta due to sounding a lot like Barney Gumble from The Simpsons, but it is not him since his name is not in the game’s credits. Goodwin also appeared in Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam, providing the voice of the game’s main antagonist Hectro Genocide. As with Droolik in The Faces of Evil, the raspy “Dan Castellaneta vibes” associated with him apply in Bodyslam for Hectro. On a sidenote, Bodyslam also features the late Maddie Blaustein (credited as “Adam Blaustein”) as L. Wolf Jam, who also voiced Tofu (clips, compare to the Mayor and Seymour in Pokémon) in Pyramid Adventures, save for one line done by Paul Wann (compare to his Gwonam).
Glutko: Jeffrey Nelson. The voice sounds more like a slightly higher Militron (especially when he eats the Koridian). I initially thought that it was Jerry Goodwin, since the voice sounds like Bob in Laser Lords, but it is not him.
Devoured Koridian: Paul Wann. Sounds like a higher, slightly constrained version of Gwonam, specifically when Gwonam says, “Squadalah! We’re off!”
Sakado Merchant: Jeffrey Nelson. Sounds like a deeper Harlequin.
Gibdo: Mark Berry. The voice sounds exactly like Ganon, especially when he yells, “The shroud! No, it’s cold! AAAAARRRGH!!!” (compare to Ganon’s “No! Not into the pit, IT BUUUUURRRNS!!!”)
Mayor Cravendish: Paul Wann. Though sounding deeper and smoother than Gwonam, the way that Cravendish says, “I managed to conceal this magic lantern,” specifically the “…conceal…” part, sounds similar to Gwonam’s “Look and see Goronu,” specifically on the “…see…” part where his voice lowers and becomes breathy.
Harbanno: Paul Wann. Sounds like Gwonam’s “Squadalah! We’re off!”, as well as the Devoured Koridian.
Iron Knuckle: Jeffrey Nelson. Basically the same voice as Militron; plus his “You will die!” sounds exactly like Morshu.
Armos: Jeffrey Nelson. Their deep, breathy voices sound like Horgum.
Wizzrobe: Jeffrey Nelson. Compare to Harlequin. They even have similar screams when defeated.
Lord Kiro: Paul Wann. Kiro’s voice in of his lines mostly sounds like a higher version of Mayor Cravendish and Harbanno, except for his “Yes, my liege!”, which is a dead ringer to Gwonam’s “Here is the map.”
Hektan: Paul Wann. The way that Hektan says, “Am I here? Or here? Or here?”, particularly on the third “Or here?”, has a similar lowered, strained, breathy tone to Gwonam’s “Look and see Goronu.” He also sounds like Antu (clips) in Pyramid Adventures.
Duke Onkled: Paul Wann. Onkled’s voice has the same deep smoothness as Mayor Cravendish, while his “Please! Your omnipotence! Have mercy!” sounds a lot like Gwonam’s “Go, with many blessings!”
Omfak: Jeffrey Nelson. His “Mmmm!” when he licks his lips after eating the bird sounds a lot like Militron, Glutko and Iron Knuckle.

Now let us move on to the characters whose voice actors and actresses were difficult to identify. Given that the voice actors were recruited in Boston, Massachusetts, John Mahon is likely not the same person as the television, stage and screen actor of the same name (clip), and Phil Miller is definitely not the same person as the Rio and Dynasty Warrors 9 voice actor Phil Miler (credited as “Phil Miller” in the latter), since whoever the Boston-recruited Miller voiced does not sound like the Aviary Intern, the First Waiter, Huang Zhong or Zhang Jiao. They both seem to have only worked on The Faces of Evil. Unlike Natalie Brown, Karen Grace, Josie McElroy and Marguerite Scott have not done voice acting in anything other than The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon (and Pyramid Adventures). There is another Karen Grace in Close Combat: First to Fight (2005) (her name is in between Terry Daniel and Bill Holmberg), but she is probably not the same person as the Boston-recruited Karen Grace in the Zelda games.

