The Legend of Zelda has been around for 25 years, we share our thoughts on the legendary series It’s been 25 years since 1986 and a lot of big Nintendo franchises (and gaming labels in general) started then. The biggest of all is possibly The L...
It’s been 25 years since 1986 and a lot of big Nintendo franchises (and gaming labels in general) started then. The biggest of all is possibly The Legend of Zelda series. 25 years of taking control of Link, rescuing Zelda and thwarting Ganon across Hyrule and many other magical locations. We sat the team down to discuss the series, our memories of the games, our favourite moments and what we think is in store for the future.
Flamecondor
Your Earliest Zelda memory
Not so much playing the game, but the earliest thing I can remember of Zelda is of all things in an episode of Doogie Houser MD. Doogie is trying to get a kid who is scared of needles to get his shots and he compares getting the needle to needing to get the silver arrows to defeat Ganon and save Zelda in the original game. I have no idea why that memory has stuck with me for so long, but it just have. Also I remember seeing an ad for a Zelda watch in a Toy World catalog and really wanting it, this was before I even owned anything Nintendo related but I just wanted that watch. Alas I never did get it, but I did get a very good Mario one that started me on my path to fanboydom.
How does the original Zelda Stack up today
Very, very well I think, the game was so far ahead of its time back in 1986 when it first came out. You look at all the NES games that came out before it and it’s just amazing how much better than the rest it was. Even to this day, it’s still a blast to play and doesn’t have a lot of the problems a lot of old school 8-bit games do. It’s not too hard that you’ll get frustrated, but it’s just hard enough to become a challenge. It has a nice crisp look to it as well and doesn’t look as ugly as alot of other NES games from the time. So yes, I think it does stack up very well to this day.
Your Favorite Zelda Game
You know a year ago, I would’ve said Majora’s Mask as I love the setting and the feel of the game. Its dark and moody and has a great impending doom vibe going on. It’s just amazing plus Majora is one of the best god damn villains Nintendo has ever made. But after going back to play it, I dunno, I feel it hasn’t aged well; the controls feel clunky and like most N64 games, it looks really meh. I do still love it to death but my vote for fav Zelda goes with Link’s Awakening on Game Boy. I dunno what it is about it, maybe it’s just my love for the Game Boy in general, but I love this game and time has only made me love it more.
I love the setting and all the characters in it. There’s just something magical and wonderful in this game that seems to be missing in all the other Zelda’s. Pretty much every screen has something to see in it. The storyline feels dark while also being very light hearted. There are some amazing puzzle solving dungeons, lots of memorable characters. Can’t wait for this to come out on the 3DS VC, as it’s just another excuse for me to play through it again.
What you want in future Zelda Games
I’d love to see an online co-op Four Swords game released for the 3DS, go back to the classic style of 2D gameplay, awesome 2D sprite work ala Four Swords Adventures on the Cube. Also, more side story Zelda games, my favorite Zelda games have always been the ones that steered away from the Ganon-Zelda style, games like Majora’s Mask and Links Awakening.
Better yet, another game featuring Majora as the villain and a similar limited number of days structure. Most importantly what I want is Zelda to continue its track record of making amazing games. Even the worst Zelda game is still a good game and I want that to continue. I want to be able to know that no matter what, Zelda games will still be the best games made.
Phantom Ganon
Your Earliest Zelda memory
Although I’m sure my earliest Zelda memory belongs to Ocarina of Time, that was more a moment I can barely recall with my neighbour running around on his older brother’s save file in Gerudo Valley, telling me that he wouldn’t go in the direction that I pointed for him to go to because the witches lived there. Thinking about it now, I know exactly what he was talking about, though I’m sure Twinrova were already defeated at that point in the game. Ah, the mind of a child. My personal earliest memory of Zelda is when I first went overseas on a Singapore Airlines flight which had Super Nintendo games to play. It was the first time I ever played A Link to the Past and back in 1999 (I was 6 years old), I had not a clue where to go.
