This piece is from back in early August of 2006, and was originally posted on the WiiEurope website; one of a whole bunch of sites that started up - and started looking for content - after the announcement of the console’s name. Coincidentally, I was looking for work and money, and offered to write a history of the Zelda series for them. Nice people. Paid me well.

Unfortunately, I guess things didn’t turn out for them. I stopped hearing from them in about October, and I’ve noticed that the site isn’t actually up anymore. I thought it might be nice to post the articles I wrote for them anyway.

Video games are hardly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Zelda Fitzgerald, but it’s from the obsessive-compulsive flapper wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald that one of Nintendo’s most successful franchises derives its title. “She was a famous and beautiful woman from all accounts, and I liked the sound of her name,” said Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of The Legend of Zelda series in an Amazon.com interview. “So I took the liberty of using her name for the very first Zelda title.”

There’s little that’s known about the development of that first title, released as The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda in Japan, and simply as The Legend of Zelda elsewhere in the world. The game was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, known then as Research and Development Team 4, the same team behind games like Donkey Kong, the Super Mario Bros. series, and the F-Zero series. The team worked on the game right throughout 1985, before the game hit Japanese shelves on February 21^st, 1986 – the first game for Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System add-on. It made full use of the Disk System’s advantages over the Famicom itself, coming in at 128K, which would have been prohibitively costly on cartridges, at the time. It used the rewritable disks to save the game, rather than using passwords.

Then there were the innovations offered within the gameplay. Although Warren Robinett’s Atari 2600 title Adventure is regarded as influential on the action adventure genre, The Legend of Zelda is credited with its refinement, and with the invention of many of the genre’s standard gameplay elements. This included things like the use of items, an intricate story, and, perhaps most importantly, a vast and complex non-linear world.

Although Hyrule, the setting of the story, has been improved and fleshed out since the first game, the Hyrule of The Legend of Zelda remains an impressive and sizable land. The idea of creating such an immersive play area came from Miyamoto’s childhood, according to the aforementioned Amazon interview. “I came up with the concept for the Zelda series from my adventures as a child exploring the wide variety of places around my home. There were plenty of caves and mountains. We didn’t have that many toys to play with, so I would make slingshots or use sticks and twigs to make puppets and keep myself amused.”

Also notable was the game’s grand and evocative music, which was the result of a continuing relation between composer Koji Kondo and Miyamoto. Although the Famicom sound chip featured only two monophonic pulse channels, a monophonic triangle wave channel, and a noise channel, Kondo’s soundtrack reflected the principals learnt in his classical training.

When the game finally found its way to Western stores on August 22^nd, 1987, the game included another innovation. Although there had been suggestions that the Famicom Disk System would see a release in Western markets, the unit never appeared. Fortunately, in the year and a half between the releases of the two regions, memory costs had dropped, allowing Nintendo to release the game on a cartridge, and a gold one at that. The Legend of Zelda was also the first game for the NES to feature battery back-up, allowing players to save their progress to one of three files on the cartridge itself – a feature available on every game in the series since.

Though intricate for its time – within the genre, at least – The Legend of Zelda’s story is flat when compared to later games in the series. Comprised of only one introductory screen, it tells of Prince of Darkness, Ganon, who stole the Triforce of Power, and Princess Zelda, who divided her Triforce of Wisdom into 8 units and hid them before being captured, then invites the player, referred to as Link, to “go find the 8 units” to save Zelda. In order to accomplish this, Link journeys through 9 dungeons, as well as the overworld. Following the game’s completion, a second quest is unlocked – a more difficult version of the game, with items and dungeons relocated to different areas.

The game has gone on to sell over 6.5 million copies. In 1994, the game was re-released in Japan in cartridge form – it was also re-released for The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition disc for the Nintendo GameCube and for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, as part of Nintendo’s Classic NES Series.

The next game in the series, The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, was released for the Famicom on January 14^th, 1987, in December 1988 for the NES, as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The game represented a sharp departure in style from the previous title, which is often seen as symptomatic, or arguably, emblematic of Miyamoto’s quest for progress and invention. Despite the previous game’s enormous success, and The Adventure of Link’s release in a time when many sequels were merely carbon copies of their predecessors, the top-down fighting and simplicity of the first game were swapped for side-scrolling combat and a levelling system more commonly associated with RPGs.

