Hydlide is a game that was clearly made with Zelda in mind (yes, this game could be classified as a ''Zelda ripoff'') but it has a lot of flaws that were not found in Zelda. For instance, your main character, Jimmy (what kind of fruitty name is that for a VG hero?) has a weapon, but sadly enough, you are unable to use this weapon to kill your enemies. Instead, you (yes, it is true!) HEAD-BUTT your enemies! Come on, if you wanted the cover of this game package to be accurate, make Jimmy headbutt the monsters instead of using his sword, which he does NOT use!
The Plot is not much better either. ''In the kingdom of Fairyland, three magic jewels were enshrined in the palace to maintain peace in the kingdom. One day, an evil man (who I call Gamblor) broke into the palace and stole one of the three magic jewels, since the guards were too lazy to do anything! Without the third jewel, the two remaining jewels lost their magic sparkle. The magic spell that sealed the power of Boralis, the most vicious demon in the kingdom, was broken. During the turmoil which followed, the last two jewels were stolen. Boralis cast a special magic on Princess Annie (very un-original name, huh?), turning her into three lollypops, er...I mean faeries, and hid her somewhere in the kingdom. He then let loose a horde of monsters across the land and became the ruler of the kingdom.
Finally, the young knight Jimmy stood up and took action to restore peace in the kingdom. He bravely made his way into the wilderness in full armour to fight the monsters...''
Most of the story lines in the NES days were basically focused on saving a princess, and this game tries to move from that formula by having the main hero save three fairies on three continents from this evil dragon. However, the story line is never really explained throughout the game, even when you do happen to save the fairies, and that is where the main story line flaw is present: you never really get a feel for the story line. It is there, but you never find out about the fairies and stuff. Overall, the story line tries some new things but it is never really explained enough for me to care about it.
This is the type of game that nightmares are made of. I bet the whole point of this game was to punish kids who failed to do their homework. I can just imagine parents saying ''Tommy, don't forget to do your homework or you will have to play 'Hydlide'.
If you see even a ROM of this game, RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!