When people talk about Zelda, they rarely mention Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. It’s the black sheep of the franchise, often regarded as only slightly better than the disastrous Philips CD-i entries. It also happens to be the perfect weekend obsession in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2, as long as you’re willing to give it a chance to charm you.

When Nintendo first launched Zelda 2 on Dec. 1, 1988, retailers found themselves apologizing to eager consumers for running out of copies to sell. By the following year, demand had finally settled enough that my mother took my birthday money to town and came back with the game. Thrilled, I let my sister play first as I pored over the instruction manual, savoring every detail. I quickly realized it didn’t look much like its predecessor at all. Change isn’t always bad, but my early exposure made me conclude that in this case, it was.

Over the years, I’ve come to love Zelda 2, enough that I now consider it one of the best games ever made, even though it was highly unpredictable. I’ve played through it numerous times, usually over the course of a few days or a lazy weekend, which is why I know it’s the ideal........

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