How does the original Zelda Stack up today
Compared with other NES games I’ve seen, surprisingly well in my mind. It’s still a very grand adventure albeit one that I can’t beat due to the fact that NES games had a much greater difficulty than anything we see today. The feeling you get when you discover a new passage or find the next dungeon is the same feeling you get in Zelda games to follow the original and for creating that feel and creating the great franchise that’s celebrating a 25th birthday now, I salute it.
Your Favorite Zelda Game
This is an extremely tough question to answer. Like flamecondor, Link’s Awakening holds a special place in my heart for being the first Zelda game that I played through (though I never quite beat the final boss). I cannot say that it’s my favourite Zelda game however. Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be the greatest game of all time and I can’t argue with that logic. The game had an epic story set in an epic scene. It was a simple ’Save The Princess’ story in the end, but the journey to get there was a great one. Despite
My favourite game in the Zelda series is Wind Waker simply because it’s the most magical adventure out of the lot. Sure, we can look at the Triforce quest as an artificial means to add length to the game but everything else, before and after that is simply magical. The story is brilliantly told, with a bittersweet ending not to be expected of a Zelda title that looks so childish. The gameplay advances on everything made in Ocarina of Time and adds its own twists with parry attacks making their first appearance along with new items like the Grappling Hook and the Deku Leaf. The graphical style of the game was often considered the games achille’s heel before the game came out but the art style used is simply ageless, something a photo-realistic graphical style simply cannot do. And I don’t think Koji Kondo has yet to out do himself with a better Zelda score, with the music playing in the credits still sends shivers down my spine.
What you want in future Zelda Games
It’s interesting to see what’s going on with the general reaction towards Skyward Sword. The art style especially has polarised many people, and I think the majority don’t like the art style. It reminds me of what happened to Wind Waker and for me, that’s a good omen. Though the 1:1 sword control of Skyward Sword is probably the main draw for most, I personally think the game can set itself to became another Miyamoto/Aonuma masterpiece if the lessons of past Zelda games are learned. A lot of the time though, Zelda evolves with whatever hardware Nintendo bring out. So it’ll be interesting to see whether the 3D capabilities of the 3DS will be used to create an original 3DS game in the vain of Ocarina of Time or whether the depth will instead be used for a new take on the 2D Zelda. I hope it’s the latter as I don’t want to see the 2D aspect of Zelda be shelved (some of the more ingenious puzzles belong to the 2D games). But the games won’t be able to continue in the same way as Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, because the design of the 3DS encourages most of the action to belong to the top screen. It’ll be interesting to see. Here’s to another 25 years of innovative and great Zelda gameplay.
Adrian Verna
Your Earliest Zelda memory
My earliest Zelda memory isn’t even of the games. Back in the days of the Gameboy Advance, Nintendo released a bunch of choose-your-own-adventure books based on certain Game Boy games, one of them being based on The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons. I can’t exactly remember which one of these two books I had, but I do remember being so obsessed about them that I even went to my primary school’s dress-up day as Link (albeit an orange Link as we couldn’t find any green fabric). And this was all before I had even played a Zelda game, or even knew that it was a video game in the first place! Although my first ever Zelda game that I played was waaayy back in… 2007, when I downloaded the original on Virtual Console. Yes, I was a bit of a late bloomer Zelda-wise.
How does the original Zelda Stack up today
To me, the original Zelda is like Shakespeare. It’s a little alienating at first as you have no clue about what to do, but if you are willing you’ll see past the initial confusion you’ll find that it’s one of the most rewarding game experiences around. When you start playing Zelda, you have no idea where you are or what you have to do. So when you find the cave with the sword in it and after walking around for what seems like forever, you finally discover the first dungeon it really feels like a major triumph; that after all this wondering, you’ve found where you needed to go and what you needed to do. And then you hear the music, and it dawns on you that this game is going to be a lot harder than you thought. The original is still to this today extremely playable, just you have to be willing to go on a real adventure (or, as real as a video game adventure can get).