Hamsha: No idea.
Fish Lady: The character has this sort of tough-sounding voice that is not heard in any of the female characters in both games aside from Zelda, Alora and Suprena.
Fountain Fairies: They sound like a higher version of Hamsha (compare to her “Oh, my goodness!”), as well as Mozart (clips) in Pyramid Adventure.
Zorga: No idea.
“You Lose!” Announcer: John Mahon (?).
Odranoel: Same voice actress as Hamsha.
Clora: Same actress as Zorga. The character’s Texan accent sounds like Zorga’s “Bring some grappleberries…”, specifically the “Bring…” part.
Kulvan: Phil Miller (?).
Lupay: Same actress as Zorga and Clora. Compare his howling to Zorga reciting her spell.
Transformed Koridian/Moblin: Same actress as Lupay. His second howl sounds exactly like Lupay’s.
Impa: Impa has the same low-pitched, squeaky “old lady” voice as Zorga, noticeably heard when she says, “Oh, my! It looks like everyone’s been taken to Tykogi Tower.” There were two Wikipedia edits from August 2017 that claimed that Marguerite Scott voiced Impa, but since wikis can be edited by anyone, it should be taken with a grain/pinch of salt.
Lubonga: Basically a lower, slightly normal-sounding Hamsha.
Lika: Sounds like a slightly lower Odranoel. It also has a similar scratchiness to Mozart’s meows in Pyramid Adventure.
Makoto: The voice sounds like a slightly higher Odranoel.
Sanda: Her high, breathy voice sounds reminiscent of the Fountain Fairies.
Yokan: Sounds exactly like Lika. The Zelda Wiki claims that Yokan was voiced by Karen Grace, but since wikis can be edited by anyone, it should be taken with a grain/pinch of salt.
Grimbo: Same voice as Yokan.
Three Witches: They sound like Hamsha and Lika.
Pool Fairies: Basically the same voices as the Fountain Fairies.
Myra: The voice in her first cutscene starts out sounding like Sanda, and later sounds like Odranoel and Grimbo in her second cutscene when she gives Zelda the Fairy Lantern.
Lady Alma: Same actress as the Fountain Fairies.

At the time of the games’ release, contemporary criticism was mixed. Super Nintendo Entertainment System Force described the animated sequences as “breathtaking” and praised the game for its high-resolution graphics and its “brilliant” use of sound and speech.[24] Joystick‘s development preview of The Faces of Evil described it as a veritable arcade-quality game with stunning graphics and “perfect animation”. They gave The Wand of Gamelon similar praise, and gave it additional praise for its use of voice acting, its plot and its backgrounds. The same magazine would ultimately score The Faces of Evil 79% a few months later, giving particularly high marks for music, sound effects and play-through time. Other publications gave more negative reviews. Compact Disc-Interactive Magazine rated The Faces of Evil 65%, stating that the game was a poor relation to the original Nintendo games and singling out the perfunctory storyline, the lack of graphical features like parallax and the slow and repetitive gameplay. Another reviewer for the magazine gave The Wand of Gamelon a higher 75% and called it a “reasonably good game” for its puzzles and animated sequences, but criticized its plot and controls.[25] In 1994, Edge reported that as Compact Disc-Interactive sales began to suffer, criticism sharpened, and the games were described as low-cost, low-risk ventures that had failed to excite any interest in the platform.[26]

