The long and short of it: Probably
When was it made: 1986
Created by Shigeru Miyamoto as an homage to his childhood years exploring the woods and caves around Kyoto, The Legend of Zelda has expanded into an empire rivaling even the Mario games. Although the future games in the series would change the model of play drastically, this first game is notorious for being incredibly open ended and difficult. Fruitless hours may be spent scouring the map, but once you've finally found your way into Ganon's lair and made him esplode (into a mildly disturbing yet hilarious cloud of gore) you will feel a real sense of accomplishment that you just don't get with a lot of the video games today where they lead you by the hand: the game is difficult, but not arbitrary.
Being 23 years old the game may seem like it's irrelevant, however Zelda is one of those titles that every older "hardcore" gamer has beat. People talk about the hours they spent scouring the maps for secret stores and treasure (in fact this game is the reason Nintendo Power exists: before the internet you had only your friends and developer produced hints to guide you). Also, those who have played later entries in the series may want to try their hand at the golden-cartridged god.
This game is your standard 2-D Zelda game, with the sword on B and the Triforce spread across 8 dungeons, but don't let that fool you into thinking this is exactly like those games. First and foremost the story is a bit sparse, with none of the villages common to every other game in the series. Shops are distributed at random throughout the map, but the best ones are under Armos statues or bushes. Also, don't just go gallivanting into every dungeon you find: there is no frame here and so you may end up in the ball smasher dungeon with only 3 hearts and a lot of ambition. Most of the best equipment in the game isn't given to you right of the bat or in the course of normal play, so be prepared to explore every dungeon and all the world map. I don't even remember anyone in the game mentioning using the silver arrows to kill Ganon: I just knew what to do from prior experience. So if you want to run around Hyrule in a slightly lower resolution than you're used to (and with the inability to lift pots and shrubs) and don't mind a steep learning curve and lots of world exploration, grab a strategy guide and go (and trust me, you'll need that strategy guide). However, if you can't stand older games, demand in depth story, or hate exploration, than stick to the more standard modern fare.
I personally really enjoyed the game because the lack of story was replaced by a completely open world where the only thing inhibiting my progress was my lack of knowledge of the world around me, but I can see many reasons that modern gamers would actually hate the game. Many necessary hints are hidden or badly translated (or not given at all) and that makes the game very difficult. As a point of reference, I have played this game twice. The first time I used no strategy guide and only defeated 5 of the dungeons with 23 deaths, no magic sword, and no idea where the last 2 dungeons were (the 6th dungeon I knew where it was but was unable to beat it because I lacked several items). The second time I used a strategy guide and beat the game with every item and only 3 deaths. Now granted, with more time I could have beat it the first playthrough (I found the 8th dungeon on my own in the second playthrough) but I am just illustrating the biggest difference between this game (and most older games) and the modern games many of us are more used to. Keeping this in mind, though, the game is not so hard that you'll never beat it and it was fun to have a challenge in a Zelda game again, something that this series tends to hit and miss on. Also, like-likes are total dicks.
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