i was legitimately surprised at how fresh this felt when i played it in 2015. it has that dark souls (i've never played dark souls)/castlevania (okay i've played that) feel to it in that you have to be deliberate to advance; it rewards patience. but it's also legitimately -- and surprisingly, considering how early it is -- clever. particularly, i loved level 1, and level J is great too. and it's very pretty to look at, too. all of the graphical updates to Zelda 1 feel organic and not shoehorned in. (there's no awkward graphical style mixing, an unfortunate pitfall that most tileset designers since the late 1.92 era have fallen into)

if the "crypticism" of Zelda 1 doesn't bother you, and you don't mind a little bit of a challenge, give this a shot. it's not nearly as hard as people say it is. honest. if you've already beaten Zelda 1's second quest, then you can probably handle this.

This is a terrific quest!
When you think it's over, it isn't.
Later levels are very challenging.

I know this quest. It was included with ZC, but I never got anywhere because the overworld is filled with bosses
Now that I became a bit better at ZC I might try it again.