I played this game and its sequel a couple times. I've enjoyed them, but I do recall the password system being annoying as all hell. example:
KgKc%h5oFfep
Qy1XwcjZXDVn
... but I guess all password systems are lame. Maybe they'll implement a save somehow.

Don't forget the Wii's suspension points

Using passwords for such a game is strange though, there's a lot of information for the password to keep track of, explaining the long characters length. Still irritating though...

I'm quite curious about this though, shall consider a purchase

Well, if it's like Dragon Curse, there's going to be the Cabinet Files.

I have the original of both games and they both use file cabinets (along with the password if your inclined). While both were very good games on their own right, they still aren't as good as Zelda is.

While not as good as Zelda, the musics were pretty sweet

i own both games for the tg-16. i love them. they are my favorite games out of the 96 tg-16 titles. there is a rumor to a 3rd neutopia from a different company and it will be released as a homebrew for the duo. search neutopia 3 on googleand your bound to find aomething about it. even though this game is easily compared to zelda in many ways its still a fun game and well worth playing.

A must-have for any Zelda fans. This game is very good. Can't wait forthis AND it's sequel to come out.

Looks like a direct LoZ clone... Is it?

Ill try this out sounds good.

I might buy this since it got 5 stars

It looks and plays pretty darn well. It's easy for anyone to discard this game as Zelda clone, but I say it's worth the download!

It is very good, yes it is a ripoff of Zelda(he even holds the treasure etc over his head) but its a top top game and I recommend it to Zelda fans and everyone that likes RPGs without the leveling up etc.

My first ever PC Engine game and still the best. If I still had a Wii, this would definitely be the first game I'd buy on the VC.

I downloaded last night. Man the memories it brought back. Yes, it's a LOZ clone, but yesit is a good one. It's a bit more linear than Zelda, but it's less frustrating due to the fact. Also, when you find a person in the map, they talk a bit more than they did in LOZ, so you have bit more of an idea of what to do and where to go. I have to complain about some of the enemies. Some of them are just different characters, but that's it. Same movement as any of the others. They walk around and let you hit them. Still, a great game. If you like Zelda 1 or 3, try this and it's sequel when that comes out. Great graphics, music, and fun!

Ohhh yeah!!!!!

After having Zelda for the GBA classics, I was wondering wheather do download that same game again for the cost of almost 100 blocks later on this year, but with this game on a format that was never released in my country that accturly takes on that same game but with a grathical improvement and also only takes up 28 blocks, well I think I will go with this one for a few months and see if it lives up to Zelda's first game.

So far it looks verry prommissing.

Which Zelda is this closer to - nes or snes? I consider ALTTP to be one of the finest games ever, but LOZ does nothing for me.

I would get it if it wasn't a ripoff

So Neutopia is closer to Zelda LttP than to the original Zelda (NES)? Sounds good, because even so le latter is history in itself, I don't need another game of the same quality. But another game on par with LttP would be cool . Just one thing: instead of scrolling, the game seems to flip screens one-by-one like the first Zelda did- doesn't this limit the game somewhat? I'm thinking about space to dodge boss-enemies, for example...

i luv zelda so i might try this out

Got that game last night on my VC after I checked out the comments of other people... BIG MISTAKE! I really don't like it. The music sucks, the plot and manual controls for that little Link wannabe aren't at all what I was expecting. For those of you that like Zelda games, don't expect too much. It's not even close to Zelda even if they pretty much TRIED to copy it.
My suggestion = DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH IT!.

I just downloaded this game and have played through the first 2 dungeons and I'm enjoying it so far. It seems to be a mix of Zelda I and A Link to the Past. While it is not better than A Link To The Past, it is still a fun game with great graphics and great music. If you like old-school Zelda, then you should like this game and I recommend it.

This game is OK, not really a 5 star game or in the same league as Zelda. The collision detection seems off and it makes the game frustrating to get close to enemies. The music is OK but gets very repetitive. The worse part is once your health is low this annoying ringing just keeps playing forever. You may want to try this , but play the Zelda series first.

I imagine designing this game went like this:

Designer #1: "I'm going to put bombs in the game."
Designer #2: "Bombs is too adult-sounding. Let's call them boomb-thing-a-bobs or kaboomies?"