In later years, both games have been met with largely negative reviews for their plots, cutscenes, voice acting, controls and graphics. Imagine Games Network‘s Travis Fahs criticized the games for using a style similar to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, for “insufferable” controls, and for the designers’ poor understanding of the Legend of Zelda franchise. He noted, however, that the backgrounds looked decent considering the poor design of the Compact Disc-Interactive’s hardware. Imagine Games Network‘s Peer Schneider criticized The Wand of Gamelon for not effectively indicating when a platform begins or ends, and also said its controls were “sloppy”.[27] The Star Tribune described the voice acting as “laughable”,[28] and it was also criticized by Zelda Elements as “jarring”.[13] Imagine Games Network described the cutscenes as “infamous” and “cheesy”,[29] while other reviewers described them as “freakish”[30] and “an absolute joke”. Schneider felt that the cutscenes in The Wand of Gamelon were “entertaining… for all the wrong reasons”.[27] Jeffrey Rath and Bonnie Jean Wilbur later acknowledged that they did not see the finished product.[19][21] In Rath’s case, it was not until a friend told him about the games being “infamous products”.[19] Zelda Elements felt that the games’ soundtrack was “average” and not up to the usual Zelda quality,[14] while Schneider described the soundtrack as “Red Book audio compact disc pop”.[27] Other reviewers described it as diverse, high-quality and superb with an adventurous upbeat tempo blending “delicious 1980s synth”, electric guitar, panpipes, marimbas and other unusual instruments. Despite their negative reception, there have been a few positive reviews as well. Danny Cowan of 1UP.com and John Szczepaniak of Hardcore Gaming 101 praised The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon as among the best games on the Compact Disc-Interactive. Szczepaniak in particular suggested that several of the magazines that had rated and reviewed The Wand of Gamelon and The Faces of Evil had engaged in hate campaigns, having never even played the game. Their praises drew from the games’ detailed, well-drawn backgrounds (described as both Gigeresque and Monet-esque) and “pretty decent” gameplay,[30][14][31] although both criticized the controls.[30][31] According to Szczepaniak, the games’ controls work best when played with a hardwired three-button Compact Disc-Interactive control pad, as opposed to the Compact Disc-Interactive’s “crappy infrared remote”. In a periodical for Retro Gamer, Szczepaniak suggested that the natural comparison of the games by reviewers to the quality of games in the rest of the Zelda series was an improper comparison to make, arguing that when reviewed in their own right, the games were actually excellent. Contrary to what were described as “lies perpetuated about The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon“, Retro Gamer described the games as “astoundingly good” and rated them together as number ten in its “Perfect Ten Games” for Compact Disc-Interactive. While acknowledging that they were non-canonical, the games were praised for exhilarating pacing and superb gameplay design.

Since 2006, the games’ cutscenes have been commonly used in YouTube Poop parody videos, with their various characters, such as Morshu and King Harkinian, gaining minor notoriety as Internet memes. They were very popular as YouTube Poop sources in the early days of YouTube, but due to the increasing diversification of the “meme” side of YouTube and the decline of the classic Walrusguy and Waxonator-style YouTube Poops, the cutscenes’ usage as memes became less common, usually only being referenced to harken back to the original YouTube Poops.[32] Since April 2020, however, Morshu once again rose to viral popularity due to memes such as the Morshu Beatbox and Morshu – Ray Tracing Texel eXtreme On, resulting in the return of the Zelda Compact Disc-Interactive memes’ former popularity.[33] In November 2020, amateur developer Dopply released unofficial remakes of both games for Linux and Microsoft Windows, making them in four years in an effort to teach himself game development. The remakes feature the same assets and gameplay as the original releases and add several quality-of-life improvements, such as subtitles for the cutscenes, a widescreen mode, new unlockable content and the ability to choose between the original gameplay style and “Remastered Mode”, which makes various gameplay changes to reduce player frustration.[34][35] To avoid a cease-and-desist from Nintendo’s legal department like many similar fan projects, Dopply took the remakes down two days after their release, making them unavailable for download.[36]

Hotel Mario is a single-screen puzzle video game.[37] Controlling Mario, or his brother Luigi in two-player mode, the player must search the Klub Koopa Resort for Princess Toadstool, and rescue her from the clutches of Bowser and the Koopalings, who are holding her hostage in one of the former’s seven Koopa hotels.[38] Each hotel features nine stages. The player must shut every door in the stage by moving up and down elevators and avoiding enemies. Mario can step on most enemies such as Goombas, Paragoombas, Koopa Troopas, Koopa Paratroopas, Buzzy Beetles or Monty Moles, as in previous games, but some like Boos (here named “Boo Buddies”) and Big Boos must be avoided by changing floors or entering an open door.[37] At the end of each hotel, the player engages in a boss fight with a Koopaling (Morton Koopa Junior, Roy Koopa, Larry Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Ludwig von Koopa and Wendy O. Koopa), where the goal is to close all the doors while defeating them; in the final hotel, the player battles Iggy Koopa and Bowser. Various items and power-ups can be found in rooms behind the door and obtained, including coins (collecting 30 coins gives Mario an extra life), the Super Mushroom (which allows Mario to take multiple hits), the Star Man (which makes him temporarily invincible) and the Fire Flower (which allows him to throw fireballs).[39]