The Adventure of Link is set directly after the events of The Legend of Zelda, with Link having just defeated Ganon, and features a multi-faceted storyline for the first time. While the minions of Ganon seek to resurrect their fallen leader with the blood of his slayer, Link, Hyrule’s hero must find the Triforce of Courage in order to wake the sleeping Princess Zelda. This Zelda, however, is a different one to the previous game’s titular princess – a member of the royal family sent to sleep by a spell long ago for not revealing the location of the Triforce of Courage. In this, The Adventure of Link gives the series’ first indication of its repeating themes and characters; after finding their Princess put to sleep, the royal family decreed that all females in their linage would be named after her.

In order to find the Triforce of Courage, Link must complete six labyrinthine palaces, and the final Great Palace. While the overworld is viewed in much the same fashion as that in its predecessor, after an enemy is encountered, or a palace is entered, the view switches to one similar to that found in side-scrolling platformers, complete with limited lives. This change also altered the combat system of the game significantly – introducing standing and crouching offensive and defensive moves, which also increased the difficultly of the game.

Because of these changes, the game proved less popular than The Legend of Zelda, though it has had an undeniable impact on the series. As well as placing a greater importance on the non-player characters found in towns, the game also introduced the idea of a metered magic system.

The game has since sold 4.5 million copies, and has been re-released in The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition, as well as being released for the Game Boy Advance.

Around September or October of 1989, Nintendo released two LCD Zelda games: the Zelda Game Watch, a wrist watch developed by Nelsonic, and the Zelda Game & Watch, a dual screen platform game. The Game & Watch, regarded as the better of the two LCD games, has since been re-released twice. The first was by Toymax Inc. as part of their Mini Classics series of keychain Game & Watch remakes, and secondly by Nintendo, as an extra in the Game Boy Advance’s Game & Watch Gallery 4.

The series’ third title, The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods, was released in Japan on the 21^st of November, 1991, exactly one year after the release of the Super Famicom. It was released in Western markets as The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past on the 13^th of April, 1992, eight months after the release of the SNES. Details regarding the game’s development of the game are somewhat unclear – rumours abound about the existence of prototypes of the game for the NES. While it is generally accepted that there were discussions regarding a third Zelda game for the 8-bit system, development cartridges, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Saga which was available for sale on eBay, are considered fakes.

A Link To The Past discards the side-scrolling elements of The Adventures of Link, returning instead to the top-down view used by the series’ first title. A number of the other innovations of The Adventures of Link are also unused, like the multi-faceted combat system, and the use of spells, though the increased importance placed on NPCs lead to the Hyrule of A Link To The Past being inhabited by a well characterised populace. The size of the world itself increased dramatically - as well as the regular world, which features five dungeons, the game also features a mirrored Dark World, with an additional eight dungeons. As well as being numerous, the game’s dungeons also featured multiple levels, which was a first for the series. For these reasons, the game came in at an impressive 1MB in a time when most SNES cartridges were half that.

The game raised questions about the series’ characters, which remain officially unanswered today – does the existence of Link and Zelda, as well as Ganon, in this game imply reincarnation? The generally accepted response is that the protagonist, Link, is eternally reincarnated – a theory suggested by Ganon in the GameCube’s The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Additionally, Princess Zelda is also reincarnated, while Ganon is seemingly immortal.

Questions also remain about A Link To The Past’s position in the series timeline. The game talks of the Triforce, and Ganon, being sealed in the Dark World by the Seven Sages, which roughly corresponds to the events in the Nintendo 64 game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Throughout the game, Link must battle to reseal the Dark World, and retrieve the Triforce from Ganon, as well as rescuing the descendents of the Seven Sages – among them, Princess Zelda.

The game’s music was once again composed by Koji Kondo, this time working in stereo using the Super Nintendo’s SPC700 chip. The chip was capable of 8 simultaneous voices, which could be output in 16-bit stereo at a sample rate of 32 kHz.

Regarded as one of the top SNES games, the title sold 4.6 million copies, and was re-released for the Game Boy Advance on December 2^nd, 2002.

