Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Zelda II is the odd one out in the series, and the only mainline entry to use side-scrolling combat and experience points. Link must restore six crystals to the palaces scattered across Hyrule and wake the sleeping Zelda before Ganon's followers revive him with Link's own blood.

Its combat is a duel of height. Link's shield only covers where he aims it, and enemies - the Iron Knuckles most famously - block high or low, so a fight is a rhythm of reading and answering rather than mashing. Sword beams, the upward and downward thrusts, the Reflect spell and the Fairy spell each unlock a different kind of puzzle, and the palaces are labyrinthine in a way the first game was not. Experience levels raise attack, magic and life separately, which makes the order you raise them a real decision. Its reputation today is far warmer than it was on release: the parts people bounced off - the difficulty and the lives system - are the parts that give it its identity.

• ▸Side-scrolling combat with height-based shield duels
• ▸Separate attack, magic and life experience tracks
• ▸Six palaces, each gated by an item or spell
• ▸Link's awakening-Zelda backstory, the starting point of the series timeline