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Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore launched digitally on Valentine's Day, with physical versions available for about a month at Limited Run Games. This unusual title is a spiritual successor to the infamous CD-i titles Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, considered two of the worst games of all time. In spite of this unfortunate pedigree, Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore itself is a good game in its own right.
Available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam, Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore exploits notoriety and uses infamy to make a name for itself. In this new action-adventure platforming game, players get introduced to Faramore which uses the same graphical style as its critically-panned CD-i parents. For some reason, it works wonders, with critics finding humor in its tongue-in-cheek and parodical use of the graphics style to elicit both nostalgia and retrospection.
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With development directed by Seth Fulkerson and developed by Seedy Eye Games, Fulkerson also previously re-released unofficial remakes for Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon on Linux and Windows back in November 2020. To avoid getting the ire of Nintendo, he made the games unavailable to download two days after release. The two games are considered by Nintendo to be non-canon and Zelda director Eiji Aonuma, who has served since Ocarina of Time, says the games do not “fit in the ‘Zelda' franchise”.
Nevertheless, interest for the games are kept alive thanks to the infamy of the two titles, with the games making appearances in Lists of worst games in the world, making them more memorable than other second-rate game titles. In a way, the games' bad quality immortalized them, and now Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore will continue their legacy.