However, the GBA release was far from a straight port of the game, and also featured a multi-player component based on the Link To The Past engine named The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords developed by Japanese independent Flagship. This game was not playable in a single-player mode, and required the use of two or more GBAs, each with a separate cartridge. The story revolves around Vaati, the Wind Mage, who kidnaps Zelda. Link is sent to the Princess’s rescue by three faeries, but is told that he cannot go alone, and must draw the Four Sword to split himself in four.

The game was successful, and sold 2.5 million copies, spawning a GameCube sequel in the process; The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure. The game was released in Japan on the 18^th of March, 2004, then in the US two months later, before finally seeing a European release six months after that, on the 7^th of January, 2005. The game, which was developed by Nintendo’s EAD team, again used an engine based upon A Link To The Past, though, unlike its predecessor, it did feature a single player mode. However, the game did not include a story mode, opting instead for a series of short stages. Four Swords Adventure was one of the few titles to use the GBA-to-GameCube adaptor, which allowed players to use GBAs as controllers. It’s unknown exactly how many units the game sold, though as of March 2006, it was yet to reach 1 million.

June 6^th, 1993 saw the release of the first portable Zelda game in Japan: The Legend of Zelda: Dreaming Island. The game was released as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening two months later in the US, and three months after that in Europe. Set directly after the events of A Link To The Past, the game begins with Link attempting to sail back to Hyrule after training abroad, only to be shipwrecked on Koholint Island. This meant that, not only was the game the first not to be set in Hyrule, but it was also the first not to include either Zelda or Ganon, even in a non-direct fashion.

In order to return to Hyrule, Link needs to retrieve the eight Instruments of the Sirens, which he must then use to wake the Wind Fish. Along the way, Link could, for the first time, engage in item trading, the result of which was needed to complete the game, and could also fish. Link’s Awakening also marked the first time a top-down Zelda had featured a jumping ability.

The game was well received; selling 3.8 million copies. It was later colourised and re-released in 1998 on the Game Boy Color as Link’s Awakening DX. In addition to the increased colour palate, the deluxe version added a new colour-puzzle based dungeon to the title, and sold an additional 2.2 million.

After working with Nintendo on a failed attempt to create a CD-ROM peripheral for the SNES, Royal Philips Electronics N.V. began work on their own CD based system, the CD-i, which was released in 1991. Due to a contractual agreement drafted during their time working with Nintendo, Philips was granted the rights to use Nintendo characters. The first of these releases were two Zelda games developed by Animation Magic; Link: The Faces of Evil, and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, both of which were released on the 10^th of October, 1993. Both mark a return to the side-scrolling gameplay of The Adventure of Link, though they lack the official title’s combat nuances and polish. The storylines of the games are considered non-canonical, and the games themselves are often regarded to be amongst the worst games ever – though Wand of Gamelon is notable as the first time Princess Zelda appears as a playable character.

A sequel to the two games, developed by Viridis, was released on the 7^th of June, 1994. Entitled Zelda’s Adventure, the game once again saw the Princess in the game’s starring role. The title swapped the previous titles’ side-scrolling action for a more familiar top-down view, and the badly hand-animated full motion video for live action. Despite these improvements, the game still suffered from a number of problems, not the least of which being the crippling load times when Zelda moved from one screen to another. Zelda’s Adventure is considered the best of the three games released for the CD-i, but still falls well below the standard set by the official titles.

The next of the Nintendo-published titles was first announced at the 7th Annual Shoshinkai Software Exhibition on the 24^th of November, 1995. Referred to only as The Legend of Zelda 64, the game was talked about alongside the debut of the yet-to-be released Nintendo 64 console, and was intended to be released alongside the console’s 64DD disk drive peripheral in early 1997. In March 1997, this was delayed to Christmas, only to be delayed until May 1998 a few months later. In early 1998, the game was delayed once again, to November – a date that Nintendo promised would be final. The development cycle ran to almost US$10 million, but the game finally saw release in Japan on the 21^st of November, in the US on the 23^rd, and in Europe a month later, on the 18^th of December.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time saw the series enter 3 dimensions for the first time, using a modified version of the Super Mario 64 engine. The game is considered to be not only one of the best games for the Nintendo 64, but also amongst the best games ever released. The expansive, and for the first time, truly immersive Hyrule found in the game as well as its intuitive use of the console’s controller prompted many publications to award it a prefect score, including the notoriously strict Edge magazine.

