Happy 20th Birthday, Zelda!

[Kaspian]

For you kids keeping score at home, February 21 marks the twentieth anniversary (http://www.armchairempire.com/Editorials/happy-20th-birthday-zelda.htm) since The Legend of Zelda was first released in Japan, becoming one of Nintendo's most popular franchises of all time. Since then, Zelda games have appeared on each of Nintendo's systems, even getting a Game and Watch release in 1989, and let's not forget those CDi games (ew!). So, if you have a minute, fire up an old Zelda game, and crank the nostalgia to 11 while you look back on the series' first 20 years.

[Heretic Machine]

That's right, I am four days older than Zelda. Now let's get the princess drunk and sell a tape of the events following on late night TV.

[IIArchonII]

Why do people consider Zelda games RPGs?
I mean... other then Zelda 2... because... it was.
Sorry for my randomness

[Borys]

One of the greatest, most fun and awesomest series ever.

However the difficulty of each new Zelda games is lower (read: worse) than the last one.

Fun fact:
Replace Link with Samus or Belmont, Hyrule with Metroid World or Alucard's Castle and you have the same great game with same great mechanics.

EAers, why do *YOU* love Zelda?
In one answer!

I love Zelda for the "Ooohhh... I see a heart container up there but it seems I can't get it... yet" moments.

[bapenguin]

Interesting...I share Zelda's B-day.

I still think the first 2 games were the greatest of the series. I never seemed to get into the N64 ones. What I played of Wind Waker seemed OK but I never purchased it when I had my cube.

I've always loved the atmosphere of the Zelda games. The sense that you are supposed to do something bigger.

[TheEpicOfTyler]

Zelda is responsible for me loving video games.

Wind Waker is one of my favorites. I think OoT is over-rated, but still brilliant, my favorite is Link's Awakening on the Game Boy. :)

Four Swords Adventures was a blast when used correctly (4 friends with 4 gba's)

[TKO]

Why do people consider Zelda games RPGs?
I mean... other then Zelda 2... because... it was.
Like most things that become popular the definition becomes ripe for mis-use. Kind of like Adventures .. to me, any modern adventure should really be called an aardvark (tho, hell, I'm probably getting that genre-classification wrong.) :) ..I consider Adventures things with text input and descriptions (with or without gfx), um but maybe that just makes me old. :) And for me an RPG is a Rogue-like (ADOM), Ultima-like, or Neverwinter Nights type of affair. I tend to think of Zelda as a *genre*, being as iconic as it is. (Kind of like Tetris.)

Y'know, I never really played Zelda much ..it just never appealed to me, tho my brother has always been well and truly hooked. But it did always look like a damn nice thang. If I were to get hooked on this type of game, I couldn't think of a better franchise to start with.

[benig]

Anybody that didn't like Wind Waker should try playing it using the following way in order to up your enjoyment of the game.
- Don't get any heart containers at the end of dungeons. Make heart pieces valuable.
- When you are sailing from Point A to Point B (like during the triforce quests) stop at islands and explore. It takes a lot longer, but this is honestly how the game was meantt o be played. I played it like this and the trips around the map didn't bug me at all.

[Blade]

I played WW that way sans the Heart Container thing, Benig.

IMO, the best Zelda is LTTP followed by OOT.

[Lunar Blue]

bah, i'm 3 weeks younger, guess i'm not OLDSKOOL! after all :(

[PIPBoy3000]

I'm actually playing Wind Walker for the first time and really enjoying it. Probably the big points for me are the thrill of exploration, figuring out how to defeat certain monster types, and the joy of simply collecting loot.

[boratika]

To celebrate I got killed by wizrobes a bunch of times in level five, then failed to find level six (second time through).

Games today just don't seem hard.

Also I think Wind Waker is my favorite game of this generation.

[ghost]

My world would be very different were I never introduced to Link and Zelda. Most definitely one of my favorite series ever. Link to the Past is easily my favorite, but man did I enjoy Wind Waker. That game quickly rose to second place among the Zelda's on my list. It's funny, I broke out some Zelda yesterday just for fun, not even realizing until this morning what day it was.

[boratika]

Anybody that didn't like Wind Waker should try playing it using the following way in order to up your enjoyment of the game.
- Don't get any heart containers at the end of dungeons. Make heart pieces valuable.
- When you are sailing from Point A to Point B (like during the triforce quests) stop at islands and explore. It takes a lot longer, but this is honestly how the game was meantt o be played. I played it like this and the trips around the map didn't bug me at all.

OoT was pretty tricky with only three hearts, since iron knuckles took off four.

[Nite_Moogle]

Zelda is responsible for me loving video games.
Me too. I have no fonder memories of the entire SNES generation than trying to solve Link to the Past with my best friend in the era before gamefaqs.

[EternalGamer]

Link to the Past was my favorite Zelda game. My favorite part of the Zelda series is the sense of exploration it is able to build--secret passages behind every corner. It's just a great invokation of childhood wonderment.

Dan

[Dark Hamlet]

Woot for Zelda!

One of the most overlooked (and one of the best games in the franchise in my opinion) is Majora's Mask. It took a little getting used to and the final boss was somewhat disappointing, but otherwise it was a great game. I like it every bit as much as OoT. I wonder what percent of Zelda fans have even played this one...

Anyway, happy...uh...Zelda Day, all!

[Aespir]

The day I realized that Zelda: A Link to the Past came out in 1993, over a decade ago, was the day I finally had to admit to myself that I'm not quite a kid anymore. :-P

[ghost]

One of the most overlooked (and one of the best games in the franchise in my opinion) is Majora's Mask. It took a little getting used to and the final boss was somewhat disappointing, but otherwise it was a great game. I like it every bit as much as OoT. I wonder what percent of Zelda fans have even played this one...

I agree fully. Majora's Mask was a very Different Zelda game, but it was a lot of fun and a really good experience. The final boss was weak, to be sure, but after spending all that time finding and collecting all the masks, the boss battle's fallacies were overlooked by the sheer amount of ass-kicking Fierce Deity Link did. Fun as heck.

[Megalith]

Wow, maybe Nintendo can release another pointless Zelda bundle now to celebrate its anniversary.

I've also been told by anonymous sources that Zelda for CDi was actually good.