Designer #1: "I'll think of something. Hey, should we let the player open a cave with them once in awhile?"
Designer #2: "No way! When somebody blows up a cave, you have to go all the way, like Sinatra! Put a hidden cave on EVERY SINGLE SCREEN! That way they can waste their boomer-roomers by bombing every single wall in the game instead of using them for a weapon."

Designer #1: "Should we include a boomerang?"
Designer #2: "What? And make people think we're copying Zelda?"

Like already mentioned, Neutopia tries to copy "The Legend of Zelda", which is the first Zelda game on the NES-System. It can be compared with this one but it can not keep up with it. And in comparison to "Zelda III: A Link to the past", "Zelda DX: Links awakening", "Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons" or "Zelda: The Minish cap" it makes a very poor impression.

In Neutopia there are 4 worlds, each with two dungeons. From each dungeon you need to get a medallion and with 2 medallions you get access to another one of the four worlds. The game is fairly linear. If you have completed a world, there is no more reason to return to it, unless you want to buy cheaper bombs or potions. They are in fact in each new world considerably more expensive so, even if there is nothing more to do, it might be a a money-saving-idea to go back sometimes.

On the overworld there are huts and little caves all about everywhere. Sometimes they are hidden behind stones, trees or bombable walls. In the huts and caves are usually people who give you information, mostly worthless. But there are also sometimes more valuable things like shops or healer and sometimes you even get an upgrade for your life bar or bombs capacity or a special item like the fire staff, which burns bushes or enemies. As the citizens usually do not have much meaningful to say, you need to search all areas of the game systematically, in order to be successful. I recommend the use of maps, e.g. from "www.vgmaps.com" for more orientation and to keep track where you have been.

In the dungeons, you have to find one single key with which the room to the boss can be opened. And a dungeon map and the one or other part of a better armor is also there to be found. But the dungeons offer no real riddles. Sometimes you have to blow up a wall and sometimes you have to push a block to proceed further into dungeon. That's it. There are, except for the Boss Key, not even keys and doors at all.

Important items, such as improved swords or armor parts, hide in the dungeons mostly behind walls, which must be blown up. Unfortunately, you get no indication what walls are bombable and some of the secret rooms can not even be seen on the map. One could almost say, that the Dungeon gameplay consists entirely of the systematic blasting of all walls until bombs run out or you loose the desire to search any further. At the end of each dungeon, like expected in this kind of game, waits a big enemy and if you die in this boss battle, you start at the last save point, which is usually far behind. And we must go through the entire dungeon to try it again.

Neutopia graphically makes a good figure and looks much better than Zelda 1. But when it comes to gameplay, it can not keep pace. Some items from Zelda are also in Neutopia like the Bombs, the Magic Wand (which is called "Fire Staff" in Neutopia) and the ladder (which is called "Rainbow Drop" in Neutopia). But Zelda offers more such as the Power Bracelet, Bow and Arrows, Bait, Magic Raft or the Whistle. In addition, in Zelda, there are doors in the dungeons and keys to be found. These items are well integrated into the game of Zelda and enrich the gameplay experience very much. In Neutopia are always the same few elements repeated until the game is finished. Only some new opponents and changing sprites and backdrops occasionally give some variety to the game.

Despite everything, I enjoyed playing through Neutopia. This is perhaps up to the very colourful graphics as it is typical for the PC-Engine. Back in time, I was always excited about these games, though I could not have them because of the poor availability in germany or the high pricing. In some ways a "childhood dream" is come true with it.

The difficulty in Neutopia is rather easy. The bosses are reasonably easy to defeat and if you lose orientation you can still use one of the Neutopia maps available on the Internet. I give it 3 good stars out of 5.

5 Stars
While an obvious copy of Zelda, It and its sequel made some things that ended up in the LoZ (its true!). It's prettier and easier than the LoZ and while not as many items are in it, it still a fairly good range and it has the option of a password of save function which is also very useful.
Overall its an A grade copy of the original zelda game with a few of its own additions and features to it and its storeyline.