The game is generally regarded as the first in the series, chronologically. It explores the rise to power of the thief Ganondorf; something that is recounted in many of the previous titles. The story itself is based around Link, who is gradually revealed to be the legendary Hero of Time; the one who must journey forward in time to stop Ganondorf. Along the way, Link must collect 3 medallions as a child, and another 5 as an adult, making the game a lengthy and complex one. But it is the fully fleshed out Hyrule that attracts most players – the towns seem fully functioning, the locales are impeccably well designed and the characters appear intricate.

Ocarina of Time also placed more importance on Koji Kondo’s music – the titular ocarina is used by Link to play tunes that affect the surroundings, or influence other characters. The extra channels of the Nintendo 64 sound chip –averaging 16-24, due to CPU restrictions – were used to full effect.

The title has retained an intriguing following, with enterprising gamers finding traces of the game’s beta version hidden within the ROM. Additionally, erroneous rumours regarding the existence of the Triforce within the game have propagated ever since Ocarina of Time’s initial release.

Ocarina of Time proved immensely popular, selling over 5 million copies in its first 6 months, and peaking at 7.6 million as of March 2006. The game was re-released in The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition, and was also included with initial US and all European copies of The Wind Waker. The Wind Waker re-release also included the previous unreleased Ocarina of Time Master Quest, which had been completed for the Japan-only 64DD. This expansion is much like the second quest offered in the first Zelda game – rooms, items and dungeons are rearranged, and enemies are often stronger, but the story remains the same.

The next title in the series was announced in May of 1999. Originally titled Zelda: Gaiden, there was little that was known about the game, other than the fact that it would mark the first time an official Zelda game would not be directed by Miyamoto. Instead, Ocarina of Time’s assistant director, Eiji Aonuma, would helm the project. Less than a year later, on the 27^th of April, 2000, the game was released in Japan as The Legend of Zelda: Mask of Mujula. On October 24^th, the game found its way to US shelves as The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, while European gamers had to wait until November 17^th.

The game functioned as a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, beginning just moments after the previous game, with Link once again as a young boy. Journeying through an uncharted part of the Lost Woods, Link is ambushed by the Skull Kid, who briefly appeared in the previous game as an ally, but has since been possessed by the titular mask. Skull Kid steals Link’s horse, Epona, forcing Link to follow him into a world named Termina. Link is given three days to save the world before its destruction by its own moon, though this time can be rewound.

The game is a sharp departure from its predecessor, a fact that angered many fans of Ocarina of Time. Although the game is certainly different in mood and gameplay mechanic, its engine remains the same, albeit with a number of graphical enhancements that are made possible using the Nintendo 64’s RAM Expansion Pack. While the previous games in the series had encouraged lengthy exploration, Majora’s Mask reeled it in using the game’s timer, and the ever-present threat of Termina’s apocalypse. Because of this, there’s a darkness and sadness in Majora’s Mask that’s not present in the other games in the series.

In addition to the changes in mood, the game also allowed Link to change form, using masks containing the souls of fallen heroes – one of a Deku, one of a Goron, and one of a Zora. These transformations afforded Link abilities completely different to those previously offered in the series. The game also innovated in terms of NPCs, presenting Clock Town, Termina’s central city, as a living entity, where the game’s characters would go about different tasks over the three day cycle. By deciphering these movements, Link can collect 24 masks – some of which allow him different powers, some of which alter the way he is perceived by people, and others which do nothing.

The game was well received by critics, but sold less than half of the games sold by its predecessor at only 3.4 million. It also featured in The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition.

The next Zelda project announced by Nintendo was that of a Game Boy Colour Triforce Trilogy, intended to feature remakes of the first two games, as well as a third, original title. This was to be developed, for the first time, outside of Nintendo, by Flagship, under the guidance of Capcom. The project fell through, though, and the studio embarked instead on two original games, The Legend of Zelda: Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of Earth and The Legend of Zelda: Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of Time and Space. The two games were released simultaneously on February 27^th, 2001 in Japan, May 14^th in the US, and October 5^th in Europe, though they were renamed for the Western markets – Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, respectively.

The two games functioned as separate units, and both represented a particular facet of the Zelda series - Oracle of Seasons represented action, and Oracle of Ages represented puzzle solving. However, the two could be “linked” using a password obtained by finishing either, which would then allow the player to see the “correct” ending if they completed the other title.

