If you haven't guessed the gimmick of this place yet, you get nothing.
Dodongo's Cavern, like the Deku Tree, is more basic than the later dungeons. It just introduces players to some of the puzzle types and the concept of mini-bosses.
Because people are stupid enough to fall into lava now?
Never get on the wrong side of a Beamos statue. Doesn't help how we don't have a reliable weapon to kill them yet.
My emulator missed the explosion. Basically, this is our next point of call.
Those are Baby Dodongos. Like with Bomb Flowers, they can be used as unreliable substitutes for Bombs.
This optional room here hosts a Gold Skulltula for the taking. There are actually five of them here, but we can only get three on this trip.
I might want to heal up soon. No thanks to some bad playing at Death Mountain.
How convenient.
This next puzzle should be quite obvious.
Some of these Armos Statues are actually hostile. We'll be meeting a couple of them soon.
The slingshot is probably our best against those darn Keese.
Theme:
Mini-Boss Theme
These are Lizalfos; they act as our first mini-boss in the game. For such an intense theme in the background, Lizalfos don't put up much of a fight. I personally prefer what they did in Twilight Princess where they gave the mini-bosses their own themes.
They make quite a bit of a racket though. Unfortunately, you don't get the dungeon treasure when you beat them, just an open door.
Those are adult Dodongos. Despite the name of the dungeon, we don't actually need to defeat them at any point.
Lighting torches is way more important than fighting Dodongos.
All of that to unlock a room. At least we're pretty close to the dungeon map.
If I was a bit less mature, I would've made a 'Shoop Da Whoop' joke.
LordDirtyBrit would like to advice his readers that they shouldn't try this at home.
This is chest is being guarded by these hostile Armos Statues I was referring to.
I got a little mistaken with the Compass room and the Dungeon Map room.
There's our ticket, or map. You get what I mean?
I love this room, mainly because we get to set off a chain reaction.
Like so. I probably sound like a pyromaniac right now.
Remember kids, if you blow things up, you'll be able to travel faster. I'm suing Nintendo if this keeps up.
See that Gold Skulltula there?
We have to take the long way round to kill it.
Too many enemies.
At least this Armos Statue doesn't want us dead.
Nintendo actually changed the design of the switches in later releases to avoid offending Muslins. They also had to censor the music used in the Fire Temple due to the chanting used. Useless trivia which everyone knows for the day.
This is the hardest room in the dungeon. We need to cross a bridge to get to the other side.
This is where things get a little more annoying. These spike traps can be quite annoying for first time players.
Why not tell players that hostile spikes are in those narrow paths?
Let's move this so we can actually progress.
Oh look, a recovery heart. Just what I needed.
We can't have that block too close in or far out.
I would blow up that wall, but the money is always more important.
I'm terrible with Bombs in 3D Zelda games.
There we go!
Should be obvious what we do with this.
Look who's here for round 2? Lizalfos were hit quite hard by the N64 graphical limitations, the official artwork for them actually looks quite cool.
You'd think they'd try to out number me.
They were only slightly harder this time. Mainly due to the smaller arena they fight on.
Still not much in the way of a dungeon treasure.
Hooray for obvious puzzles.
There's the dungeon treasure! We just found the chest for it in a random room. At least we have it now. We'll want to equip these right now.
This will help us get to the top of the dungeon.
See those holes?
Just one more Gold Skulltula then it's off to the boss.
By this point, going inside a mouth seems tame to me.
This will lead us to our last Gold Skulltula we can get for now.
I just want that damn Skulltula Token.
There's our treasure! Too bad it's guarded by a hostile Armos Statue.
I think the saying goes 'bombs away'.
I wish I could just play the Postman item jingle in Twilight Princess.
I love cutting around corners.
Now we've unlocked the boss room. I wonder why I couldn't see that switch?
These should be helpful in case you ran out of Bombs before the upcoming boss.
Couldn't quite capture Link's free fall.
Oh poo!
Theme:
Dinosaur Battle Theme
This is our next boss, King Dodongo. Like Gohma, he isn't at all hard, he just gets you practised with the Hylian Shield. What King Dodongo does have though is a kick ass theme which makes the battle seem more difficult than it actually is.
We need to have him swallow a bomb. Then slash his head.
I had King Dodongo roll over my Hylian Shield, hence why I came out without a scratch.
Told you I sucked at using Bombs.
One strong kid eh? Yes, that's how much King Dodongo's fire breath actually did.
Hit or miss.
There we go. Quite pathetic for boss with such a badass battle theme huh?
Never forget the Heart Container. I've never forgot one from a dungeon myself.
Let get out of this hell hole.
What a creep! Darunia is probably meant to provide a gay option for Link.
You'll have to run out rocks sooner or later. It would take a while obviously.
That Ganondorf sounds like a right killjoy doesn't he? First he cursed the Great Deku Tree, now he wanted to starve the Gorons. All of that for, what is revealed in The Wind Waker, a very dumb purpose.
I don't get a say in this do I?
At least we have the second Spiritual Stone now. Took a long time coming didn't it?
I'm guessing "Sworn Brothers" is meant to be like "blood brothers".
Darunia sure likes to make a show of everything.
Even Link finds this lack of personal space too much.
Our next stop is to meet a certain failed attempt at a sex symbol.