Sure its a copy Zelda but who says it can't be fun?!?
This game is great, right down to it's music & 16 bit graphics........pure gold for 6 bucks.

I had Neutopia when it was originally out but I never beat it and I never had Neutopia II, so I will probably download it & II sometime. I remember it was a really good game, but I can't remember though why I never beat it.

I remember renting Neutopia and playing it all night. I got pretty far and had the codes written down and wanted to buy the game so I could continue, but it was never to be. So I downloaded it as soon as I could.

Yes, it is a poor man's Zelda copy. But Zelda is a great game. And this is a pretty good copy. It is fun and I think worth the Wii Points, but only after you have the Zelda games it is based on.

I know the game copies zelda, but you mentioned the word "zelda" 16 times in that review... it was annoying to say the least

I take back what I said in a previous post. I started getting more into this game and I really like it; actually more than the original zelda.

Some things I like:
-bombs don't hurt you!
-no darknuts (stupid things you can only hit in the back)
-good music
-cool items
-cool level design
-addicting, makes you want to keep playing to get more powerful items.

Annoying:
-Spotty hit detection
-monsters don't seem to drop very much life (cherries), mostly just money, adding to frustration in dungeons
-No world map

Despite those minor gripes, I like this game, and I could see it as having been one of my favorites if I had a TG16 back in the day.

I doubt this or neutopia II compares to Link to the Past (not much did back then), so it's not worth comparing. this is a good game, and I would recommend them to anyone who likes old-school zelda type adventure games.

In general i think that this is a pretty darn good site. It's a bunch of guys that clearly really enjoy and grew up playing videogames. And yet some review scores just leave me scratching my head. 5 stars for this game....really? Sorry to say that i just in general find Lucas over at ign to be a much more objective reviewer.

Neutopia . . .

On the positives, it looks/sounds good (great music!). Dungeons can be fun to conquer. It's aping Zelda, and once you copy the formula, it's kind of hard to screw up.

And yet the few things this game does differently than Zelda hurt it a lot. For one thing, though the items knock off Zelda, many of the dungeons actually have armor, sword, or shield upgrades. In Zelda games (even the original), progress in a dungeon was limited until finding that dungeons item, which helped progression. If it's a sword or shield, it's missable, not doing anything with progress and dungeons aren't as interesting because of it. Boss battles are comparatively forgettable too.

I think giving high praise to Neutopia would be taking Zelda for granted. Kind of like what happened when casual Star Wars fans said "um, Episode 1 is my favorite!" And probably didn't realize that the appeal of it probably lies in its heritage. Likewise, I think Neutopia is nowhere near Zelda's equal, but since it has enough in it to remind of an overall better game, it gets off easier. Granted, some things can feel more streamlined, like its overworld being divided into four layers rather than one daunting one all at once, but then, it's also an easy way out for less complicated structure for exploring. Also, it kind of kills the fun out of getting stronger swords and armors, because you simply face stronger enemies in response to your stronger equipment (rather than, say, going to that place that used to be prohibitively difficult with your new feeling-awesome equipment).

I dunno. It's so hard to be objective about this one. There's just no way to play it without thinking "Zelda-clone," though it does feel inspired enough to, say, make someone wonder who was knocking the other off . . . maybe. As I go into it with an open mind (as there are many ways Zelda had clearly been improved in later sequels) and enjoying it a great deal as an experience on it's own, NO, this is not as good as Zelda in its game design, which still had better dungeons thanks to better use of special items, for one thing, and a better overworld for the same reason. But even with the sheer number of Zelda titles now, who couldn't go for yet another round of retro Zelda anyway?

4/5

I like Neutopia even better than the original Legend of Zelda NES title. It has a bit more personality to it.

Brilliant game, worth downloading for the title screen music alone. Its got the graphics of Link to the Past with Legend of Zelda's gameplay, what a fantastic combo.

And now for a limerick:

***

Not content with just stealing it's look
This game took each page from Zelda's book.
A sword that looks mean
A hidden cave on each screen
Must play to see all the thief took!

link to the past clone ?...llol

@stinssd #35

Oh man, that song's stuck in my head.

BTW, the video looks good, the review is good too, I'm considering getting this.