Developed by Philips Fantasy Factory, the game was produced and designed by Stephen Radosh, Michael Ahn and Janice Convery, with project engineering by Kevin Goldberg, Thomas Lohff, Stephen J. Martin and Kevin VanAllen Hunt, art and graphics by Jeff Zoern, Mirena Kim and Trici Venola, and sprite animation by Yeeoww!!! and Pat Campbell at Digital Cartoons.[40][41] Radosh had a concept for a video game set in a hotel with various stages and decided to incorporate it into the project.[42] The developers and testers tended to be older in age, with one tester being noted by Venola as “well past retirement”. Since the target audience of children would have faster reflexes, the game was designed to play well for the testers, then sped up.[43] Nintendo’s only involvement in the development was ensuring that the source material was faithful to the Mario series. They were reported to be pleased with the finished project, and were rumored to have considered bringing the game to their own platforms.[40] Nintendo had previously given positive feedback to an early prototype of Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds (a sequel to Super Mario World) by NovaLogic, which was developed at around the same time as Hotel Mario, though due to the declining sales of the Philips Compact Disc-Interactive, that game was never released.[44] Feeling that an early version was “mechanical and cold” and “visually no fun”, Venola and Zoern used elements from Disney and J. R. R. Tolkien to enhance the visual style. Illustrations of the stages were composed of several blocks, each with one detail. The first item that Venola created for all hotels was the door. Each building took a week to complete and was designed with a specific theme, such as Bowser’s Seizures Palace Hotel using a gothic design. Iggy Koopa was planned to have his own hotel, a “Cheese Hotel”, which was proposed during the concept phase and had concept artwork drawn for it, but the development team refused the idea, with Venola calling it “awful”, and the artist responsible for it was fired. Iggy is only encountered in Bowser’s Barbecue Room in Bowser’s Seizures Palace in the final game.[41][43] The game’s music was composed by Marc Saint Regis, who had to write the music as MIDI files on a Mac OS 7 with Opcode Studio Vision using Studio Electronics Obie Rack, Yamaha TG-100, Roland S770 (custom and stock samples), MKS-20, MKS-50, Casio CZ-100, and MT-40 (customized). The title and ending theme songs were renditions of Max Steiner’s “Polka Medley” used in Little Women. Saint Regis’ friend Jack Levy, a sound designer and production assistant, only co-produced alternate versions of the songs.[45][46][47][48][49] The game uses full-motion video cutscenes to tell its story, animated by Terry O’Brien, his wife Kathleen Swain (who worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit as a background artist) and Bonita Versh at Ocatillo Pictures. Voices were provided by Marc Graue (Mario, Luigi and Bowser) and Jocelyn Benford (Princess Toadstool).[41][43] In a 2008 interview with Interactive Dreams, Graue stated, “The Hotel Mario game developers and directors were great to work with. Most video game directors are easy to work with and the good ones know what they want so they will usually have you do the scripted version and then let you do a version with lots of ad-libs. I got the voiceover gig for Hotel Mario the old fashioned way. Audition and wait for the call. The normal process is to send voice actors ‘sides’ (the script with some character descriptions) and then you read a couple of different ways and hopefully the client and director like what they hear! I’ve voiced games from World Of Warcraft to Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, but hopefully the voices are pretty different than Hotel Mario! I’ve been lucky enough to own and operate the oldest voice over recording studios in Burbank, California for the last 25 years so I’ve been involved with some very cool projects both as voice talent and as a producer. There’s one line in the cutscene where Mario says, “Hey, you! Get off of my cloud.” That was made up during the session and was a reference to the song sung by The Rolling Stones.”[50] In a 2015 interview with IDH Films, Graue expressed his dissatisfaction with the game’s production process, citing poor direction as a factor in the subpar results.[51] Bowser was originally planned to be heard reading the letter that Mario finds, but this was changed to Mario reading the letter in the final version.[52] Benford was recommended by an employee of Phillips Media. She would later marry Michael Ahn, one of the game’s producers.[42] Initially, jumping was not going to be a feature of Hotel Mario, but this was added after a suggestion from engineer Thomas Lohff’s daughter Hollie Lohff. She played Hotel Mario before its release, and criticized it for not allowing jumping like previous Mario games did.[42]

