The game takes players back to the era where the Queen of Evil, Bavmorda, ruled the land with a fist of iron. Legend says a baby will destroy her, which leads to the queen vowing to ,off the child first. It's up for Willow to take up the role as the baby's guardian and travel mysterious woods and visit various villages while cutting down soldiers from Bavmorda's forces of Nockmaar. During the quest, Willow will collect shields, magic, and swords to prepare his arsennal and confront Bavmorda at Castle Nockmaar. The game allegedly was originally intended as something else before having the Willow license tacked on mid-development, leading to it having disjointed ties to the source material, one of the changes being that Queen Bavmorda was originally one of two goddesses alongside Fin Raziel before Bavmorda turned evil and plotted world domination.

Gameplay is similar to The Legend of Zelda I in that Willow travels from screen to screen in a top-down view with it being different from Zelda I in that it is less frequent on dungeons in comparison with a more unique air and Willow can level up to 16 as opposed to I having no level up system for Link. Willow also casts various forms of magic and does his sword fighting in a closer vein to the later The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where he can slash his sword with a similar animation to Link from there. The magic system also works in a similar manner to Ys II, even letting Willow turn into a monster and talk with other monsters. This game was later adapted into a gamebook authored by Katsuyuki Ozaki and published by Futabasha.

This NES game consists of the following tropes:

• Adaptation Expansion: The NES game adds quite a bit to the story, as well as giving the title character a much greater focus since he's the only playable one.
• Adaptational Wimp: The Eborsisk in the film and arcade game fought with two heads. Here, it only has one head.
• Artificial Gill: Wakka seeds can be used to breathe underwater.
• Canon Foreigner: The game introduces the village of Dew, the blacksmith of Dew, the Chief of Dew, the Chief's father Bogarda, Adik and Abang of the Eagle Clan, the dragons Po and Matanda, Kchil of the Nail Clan, Muzh, the spirit Zhena, the Spirit of the Skies, and the Spirit of the Earth.
• Cap: The NES game has a level cap at 16.
• Controllable Helplessness: The NES game has Kael trap Willow in a jail cell after defeating Eborsisk at Tir Asleen Castle and entering the door it was guarding, and for good measure he steals the Crest of the Spirits before leaving Willow to rot there with Madmartigan. One would be forgiven for thinking they triggered a trap, but it turns out that Franjean and Rool will bust you out through a tunnel they dug; to trigger it you need to touch a specific tile on the south wall.
• Distressed Dude: When saving Madmartigan from the cage, there's one more obstacle to saving him: having to pick the right cage or it's game over for Willow.
• Escape Rope: The NES game has the Fleet spell to get out of caves.
• Forced Level-Grinding: The game requires you to be at least level 13 to transform Fin Raziel so she can power up the Cane of Plot Advancement, giving you a chance against Bavmorda. And at level 13 (level 16 is the maximum), it's still not a very good chance.
• Genius Loci: Entire mountainsides will attack you on the trail to the final dungeon.
• Guerrilla Boulders: The game features boulders that tend to appear in canyon areas from the top of the screen. While no explanation is given for why they randomly appear, given that the instruction manual explains that the wind blows whenever Bavmorda's monsters are near, it's implied the boulders are summoned by the Sorceress to hinder Willow's journey. A late-game spell can destroy the boulders, but it's a waste of MP (as the boulders only give 10XP on defeat).
• Heal Thyself: The Healmace is a magical artifact that Willow can use to restore some hit points. The Healball found later is a more powerful version.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Willow never needs to purchase anything, being gifted all of his items and equipment by random denizens of the land who may or may not be grateful for his help, or by finding them inside an Inexplicable Treasure Chest.
• Level Grinding: The game requires you to be at least level 13 to uncurse Fin Raziel so she can upgrade your wand into the Wand of Plot Advancement.
• Luck-Based Mission: The NES game's version of Willow releasing Madmartigan from his prison cage. In the game, you have two blank cages: one random cage contains Madmartigan, the other contains Death (yours). Heads you proceed, tails you lose a life.
• Magikarp Power: Adik of the Eagle Clan gifts you the Wing Sword when you encounter him, but it is incredibly weak, especially for that point in the game. If you can find fellow clan member Abang in Nockmaar Castle, it will be powered up into Willow's strongest sword.
• Taught by Experience: When Willow first acquires a given sword, he will swing it very sluggishly, since he's not a warrior by trade. As he gains levels, he becomes more adept with them, reflected in gameplay with his swings becoming much faster, until they're eventually considered "mastered".
• Took a Level in Badass: In the film, Willow is an Inept Mage, often bungling his uses of Chelindria's wand and wasting the magic acorns the High Aldwin gave him. In this game, he is much more competent with magical artifacts, gaining a wider variety of spells which all work perfectly as intended, even if you might have to spend a little time experimenting with their mechanics first.
• Warp Whistle: The NES game has the magic ocarina which summons Po to fly you to any previously visited place.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: The Devil-Eye Sword is the only (non-magical) way Willow can combat undead enemies.

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