A host of evil creatures has besieged this once pristine land. From his underground palace, the Shadow King is directing his minions, the Meanies, to infiltrate, corrupt and destroy all things of beauty. The Shadow King is winning; all in the land will soon quiver beneath his vile gaze. Swept away by a raging river while trying to save a beautiful maiden, young Merlin finds himself in this enchanted land. As he explores, he discovers the Shadow King's hideous plot. Armed with an arsenal of magical objects, Merlin enlists the aid of the Lady of the Lake and vanquishes the Shadow King's evil minions. It takes all Merlin's cunning and skill to penetrate the Shadow King's defenses and crush him forever.
From here, you'll have control of Merlin. The D-Pad moves you around in eight directions. Walk into the purple gem to pick it up, then head towards the nearby lake and press Y to throw it in. You'll complete a part of a rainbow, and you'll be rewarded with a star. Walk into it and pick it up. When you press B with this golden star equipped, you'll throw it in front of you like an explosive weapon. This is your means of defeating enemies up head. You can see what you have equipped on the Y and B buttons in the lower-left corner of the screen.
From here, head east. Don't go near the plants; you won't be able to survive them yet. Instead, stay on the path north of those plants. You'll seen an evil tree. Go right up to it and start mashing B to destroy it. Two Minions will come out of the tree and flee. You'll also be able to grab a bottle and an orange gem. The bottle can be used to store water and drink it to restore health, while the orange gem needs to be thrown into the lake from earlier.
When you throw the orange gem into the lake, you'll complete more of the rainbow and get a bag of powder. Head towards the plants and throw the powder at them with Y to freeze them, then immediately walk past all the plants before they unfreeze. From here, you'll have to fight some pig enemies with the golden star. Sometimes they will drop hearts that will refill one of your hearts that act as your health in the upper-left corner of the screen, and sometimes they will drop shamrocks. If you collect twelve shamrocks, you will either get temporary invincibility or a full health refill. Don't expect to get that many shamrocks that often, because I sure didn't.
L and R let you switch between all the items that can be equipped to the Y button. You can also press Select and manually select the item you want, and select what is also equipped to B. Start takes you to the sound test and password screen, which will be explained later.
There are three types of water: the regular water, which is a four heart refill; the rainbow water from the lake where you throw the gems into, which only refills a slight amount of health; and blue water which gives temporary invincibility.
On the way to fight the pigs, you'll notice a stream. You can use the bottle on it to give yourself the regular water that refills four hearts. Near that stream is a yellow flower. Don't forget to pick it up; you'll need it later.
In the lower-right corner of the area where you fight the pigs, you'll find a red heart outline. This is a health extension, and it will extend your health by one heart. The pigs can charge at you, so be careful if you're fighting them to refill your health.
Further down the road, you'll fight a much bigger pig. To defeat him, throw the powder at him to freeze him, then attack him with the stars. If he starts flashing out of his frozen state, freeze him again. Repeat until the giant pig falls. You'll then be directed southwest towards a lake, where Minions show up and kidnap the nearby fairy's reflection in the lake with a cube. (It took me until after I made the Let's Play to figure out what was going on here.) The Lady of the Lake will then show up and give you a combination of buttons that you can input in the password screen you can access with the Start Button. Be sure to write it down and keep it where you can find it. Press Start to get back into the game.
If you die at any point, you'll be taken back to the start of the area you were in with reduced health. Lives are infinite.
The small brook near where you fight the pigs has the regular water, which acts as a full heal if you drink it.
West of where the giant pig was is the entrance to the mine. South of the entrance is another health extension. Southeast of the mine entrance is the entrance to Pinedale.
Southwest of the Pinedale entrance is a log bridge. If you move towards it, you'll have a humorous set of interactions with one of the Minions (who kicks you and takes a little bit of your health) before reaching the lake where the fairy is. If you bottle the water here and drink it, you'll get temporary invincibility. Talking to the fairy will tell Merlin about the Minions who stole their shadow, and you'll need to head southeast to get it back.
If you go east of the log bridge, you'll find a lantern. Be sure to grab it; you'll need it later.
On the way to the shadow, use the invincibility water to take out the evil tree, then grab the yellow gem and follow the Minions so you can fight them. You won't be able to get past them...yet.
Head back to the rainbow lake and throw the yellow gem in. You'll be rewarded with a balloon, which allows you to inflate yourself and fly upwards in certain spots.
From here, head to the mine.
You'll need to get the lantern first before you go in here, or else you won't be able to see.
To fight the dwarves, freeze them with the powder, then attack them until they die. Watch out for their dynamite.
You can enter the little passages with the words "Danger" by pressing A in front of them, but they will take you someplace random every time. I just take the long way through the mine.
The first place to go is in the northeast corner. When you reach the broken ladder, use the balloon. You'll find the red gem.
From here, head to the northernmost part of the maze. Head west, then go south, as soon as you're able to again. The fake wall to the west will give you a health extension. Go back north and up the ladder, then go down the next ladder to the west and go through the wall to the west for a bottle. Finally, go south and down the ladder, then go through the west wall there for another health extension. From here, you'll want to backtrack to the mine entrance.
Throwing the red gem into the lake at the start will net you a bubble blower. We'll put that to use in the next video.