Hotel Mario initially received mixed reviews upon release. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised its gameplay as simple yet addictive.[53] GamePro said that the game was fun but quickly grew boring, and stated “the only intriguing aspects of this game are the well-fashioned animated sequences”.[54] Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine gave the game 7 out of 10, but acknowledged its difficulty.[55] Superjuegos praised the game’s simple mechanics, and recommended the game to Compact Disc-Interactive owners.[56] In later years, however, Hotel Mario has received negative reviews for its door-closing game mechanic, controls, cutscenes and voice acting.[57][58] Imagine Games Network‘s Levi Buchanan said that while the game was superior to Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, closing doors was not “a strong enough hook for an entire game”.[39] J.C. Fletcher of Joystiq ridiculed the plot, saying, “Apparently Bowser has nefariously plotted to have his underlings open doors in… his own hotels, thus wasting air conditioning and increasing his own electric bill. Mario and Luigi must heroically latch all the doors and save their archenemy from having his hallways get too cold.”[40] GamesRadar described it as “craptastic”,[59] and Eurogamer referred to it as “little more than a really rubbish version of Elevator Action“.[57] The controls have been criticized as unresponsive.[39][40] 1UP.com described the cutscenes as “outright terrifying”,[37] Imagine Games Network called them “abysmal”, resembling “a bad flip-book of images printed out of Microsoft Paint”,[39] and Joystiq described them as “amateurish, garishly colorful, shaky, randomly zooming animation”.[40] Danny Cowan of 1UP.com and Imagine Games Network found Marc Graue’s portrayal of Mario unfitting for the character, lacking the playfulness of Mario’s then-current voice actor Charles Martinet. Cowan wrote that the dialogue is meant to sound playful, but the character voices are indications of menace and hatred.[37][39]

Despite the game’s negative reception, Hotel Mario has amassed a cult following over time for the alleged “so bad, it’s good” nature of its cutscenes and voice acting. Many Internet memes, specifically YouTube Poops, were created because of the poor quality.[60][61][62][63] Marc Graue stated, “I think that it is very cool (and flattering) that something that was recorded in 1993 has found new life on YouTube videos that are using Mario and Luigi’s voices for their comedic video collages. During a recording session you almost always have a lot of fun but you’re not usually aware of how big, successful or how much impact a project will have. Being a voiceover guy with a sense of humor and NO taste means there are always going to be lots of really bad out takes. Nothing is sacred so needless to say Mario and Luigi found themselves in some very compromising positions….VOCALLY!! Considering Hotel Mario was released in 1994, I’m thrilled to see it take on a new life as a parody of itself on YouTube…or anything else you can think of! I don’t think the Academy will be calling me anytime soon, and I really don’t feel that it was “My Finest Moment As A Thespian”…but hey! We had a lot of fun…. AND someone is still listening!!!”[50] He even reprised his roles as Mario and Luigi in a parody dub in 2012.[64] In May 2024, YouTuber SLB94 commented, “This game doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets. While nothing spectacular, the gameplay itself is still pretty decent, very reminiscent of the original 1983 Mario Brothers arcade game. If it was not for those awful cutscenes and the Compact Disc-Interactive’s interesting controller design, we might have had another classic Mario game.”[65] On October 3, 2024, a fan remake of the game with several quality of life enhancements, named Hotel Mario ReBooked, was announced to be in development.[66]

Released eight months after Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Zelda’s Adventure follows a non-traditional storyline, taking place in Tolemac (“Camelot” spelled backwards), an uncharted southeastern region of Hyrule. Ganon has captured Link and stolen the seven Celestial Signs, hiding them away in Tolemac’s Shrines, guarded by his followers, the Shrine Keepers (Llort, Pasquinade, Aviana, Malmord, Agwanda, Ursore and Warbane), and creating an “Age of Darkness” in Hyrule and Tolemac. Players take control of Princess Zelda, who is recruited by the court astrologer Gaspra to set out deep into Tolemac and, guided by him and Shurmak, fight through the Seven Shrines of the Underworld to collect the Signs in order to rescue Link, defeat Ganon and the Shrine Keepers, and bring Hyrule and Tolemac to the “Age of Lightness”. Unlike the previous two Compact Disc-Interactive Zelda games, which take the side-scrolling view from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Zelda’s Adventure was created by Viridis Corporation, an entirely different company, with a change in style and gameplay. Level design is very much like the original The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, with an overworld that allows access to individual dungeons. The full-motion video cutscenes that present the plot are live action instead of animated.[67][68][69]

