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Legend of Zelda Celebrates 20 Years
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved gaming franchises Nintendo has created. It is also celebrating two decades of life this week. 1up has a great feature on the anniversary, exploring the different games in the series with a list of 'stuff to love'. From the article: "Twenty years ago this week -- February 21, 1986 -- thousands of Japanese gamers played The Legend of Zelda for the first time, and their perspective on gaming was forever changed. Here was a huge world, a massive quest, an open-ended odyssey that demanded exploration. When we Americans first placed that golden cartridge in our Nintendo Entertainment Systems a few months later, we learned what our friends overseas had already discovered: Zelda was addictive. It was adventurous. It was ambitious. It was amazing." Four Colour Rebellion also has commentary on this auspicious occasion, with a Happy Birthday look back and some fond remembrances.
Years ago we were flying from London to San Francisco on Virgin, Premium Economy class. In that class you got a SNES built-in to the back of the seat in front of you, and I spent a happy while revisting my Blanka-dominated StreetFighter II past.
My then-girlfriend-now-wife however, not a gamer normally though certainly not averse to them, picked up Zelda: A Link To The Past. She said she really enjoyed it, but found it incredibly hard to dodge everything and couldn't get the hang of fighting.
Years go by, and when the Gameboy Advance SP came out I bought her one along with Zelda: Link To The Past. Again, she loved it. But again she complained she just couldn't get the hang of fighting anyone. So I took a look.
Right at the beginning of the game, you get a lamp. Except my wife didn't think this was a lamp, she thought it was a flamethrower. For several years she'd been going up to guards in the game and just flashing that lamp in their faces, expecting them to die, whilst totally ignoring the perfectly good sword she had as well.
It's just stuck in my mind since - imagine you really are a guard in that world. Some madman comes up to you, shouts "ha ha varmint, have at you" and quickly flashes a small torch at you, Then looks puzzled and disappears. Then re-appears and does it again. FOR THREE YEARS.
Well, I think it's funny anyway.
At the moment, it's: divorce, n: A change of wife.
Wouldn't "A wife-changing experience" have more zing?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
20 years? Isn't that how long Twilight Princess has been delayed now?
Zelda almost stopped me from getting married. I own a lovely first edition Gold Cart of Ocarina of Time (you know, the one with blood and Muslim chants). In college my now wife (then barely a friend) kidnapped it because my room mate (their good friend) was playing it too much. I thought someone had stole it. Once I found out it was them I was pissed. They had my baby. So...my (now wifes) first real impression of me was that I was some video game luvin' jerk.
:)
Why she married me I will never know
I still have that cart...and she knows not to touch it...
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as sad as it is, i did eventually get to the point where I could beat it straight through w/out dying. Just quest one though, I never did do it for quest 2.
Another fun zelda story is that it was the first game that got my father addicted. We would wake up in the morning during that time and he would be asleep on the couch w/ the contine/save/retry screen. The sad thing was that the first time he made it to level nine, I beat the game while he wasn't there. Second time, he worked his way up there, he lost the save game. Third time, my cousin beat it. It took him four times to get to the end until he was finally able to beat it.
I got busted for trying to steal Legend of Zelda from a Target store when I was 13. Stupid me... my parents wouldn't buy it for me so I tried to get it free. Got busted and had to do a one day seminar thing for kids who screw up. I learned my lesson... but bought it later on... It is a classic.
I'm not clever enough for a sig...
Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A friend shoulder-looking. Just after racing with the undertaker's ghost. I drop into a tiny room deep under ground surface, a small enclosed cube with no exit in any direction, somewhere at the end of an obscure tomb in the cemetery. Badly hurt, no fairies, no potions, generally screwed up.
"I don't think it can get any worse" - I say.
"Maybe try playing some song, the song of time or something" - says the friend.
So I whip out the ocarina and try playing the song of time, from memory.
And I play the wrong song. Song of storms.
It starts raining.
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