Your Favorite Zelda Game
Having only finished three Zelda games in my life and having only played 6, this isn’t really a hard question. Now, you may call blasphemy on me for not saying one of the classics like Ocarina of Time (which personally I didn’t like-DON’T KILL ME) or A Link to the Past (which I did like), but my favourite Zelda game would have to be the most recent one, Spirit Tracks on the DS. It took everything that its predecessor, Phantom Hourglass (which is a great game in its right) did right and improved on it, while taking away all the bits that it did wrong, making, in my opinion, the most perfect handheld Zelda game around.
I know the category is my Number 1 favourite Zelda game, but I just want to put a word in for my Number 2 favourite Zelda game, Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess was the first Zelda game I managed to finish, so it’ll always have a special place in my heart. I hear a lot of people on the Internet complain that it was too similar to Ocarina of Time, but for me this was my first 3D Zelda, so I had no preconceptions on how a 3D Zelda game would work and how similar it would be to previous games, so I had a blast. If it wasn’t for those annoying Wolf Link bits towards the start of the game it would probably be my favourite Zelda game. In fact, after going back and playing Ocarina of Time I can honestly say that I enjoyed Twilight Princess more, and think that it’s a better game in every aspect.
What you want in future Zelda Games
I’d really love to see Nintendo shake up the Zelda formula with the upcoming Skyward Sword (although not in the same way that Final Fantasy XIII shook up the Final Fantasy formula) by changing the way dungeons are set out and making transitions between field and dungeons more seamless, which I think Nintendo have already said they are going to do anyway. Although I trust Shigeru Miyamoto with giving fresh life into the series; he did it somewhat in Spirit Tracks, and I’d love to see him go all out with Skyward Sword. Just think how fun a Zelda game with the ambition, inventiveness and innovativeness of Super Mario Galaxy would be. That’s what I’m hoping for in the next Zelda game, and anything less would be a disappointment. But this is Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto we’re talking about, and making disappointing games for a franchise like Zelda is something they don’t do.
NinjaCatfish
Your Earliest Zelda memory
Watching a friend playing Ocarina of Time on their N64. I was quite late to the Zelda party. When the NES was my console of choice, I’d never even heard of Zelda, the cover probably didn’t appeal to me! I didn’t properly play through Ocarina until late in the N64’s lifespan, due to my parents getting me a PlayStation instead of the Nintendo 64 I really wanted. The first Zelda game I actually played would probably be Link’s Awakening DX, on my brother’s GameBoy Color. I had a lot of fun with it, but didn’t ever finish it. I should go back to it one day… maybe on the 3DS GameBoy Virtual Console!
How does the original Zelda Stack up today
Fantastically! I actually went through and played it through for the first time about 4 years ago. Really quite enjoyed it. Extremely satisfying to be able to say I’ve finished the original Legend of Zelda on an actual NES cartridge! I was lucky enough to find a copy with a working save battery. The only complaint I have is that there’s very little direction in the game. I had to resort to a walkthrough at some stages because the entrance to a dungeon was never really told to the player. It was something like ’bomb this square of cliff’ in a giant map with no hint that I’d have to be bombing areas. Without a walkthrough, I’d probably still be stuck, walking around bombing areas at random until something happened! I have a feeling this game was meant to be played with a copy of Nintendo Power by your side.
Apart from that though, it holds up rather well!
Your Favorite Zelda Game
Wind Waker, no competition. Many people were disappointed by the direction it took, and kinda fair enough since Nintendo teased a more ’realistic’ look to Zelda in the GameCube demo at a Spaceworld show. I wasn’t following Nintendo as much at the time of that Spaceworld, so I had no preconceptions about the new Zelda for GameCube, no expectations for a realistic one. To me, the emotive characters, distinct locales and often relaxing sailing gameplay was a breath of fresh air. It still had the familiar dungeon system of older Zelda games, but was different enough to make it feel like nothing else before it.
Cel-shading was the flavour of the day, and Wind Waker used the effect fantastically, rather than just as a feature to put on the box. Obviously, the one drawback was the dreaded Triforce Hunt, but bar that, there’s very little bad to say about this game.