The game began development in April or May 1992.[70] Viridis was tasked with observing A Link to the Past and basing Zelda’s Adventure‘s gameplay on it, though was told to still show off the Compact Disc-Interactive’s capabilities, meaning that the game still used Red Book audio and cutscenes.[71] As Viridis was given very little budget to work with, the development team had to get creative.[72] For the top-down motion capture necessary for all of the game’s human characters the team hung a mirror on the office ceiling and had a camera on the floor point up to it to record and take photographs of the actors. This was so low that it precluded mounting the camera. The human characters were played by the in-office staff. The characters’ sprites’ walking animations were done by having the actors walk on a motorized treadmill.[73] For the cutscenes, one of the walls in the office was painted blue to achieve the use of blue screen.[72] Mark Andrade played Gaspra in the game’s cutscenes, while his voice was provided by Hal Smith. Zelda in the opening cutscene was played by office receptionist Diane Burns, while her sprite was played by Annie Ward. The houses and interiors in the cutscenes and the enemy sprites were created from and built as scale clay models and props by Jason Bakutis, inspired by Ray Harryhausen. The background seen in Gaspra’s cutscenes was one of the clay props used. At one point during development, several “high-ranking executives” from Japan visited Viridis and were impressed by the models that Bakutis had made.[73][74][75] The backgrounds for Zelda’s Adventure were created from videos of scenery near Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles, footage of Hawaii taken from a helicopter and the developers’ vacation photographs.[72] Due to the console’s limited memory and other hardware issues, the development team faced many frustrating difficulties with putting the game together. The highly-detailed backgrounds and sprites had to be reduced in size and color,[74] and at one point, the game’s music and sound effects had also took up extra kilobytes of random access memory. These issues became a contributing factor as to why the game loads slowly when moving between screens.[73] Developers had difficulty making sure all the areas of the game had proper background masking, and much more music was composed for the game than was used. There were plans at one point to hire Echo and the Bunnymen to do the music, but this plan fell through, most likely due to to a low development budget. The game’s music was later composed by Mark Andrade, though most of the tracks would not be used in the final game.[73][74] Intending to push the capacities of the Compact Disc-Interactive to its limits, development initially progressed with a goal of 600 screens and 160 non-player characters. At this early stage, Viridis president Lee Barnes suggested that playthrough time might take as much as 300 hours. These development figures were reduced in the final product which had only a handful of non-player characters and whose playthrough time has been placed by one commentator at only 12 hours.[76] Viridis was also developing another Compact Disc-Interactive game named Food Dude, originally called Skate Dude. This game was never released, but that did not stop its protagonist from showing up in an Easter egg.[70][77] Randy Casey was responsible for programming all of the game and all associated tools. Additional programming for the inventory system and game progress tracking was done by Gavin James. Though one developer claimed that there was “no budget at all” for the game,[72] Bakutis claimed (possibly facetiously) that it had “at the time, the biggest budget ever for a video game”.[74] Zelda’s Adventure spent two years in testing, longer than it took to develop the game. The game was originally going to be released in North America in November 1993, but was pushed to August 1994, October 1994, and early 1996. It was finally released exclusively for the Compact Disc-Interactive in Europe, in the Netherlands in February 1996 and the United Kingdom on May 10 1996, due to Philips having stopped publishing games for the console in North America by the time that the game was finished.[70][73][78][9]

