Exactly 40 years ago today, the cult series The Legend of Zelda was born. Here’s how one of Nintendo’s most successful series, which is still alive today, was created.
Another Nintendo series filled four banks. And here we don’t mean that he filled the banks with money (although that is not far from the truth either), but that he experienced the 40th anniversary of his existence. Along with Donkey Kong, Super Mario and Metroid, four decades of existence is behind The Legend of Zelda series.
The first Zelda game was developed in parallel with Super Mario Bros. and shared some similarities in design gameplayalike moving away from the concept of collecting as many points as possible while playing. However, where Mario was linear, Zelda was an open-ended game and offered players nature research conceptthat is an adventure experience. The game’s designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, decided on this approach inspired by his own nature wanderings around Kyoto.
While Mario was linear, Zelda was an open-ended game that offered players the concept of free world exploration.
The theme of the game, in which knight Link must find eight fragments of wisdom to save Princess Zelda, was inspired by European medieval conflicts. But, Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgeraldthe wife of the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The game started with the iconic sentence in the first cave “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this!”. That sentence later became an internet sensation meme which is still often used today. In essence, the main character Link was deliberately designed without a rich backstory precisely so that his development through the game would coincide with the development of the player’s confidence.
It’s interesting that Nintendo didn’t have high hopes for Zelda’s success at first. They first launched the game only on the Japanese market, but the result there led them to release the game to European and American audiences a year later. Namely, Zelda became the first NES game to sell a million copies.
Zelda became the first NES game to sell a million copies.
For the launch on the American market, a marketing campaign worth as much as five million dollars was prepared, which was a record amount by the terms of the time. In addition to television commercials, they were also produced Zelda watches, toys, oatmeal, etc.
The Legend of Zelda series received dozens of sequels, spin-off games and several adaptations. Just like the original, these games are considered top achievements in their genre. The original, however, remains in memory as the first game that, due to its length and non-linearity, required new methods of recording progress, so the game came on a special cassette that allowed recording the position internally on the console itself.
It is interesting that the game with all this success did not receive modern editions like some other parts in the series. However, an official remake existed and it was called BS Legend of Zelda. It is little known because it never appeared outside of Japan, and was only available through the Satellaview add-on for the NES console there.
Today, The Legend of Zelda can be played legally through a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Throughout its existence, the Zelda series has never received a film or TV adaptation. However, that will change in the spring of 2027, when the feature film The Legend of Zelda, co-produced by Nintendo and Sony Pictures, arrives in theaters.
