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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.

4 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Wow... by JoeLinux · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It seems like only yesterday I got my 8 bit nintendo. One of the friends of the family who worked at Circuit City said, "You should stick to Super Mario Brothers. Zelda is just TOO hard!"

    I was sooo intimidated when I opened that golden cartridge on my birthday.

    But, I beat it in under two weeks after school. Dumb blonde was lying...

    And thus began my addiction...

    *sniff* memories....

  2. Short list 'o memories by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 3, Interesting

    -"Let's play money making game" engrish
    -Farming the graveyeard ghosts for money
    -Checking the white/master sword caves after every dungeon to see if I was "ready"
    -Dying like a million times to those fly-things in Death Mountain
    -Fucking red clouds...
    -GRUMBLE GRUMBLE
    -The "slash-the-old-man-and-dodge-his-fireball-defense- turrets" minigame
    -Being really confused by the dodongo/digdogger name switch in level 5

  3. Re:The Legend of Zelda was awesome ... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Good stuff; I think the gaming industry today should be locked in a room with these old games to remind them how to make the games FUN!

    They already did that at Nintendo. I don't think you can honestly say you've tried "Advance Wars: Dual Strike", "Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$", "Animal Crossing: Wild World", or even "Nintendogs" and didn't think they were any fun.

    I had totally forgotten that I liked video games until I got a DS for my birthday. About the worst I can say about Nintendo lately is that they really like using colons in their game titles.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  4. Re:The Legend of Zelda IS awesome ... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Once every couple of years, I pull my NES out of the closet and load up The Legend of Zelda. Yes, I get all nostalgic when I hear the intro music, and when I walk into that first cave to get my little wooden sword which Link is so proud to hold above his head. But after playing halfway through the first quest (or using the name ZELDA to skip directly to the second) the nostalgia wears off and I realize... the game is still actually fun. Lots of fun. Decades of playing has made the exploration part not quite so exciting... but navigating the dungeons, beating the bosses, collecting the items... Fantastic. This is truly a game that stands the test of time.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are