Upon its release, Zelda’s Adventure was widely panned by critics, in contrast to the more nuanced reviews of Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. The graphics were called “blurry and digitized”.[79][30] Wired said that the graphics were some of the worst ever encountered.[79] The game’s acting was criticized as unprofessional. Another flaw that has been identified is that the game could not produce both sound effects and music at the same time.[30] Scott Sharkey of 1UP.com called the box art of Zelda’s Adventure one of the 15 worst ever made.[80] Zelda’s Adventure was released as the Philips Compact Disc-Interactive was being discontinued and has become very rare over time, as have the first two Philips Zelda games. The game is regularly sold for over $100.[30] RetroGamer‘s John Szczepaniak described the game as demonstrating arbitrary and illogical design, sloppy visuals, nearly non-existent music, excruciatingly high difficulty and cumbersome loading and controlling. Gameplay for Zelda’s Adventure has also been portrayed as a trial-and-error effort to guess which items can be used to defeat which enemy. Danny Cowan of 1UP.com called Zelda’s Adventure “practically unplayable” due to the jerky framerate, unresponsive controls, and long load times, summarizing his review with a warning to avoid the game at all costs.[30] In discussing the popular online conception that Zelda’s Adventure is superior to The Wand of Gamelon and The Faces of Evil, RetroGamer pointed to the top-down perspective as fomenting misinformation regarding the game’s similarities to the original Zelda when, according to RetroGamer, the game is actually not worth playing. USgamer staff ranked Zelda’s Adventure as the second worst The Legend of Zelda game, noting that it is counted separately from the other Compact Disc-Interactive games due to being less terrible than the others. They considered it a “well-meaning attempt” to recreate the original The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as crediting it for being one of few video games to let players play as Zelda, but felt that the lack of experience on the designers’ part as well as the Compact Disc-Interactive’s technical limitations made it a “dreadful” game to play. Peer Schneider of Imagine Games Network was excited that a new developer (Viridis) was chosen instead of the one behind The Wand of Gamelon and The Faces of Evil (Animation Magic), though still felt it was not worth playing despite being an improvement over the other two games. He recommended it only for “die-hard Zelda fans”.[71]

On April 16, 2023, indie developer John Lay released a much better-looking Nintendo Game Boy remake of Zelda’s Adventure, developed in Game Boy Studio with some modifications. Lay noted that he adapted Zelda’s Adventure to make it have the same aesthetics as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, seeing as the first two Compact Disc-Interactive Zelda games were side-scrolling games. He also chose to port it over to the Nintendo Game Boy because of the Zelda games that were already released on the portable system, such as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. The game is playable on the website on its Itch.io page, as well as the original Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Game Boy Advance if you order the cartridge.[81][82][83] On July 13, 2023, a trailer for Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, an interactive animated action-platform game inspired by Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, was uploaded to YouTube. Funded and developed by Limited Run Games and Dopply under the developer name “Seedy Eye Software” (who developed The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon‘s unofficial remasters), the game follows the titular Princess Arzette as she goes on a quest to defeat an evil being named Daimur, whose return has disrupted Faramore’s ten years of peace. Development of the game had begun in late 2020. The Kingdom of Faramore was beautifully realized by Rob Dunlavey, the artist behind the world map paintings from the Compact Disc-Interactive games, while Jeffrey Rath and Bonnie Jean Wilbur (voices of Link and Zelda) provided voices for the game; Rath voiced the Tutorial Voice and Skelvis, while Wilbur voiced the Narrator and Brinda. Some of the other artists from the Compact Disc-Interactive games were contacted to work on the game. The key art of Arzette was drawn by Geibuchan, known for The King’s Epic Adventure and other videos featuring characters from The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon.[84] Digital Foundry’s John Linneman announced his involvement as level designer after the initial reveal,[85] while fellow Digital Foundry personality Audun Sorlie revealed his involvement as lead producer and writer for the game.[86] Geibuchan, Jimmy Davis, Madeleine Keene, Don Dunno, GarryAGoGo and other YouTube Poopers and animators were given free rein, with their only limitations being the color palette, resolution and framerate of the cutscenes of the Compact Disc-Interactive games. The cutscenes, all drawn in a flat, pixelated style using Blender’s “Grease Paint”, alternated between flat, expressive silliness and surprisingly impressive rotoscoping, and each matched whichever character Arzette would be talking to.[87][88][89][90][91] The game was released for the Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One and Steam on February 14, 2024 to generally favorable reviews.[92][93]