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The Legend of Zelda is a video game adventure series created by Nintendo and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto.
The Legend of Zelda games (often shortened to just "Zelda") feature as their central character and protaganist a young elf named Link. The "Zelda" in the title refers to Princess Zelda, princess of the land of Hyrule, whose rescue is the general object of most of the games. 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 puzzles, 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, combined with the Super Mario and Pokemon series.
Games
The following is a list of the main installments of the series, with the original year of release and the platform they first appeared on.
The Legend of Zelda (1986 - NES)
The Adventure of Link (1987 - NES)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991 - SNES)
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993 - Game Boy)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998 - N64)
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000 - N64)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (2001 - Game Boy Color)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (2001 - Game Boy Color)
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002 - Gamecube)
The first Zelda appears relatively crude and simple by today's standards, but it was a popular and innovative game in its day. A modified version known as Bandai Satellaview Zelda was released for the SNES's satellite-based expansion in the early 1990s. 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. The third, initially known as Super Zelda, returned to the top-down view and added the concept of an alternate world. It has been re-released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, 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. It saw a limited re-release on the Gamecube in 2002 when it was combined with the Wind Waker and featured a previously unreleased expansion known as Ura Zelda. The sixth game used the same software as the previous Nintendo 64 game, but added a novel time-based concept. The next two games were released simultaneously 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 would be cell-shaded, a more cartoon-like style of design. Initial fears that this would effect the quality of gameplay that many fans had grown accustomed to were eased when the game was released to positive reviews in Japan in 2002 and elsewhere in 2003. It featured a concept based around the wind and sailing.
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. The games released were Faces of Evil, Wand of Gamelon and Zelda's Adventure.