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The Legend of Zelda

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The Legend of Zelda is a video game adventure series created by Nintendo and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto in 1986. It is considered one of the most influential video game franchises ever.

Plot

The Legend of Zelda games (often shortened to just "Zelda") feature as their central character and protagonist a young Hylian named Link. Link is frequently called upon to rescue Princess Zelda, for whom the games are named. The main villain of the series is known as Ganon. Story-wise the earlier games did not deviate much from the standard "save the princess" theme, but later installments have diversified their themes somewhat.

However, at the core of all Zeldas is not the plot, as the stories of the individual games do not always match up, but a successful mixture of complex puzzles, strategic action gameplay and exploration. This formula has remained fairly constant throughout the series, with further refinements and additions featuring in each new game, and it has made the Zelda franchise one of Nintendo's most important assets, along with their Mario Bros., Metroid, and Pokémon series.

Games

The following is a list of the main installments of the series, with the original year of release and the platforms they appeared on. Note that the two Oracles games were released simultaneously.

  1. The Legend of Zelda (1986 - Famicom/NES, re-released on Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Classic NES Series)
  2. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987 - Famicom/NES)
  3. Bandai Satellaview Zelda (1990 - Super Famicom, Bandai Sattelaview X)
  4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991 - Super Famicom/SNES)
  5. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993 - Game Boy, Game Boy Color)
  6. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998 - N64, GameCube)
  7. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000 - N64, GameCube)
  8. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (2001 - Game Boy Color)
  9. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (2001 - Game Boy Color)
  10. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past featuring Four Swords (2002 US, 2003 Japan - Game Boy Advance)
  11. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest, a.k.a. Ura Zelda (2002 Japan, 2003 US - GameCube)
  12. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002 Japan, 2003 US - GameCube)
  13. The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition (2003 - GameCube, by Nintendo of America, never to be sold separately)
  14. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (2004 - GameCube, has been released in Japan and the US)

Upcoming games

  1. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004 - Game Boy Advance)
  2. One other game, tentatively called Legend of Zelda, is confirmed and will be released on the GameCube platform. The game will use semi-realistic graphics (similar in style to those featured in Ocarina of Time), as opposed to cel-shaded graphics, use a modified version of the Wind Waker gameplay engine, and will not be a direct sequel to Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and probably not a prequel to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. No further chronological information has been given on the game.

CD-i games

Beyond the commonly recognised games, there have been three Zelda games made for Philips' CD-i multimedia system under a special license agreement. These were made without any involvement from Nintendo and they deviated significantly from the other games in style and gameplay. Like the system they were created for, these were never very popular and can today be considered obscure and not a part of the rest of the franchise. They were:

  1. Link: The Faces of Evil - Philips' CD-i
  2. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon - Philips' CD-i
  3. Zelda's Adventure (1995) - Philips' CD-i

Chronology

The chronology of the fictional Zelda universe is debated among fans. The publication dates of the games are of little help; when considered in that order, the story jumps about and has seeming inconsistencies. However, as the series' name implies, this lack of continuity is understood and accepted by players and developers alike as a facet or inherent quality of the story's "legend" nature.

No order has been dogmatically specified by the games' publisher until Shigeru Miyamoto said a word about it, which is stated somewhere at ZeldaLegends.net. In the past, many fans suggested the following chronological order:

  1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  2. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
  3. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
  4. Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords
  5. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
  6. Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons
  7. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
  8. The Legend of Zelda
  9. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

although this does not account for the ending of The Wind Waker. For the most part, Zelda games tend to fall into pairs: The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II; Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask; the two Oracles games; and arguably Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. Also, Wind Waker in particular has many references to Ocarina of Time.

History

The first Zelda appears relatively crude and simple by today's standards, but it was a very advanced game for its day. Innovations included the ability to use dozens of different items, a vast world full of secrets to explore, and the ability to save progress via battery backup. Its formulaic story put the player in the shoes of a boy hero in the land of Hyrule set out to rescue the Princess Zelda, by first collecting the 8 fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom. Beside its technical innovations, the gameplay, which consisted mainly of finding items and using them to solve puzzles, battle monsters in real-time, and interact with the environment, was a successful formula, and was widely copied, including by later Zelda games. The game was wildly popular in Japan and America, and many consider it one of the most important videogames ever made. A modified version known as Bandai Satellaview Zelda was released for the Super Famicom's satellite-based expansion in the early 1990s in Japan.

The second, also known as Zelda II, was a departure from the concept of the first game as it exchanged the top-down view for a side-scrolling one and introduced RPG elements not found in other installments of the series. While frequently deplored for its difficulty and lack of adherence to series staples, Zelda II has its adherents despite its comparative unpopularity. The third, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (initially known as Super Zelda), returned to the top-down view and added the concept of an alternate dimension, the Dark World, to explore. It was re-released for the Game Boy Advance on 9 Dec. 2002 in North America, combined with the multiplayer addition Four Swords. The fourth game was the first not to take place in Hyrule, and it was re-released for the Game Boy Color in 1998 as Link's Awakening DX with some additional features.

After a relatively long hiatus, the series made the transition to 3D with Ocarina of Time. The game, initially known as Zelda 64, retained the core gameplay of the previous games and was very successful both commercially and critically. The popular Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game its first ever perfect 40/40 score.

Ocarina of Time saw a limited re-release on the GameCube in 2002 when it was offered as a pre-order incentive with the Wind Waker and featured a previously unreleased expansion known as Ura Zelda. The sixth game, Majora's Mask, used the same game engine as the previous Nintendo 64 game, but added a novel time-based concept which led to somewhat mixed reactions from series fans. The next two games were released simultaneously for the Gameboy Color platform and, by exchanging codes, could be combined to form a single story. They were not developed by Nintendo, but rather by Capcom under the supervision of Miyamoto.

The next Zelda was initially believed to be a development of the more realistically styled N64 games, but Nintendo surprised many when it was revealed that the GameCube game (The Wind Waker) would be cel-shaded, a more cartoon-like style of design first seen in Sega's Jet Set Radio. Initial fears that this would affect the quality of gameplay that many fans had grown accustomed to were eased when the game was released to be critically acclaimed in Japan in 2002 and elsewhere in 2003. It featured a concept based around the wind and sailing.

On May 11 2004 at Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference, they revealed the latest game in the series for the GameCube, currently simply titled The Legend of Zelda. This game was expected to use the cel-shading engine from Wind Waker, however the new game has a more realistic look, similar to the Spaceworld 2000 demo.

The new Nintendo portable console, currently codenamed Nintendo DS, is expected to be home to a new take on the Zelda series. The Nintendo DS was unveiled at 2004's E3 show. Additionally, Nintendo unveiled a new game for the Gameboy Advance, Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. This game will be based around an infestation of giant creatures called "ChuChus" and Link must don different caps to advance in the game

See also

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