In the NES version, you touch it and go through the now-standard mini-cutscene, so two new sprite variations of Link were created. In the FDS version, you collected items by stabbing them with your sword. Link's sprite was given a visible mouth in the NES version.

A new Game Over screen featuring a laughing Ganon was created for the NES version (reusing Soda Popinski and Super Macho Man's laugh from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!), and these bosses no longer roar. In the FDS version, the message is accompanied by the same audio heard in the Mazura and Volvagia boss fights. The NES version's intro was completely rewritten, changing 'Gannon' to 'Ganon' (a spelling which would be retained in future Zelda games), correcting the spelling for Triforce, and removing the 'another' Zelda reference. It also refers to 'another sleeping Princess Zelda', in reference to the fact that (according to the manual) the Zelda seen in this game is an ancestor of the present-day Zelda, cursed with eternal sleep by an evil wizard. The intro in the FDS version features some strange English, and maintains the 'Gannon' spelling from the first game.

The lower half of the background appears one line higher in the European version the screen split was most likely altered to remove the flickering graphics introduced in the US version. The Japanese FDS version's title screen has a 'PUSH START' notice, which was removed from the international versions.

Zelda 2 palace 5 map