What you want in future Zelda Games
A Zelda game without the big drawback. Wind Waker had the Triforce Hunt, Phantom Hourglass had the repetitive dungeon, I’m hoping that Skyward Sword can do everything right. I hope it has the unique and emotive characters of Wind Waker, the inventiveness of Phantom Hourglass and a fully orchestrated and epic soundtrack. Running around a new and exciting field with an amazing orchestral track playing in the background would just bring the game to a whole new level.
James
The earliest Zelda memory I can think of was definitely the first time I picked up Ocarina of Time. Also being quite a young’un compared to others, it not only inspired me to explore the previous games in the series but also allowed me to get my hands on a Controller Pak, an accessory I was yearning for my Nintendo 64 ever since it’s release. Upon playing the game, I was wowed at how there was so much to do and how atmospheric the game was. I was actually quite creeped out and worried about what would happen to Hyrule should Gannondorf usurp the king. Being quite an impressive game, I managed to even convince my parents I needed a Controller Pak to save my progress, since the game was so huge. Yes, it didn’t require the Controller Pak, but even my parents thought it was such a huge game that another accessory was needed.
To this day there are hardly any games that provide a better atmosphere than Ocarina of Time did, until it was outdone by Majora’s Mask which, for me personally, did everything better in every way.
How does the original Zelda Stack up today
Pretty good, actually. There is obviously some aging that’s evident when you look at the game from a visual standpoint, but I feel that the gameplay still stacks up pretty well against the other titles. It’s definitely one of those games that you would play today and subsequently wonder how we got through it without extensive resources readily available on the Internet. Like all of the classic Zelda games, I almost always found myself wondering around the vast map to find out where to go, as there wasn’t a whole lot of distinct objectives offered to the player – although I suppose modern gaming has since spoiled me with its linearity.
Your Favorite Zelda Game
It’s definitely a toss up between Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask, as both of these games exude a very strong and thick atmosphere that really pulls you into the world’s narrative. Wind Waker really got the sailing mechanics down really well, and whenever you were out at sea the game felt very relaxing, despite the impending weather effects or even a random attack from a giant squid. The very well drawn models and facial animations added so much character to the cast and despite it being quite predictable in retrospect, I had no idea that Zelda would be making an appearance, nor that Hyrule would be making a brief one too. The only downer I have with this game that stopped it from being truly perfect is, well, you’ll probably agree with me – the Triforce fetch quest.
Majora’s Mask on the other hand delivered a very foreboding atmosphere that made you feel intense feelings of dread no matter where you were. The way Link could run around Termina and talk to people who continued on their daily routine despite the impending decimation of their world was very unnerving to me. Seeing it played out again and again almost drove me insane, as I really immersed myself in the world of Termina. Similarly, the idea of an ancient god possessing an innocent child and using them as their puppet to carry out very malicious deeds was something that always struck a nerve with me – to see this poor "loser" of a Skull Kid possessed and manipulated to carry out certain goals. Utilising some of the best sub stories in the series (I will never forget listening to stories from a grandma in the inn, setting up a marriage, finding things for a hand that lives in the toilet, and saving multiple kingdoms) and some of the coolest "flips" of familiar faces from Ocarina of Time – Majora’s Mask is probably my favourite to this day.
What you want in future Zelda Games
The development of a very intense and atypical Zelda storyline that we’ve never seen before. Skyward Sword should satisfy my need for a quality Nintendo title that utilises motion controls properly, but also in unique and innovative ways (think Let’s Tap or some modes of Wii Party somehow). An orchestrated soundtrack would also be nice but not totally necessary, but I’d also like to see the return of a villain like Majora to threaten things. Zant was a great villain but was ruined as soon as Ganon was revealed. Before his weird switch to ridiculousness, I actually did fear him. Then he just became, well, weird. Majora could make a return, and I would welcome it.
We need a geniunely scary villain on the same level as some of Disney’s greatest like Jafar and Maleficent. It’s probably the best we could go without becoming too adult.
Fatal Fury 2, Super Ninja Boy, Sutte Hakkun
Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles, ENDER MAGNOLIA, Guilty Gear -Strive-, Dance of Cards,…
From Mario to Zelda, to Splatoon to Donkey Kong. Everything on Nintendo Music.
Definitively done with the Wii U now.