Each game sent Link to a different world: Oracle of Ages featured Labrynna, and Oracle of Seasons featured Holodrum. Both games revolved around the rescue of one of the series’ Goddesses – Din in Seasons, and Nayru in Ages. The games were generally well received, despite some initial pessimism regarding their development outside of EAD, and went on to sell a combined 4 million copies.

The next game in the series debuted at Nintendo’s Space World 2001 event. A technical demo for the GameCube had been shown at the previous year’s event – a dark, realistic looking battle between Link and Ganon. But the 2001 version replaced the realistic graphics with a cel shaded cartoon-like look, prompting IGN to wonder if two different games were in development, and vocal fans to deride the look as “kiddie”. Despite not functioning as the director of the title, Miyamoto expressed his disappointment over the reaction, stating that the aim was simply to “extend Zelda’s reach to all ages”, and suggesting that fans should wait until they had played the game before reacting.

A playable demo was presented at E3 2002, bring about a sharp change from IGN, who commented that the game’s look “works very nicely”. On December 13^th of that year, The Legend of Zelda: Baton of the Wind was released in Japan, with a US release as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker following on March 24^th of 2003, and a European release on May 3^rd. Despite its new look, the game retained a lot of the gameplay of the Nintendo 64 titles, although it introduced the ability to parry in battle.

The title’s most important innovation was the world itself – made up of numerous islands and archipelagos, Link must sail from location to location using the Wind Waker, a baton with which he can control his direction. The game makes direct mention of the events of Ocarina of Time, with the people of the Great Sea still expecting the return of the Hero of Time. Link is sent on a journey to destroy Ganondorf, the evil of legend, by a talking ship - King of Red Lions.

The Wind Waker was well received by fans and critics, despite the initial unpopularity of its stylised look, and the game has, to date, sold 4.32 million copies, making it the 13^th highest selling game of the 21^st century.

November 2004 saw the release of the next title in the series, entitled The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Hat in Japan, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap elsewhere. For the first time, though, the game was released in Europe prior to its American release: the US didn’t get the game until January 10^th of 2005.

Developed for the Game Boy Advance by Flagship, the title is an exploration of the Four Swords back-story, explaining the origins of Vaati, the Wind Mage, and the Four Sword. The game’s principal focus though, is that of the titular hat – a magical creature named Ezlo that allows Link to shrink to microscopic size in order to interact with the Picori, a tiny race of Hyrule inhabitants. It also uses the graphical style of The Wind Waker, but reproduces it in sprite form, rather than using three dimensional figures.

The Minish Cap won numerous end of year awards, though most of these were for 2005, reflecting its late US release. To date the game has sold 1.23 million copies.

Reflecting the strung out development cycle of Ocarina of Time, Nintendo’s next console based Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, was initially intended for a November 2005 release on GameCube. This has since been strung out to a Q4 2006 release for both the GameCube and the Wii. While the exact date is unknown, it is expected that the title will be available at launch for the Wii.

Little is known about the title’s exact story, other than the fact that it will once again feature a mirrored world; this time dubbed the Twilight Realm. The game is intended to be set decades after the events of Ocarina of Time, though the developers, lead once again by Aonuma, point out the Link of this title is not the same one. Graphically, the game is more in line with the Space World 2000 tech demo, presenting players with the most realistic rendering of Link yet. Nintendo of America President Reginald Fils-Aime claims that the game is “by far the best Zelda game we’ve ever made”.

Also up-coming for the series is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, also developed by EAD, for the DS. The game is intended as a direct sequel for The Wind Waker, and uses the same cel-shaded style. Phantom Hourglass was set for an early November release, though it has since disappeared from Nintendo release schedules, prompting speculation that it may have been pushed back to an early 2007 release, so as not to interfere, or get lost in, the Wii launch.

The title will use all of the features of the DS – including the touch screen, and the microphone. It was originally intended to be released as a Four Swords game for the handheld, but was changed to a single player game when the development team discovered the DS’s potential for rendering cel-shaded graphics.

As of late 2005, the Zelda series as a whole had sold 47 million games, making it the third most popular franchise for Nintendo after Mario and Pokemon. What started as Miyamoto’s way of presenting players with a “miniature garden” has gone on to become one of the most influential powerful names in videogames. With any luck, it will continue on as such for years to come.