Legend has it that Shigeru Miyamoto climbed caves outside his childhood home in the village of Sonobe and used this as inspiration when creating The Legend of Zelda. This is also the information found on the game series’ Wikipedia page, so one can assume that the backstory has a large dose of truth in it. The game creator’s imagination and discoveries were transformed in interactive form into a playfulness and joy of discovery, which have been central features of this game series since it saw the light of day on the Famicom Disk System a full 36 years ago.
For my part, I don’t really remember why the NES became the console that ended up in the living room of my childhood home. But I’ve always had parents who supported my nerdy interests. There was something about Nintendo’s gray little box that appealed to me and my little brother a little extra and Super Mario Bros was played by the whole family, it was simple and entertaining and everyone could enjoy it. But eventually another game came along, too.
A game on a magical little gold cassette.
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Actually, The Legend of Zelda was initially too difficult for me and my two-year-younger brother. Of course, the internet and guides didn’t exist either. Still, there was something special about that clever adventure. I remember how each new frame felt almost like a mini-game in itself, how I drew maps on A4 paper and when English words I didn’t understand appeared, Dad had to quickly rush into the living room to translate. Fighting my way past screens of enemies, figuring out clues as to where to go, and then memorizing all the game’s caves was a big challenge for me that I slowly began to master.
I was just at the beginning of my fascination with video games with little gaming experience from the family Commodore 64. But the Hyrule painted on the family big screen TV was so unlike anything else. I also had no idea that this was the beginning of something that would follow me for the rest of my life, that that little elf figure made of pixels would become one of my most beloved characters. I explored every nook and cranny of Hyrule, marveling at the grand music and collecting hearts and items. But above all, I started a lifelong romance.
There are probably not many who agree with me. But I always considered Zelda II: The Adventures of Link to be a better game than its predecessor. It was prettier, bigger, more varied and I had become a bit older and could take in more what I was actually experiencing. Only now did Hyrule feel like a living place with small villages, real forests and caves. Also, the game’s dungeons were incredibly clever, with difficult bosses at the end of them and I loved the fact that you gained experience points. I was only 8 years old so dad still had to translate lots of English words. “Candle” meaning I needed to find a candle, and I slowly learned single phrases and somewhere I started memorizing every single step Link took on the game’s extensive world map.
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Every time I revisit this game, so much nostalgia washes over me. Years of staring at the same screen, how grueling platforming over seas of lava would be mastered, how enemies named Stalfos were quickly defeated but how Ironknuckles required patience as they parried Link’s sword thrusts with their shield. Zelda II was a very difficult adventure, but it laid a further foundation for everything I would come to love about this game series. Maybe even more so than the first game.
In the summer of 1992, I am on holiday in my old home village after having moved away two years earlier. When I get home, my little brother and I get a Super Nintendo as a joint birthday present. Next fall, the game will be released that looks like the first Zelda, but incredibly much prettier. When Link wakes up in the little cabin and we walk out into the whipping rain, everything changed. The graphics are the best I’ve seen, Koji Kondo’s music is the best I’ve heard. It is during a video game night at my childhood friend Toni’s that I realize that this is the best game I have ever played. One night, my little brother and I get stuck in one of the game’s dungeons, I go to sleep disappointed but am woken up an hour or so later by the fact that my brother had found a wall to blow up so we could move on.
A Link to the Past was, along with so many other games of the SNES era, the ones that really gave me perspective on what games as entertainment could actually be. When I played on the NES, I had no real visions of what games could look like, everything was there and then. 8-bit was like the only thing I knew and even though the games could look different in terms of aesthetics, I had a very hard time dreaming how it could actually be. But the SNES changed that. Proper. Suddenly I dared to assume that maybe games could be more like reality, and I also realized that this was a game series that Nintendo would continue to release games in. That we would probably see Link again, again. And again.
In many ways, it’s a bit funny that it was a black and white adventure for the Game Boy that was to follow up the epic A Link to The Past. But if anything, Nintendo proved that it’s the concept itself that matters most. My friend Andreas had received the game on the day of release, but my mother had said that I could wish for it for Christmas, which meant waiting for almost a whole month of pure torture. Come Christmas Eve, there was also no package under the tree that looked like a Game Boy game. With each package I opened, the hope of getting it dropped, but I faked my gratitude for what I received, I didn’t want to seem ungrateful for all the nice Christmas presents. But then, among the last packages, mom had been sneaky and put the Game Boy game in an empty refill box for jam, and I rejoiced and was thus able to spend the Christmas holidays on Koholint Island.
It was, of course, an unforgettable adventure and to this day Link’s Awakening is actually the Zelda game I’ve completed the most times. Perhaps mostly because it is a little simpler so it becomes so easy to experience again. Besides, there was a remake for the Nintendo Switch that I actually liked.
These first four Zelda games laid a foundation that now really cemented this game series as something extra and the expectations for what was to come were of course sky high. Still, it was basically completely impossible to know what would actually come next…
To be continued.
