Wii Hater here with another blog. Hopefully this won't be as controversial as the last!

We've all played Zelda at some point. If you haven't, well, you're just not cool. Whether you've played all games, or only just picked up Phantom Hourglass, this post will certainly bring you down memory lane or enlighten you about this fantastic series.

Oh, and there's quite possibly spoilers in here, so you have been warned.


The Legend of Zelda was released in America on August 22 1987, a year and a half after its Japanese counterpart. Nintendo were apparently worried about how the game would be received, but they took a risk. And that risk paid off. The game sold 6.5 million copies and even today, is considered to be the forerunner for RPGs. The story was simple: Ganon, the Prince of Darkness has invaded Hyrule and taken the Triforce of Power. Zelda, the princess, managed to get the Triforce of Wisdom and broke it into eight pieces which our hero, Link must retrieve from various dungeons. After retrieving them all, Link defeated Ganon, retrieved the Triforce of Power and restored peace to Hyrule. The game introduced many things which have been in all Zelda games; the overworld theme, the "secret found" jingle, navigating dungeons, and of course, the characters.


It sold so well that Nintendo made a sequel. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was realeased in December 1988. This game is, without a doubt, the black sheep of the Zelda family. It featured side-scrolling areas within a large world map instead of the top-down view of the previous game. The game had far more elements of an RPG than the last one, for example, indroduction of Experience Points (EXP), magic spells, and more NPC's.

Fans and critics of the series have dubbed this game as the worst in the series, but I think that's a bit unfair. The gameplay is linear, true, but this game introduced so many of the features that are central to the modern Zelda game - the magic meter, more important NPC's, the introduction of towns, Dark Link... if you saw it, it is probably thanks to this game that we have it. Furthermore, you have to consider that this game is up against the likes of Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. It is very diificult to be on the same level as those games, let alone be better than them. So before you flame Zelda II, just think of the impact it's had on our modern Zelda games.

The next game has a special place in my heart, and I'm sure it does in many of yours as well. I'm talking about A Link to the Past. It was the first Zelda game I ever played and quite possibly the first game I played. It has been recognized as one of the best games ever, and rightly so. Released for the SNES on April 13 1992, Zelda fans had been crying out for a new game for 4 years. Their dreams were realised with this game. ALttP was basically a merge of the first two games but there was also much more to it than that. It was the first Zelda game to have a proper plot. Words cannot decribe how pleased my younger self was when I had deafeated Agahim, then deafeated Ganon and finally touched the triforce restored Hyrule to glory. The game was much more user friendly as people actually told you where to go instead of you wandering around for ages in a muddle. The graphics were awesome, the music was awesomer and when you reached the bit in the tory where you entered the Dark World, you realised there was not one but two worlds to explore.

Many people thought that this was the peak of the Zelda series. They were wrong. There were bigger and better things to come...

That's the end of part one, check back soon for part two, when we will revisit Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and the Oracle duo.