The Legend of Zelda

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The Legend of Zelda
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	February 21, 1986 August 22, 1987 November 27, 1987
Genre(s)	Action adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	Famicom Disk System, NES, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console
Media	1 megabit cartridge
Followed by	Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Credits • Gallery

The Legend of Zelda is a Nintendo Entertainment System video game. It was first released in Japan as a Famicom Disk System game in February of 1986. The next year it would release in both North America and Europe. It is generally regarded as one of the most important video games of all time. The game was created by industry veterans Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.

The Legend of Zelda was ranked as the number one video game of all time in the 200th issue of GameInformer. Super Mario Bros. was ranked number 2.

Contents 1 General information and plot 1.1 Main Characters 1.2 Minor Bosses 2 Gameplay 3 Development 3.1 Mistranslations 3.2 Release List 4 External Links

[edit] General information and plot

The game takes place in Hyrule, the land in which most Zelda games take place. In this land, Princess Zelda heard of Ganon, Prince of Darkness's coming and broke the triforce into 8 shards. Ganon kidnapped the princess and left her maid Impa to die. Link found Impa and learned what had happened and set out to reassemble the triforce to save Zelda, and stop Ganon. The game featured 8 bosses and many enemies. Also, once you beat the game (or put your save file's name as 'Zelda'), you can play the second quest which completely reorganizes Hyrule and the dungeons for a new challenge.

[edit] Main Characters

• Link: Link is the main character in the game that you take control of. In the game, Link must find 8 pieces of the Triforce, once you collect them all, you will be able to enter the final dungeon or level. Link has many different weapons, such as a sword, a shield, bombs, a boomerang, and bow and arrows.
• Zelda: Zelda is one of the main characters in the game that gets kidnapped by Ganon. Before she was kidnapped, she shattered the triforce, and scattered the pieces throughout the land, when she then sent out Impa to find a hero, whom is Link.
• Ganon: In the game, Ganon kidnaps Zelda, and takes her to his dungeon, Link must fight through 6 bosses before coming to him, where he must fight him with his sword and arrows. Ganon will then start warping around the room throwing fire balls at you. Once you defeat him, Zelda will be saved, and you will be able to start the second quest.

[edit] Minor Bosses

• Aquamentus: Aquamentus is the first boss in the game that will shoot three fire balls at once which can only be avoidable with the shield. The enemy is a green dragon with a horn on top of his head.
• Digdogger: A Sea Urchin with a big red eye in the middle. He can be seperated into three defeateable parts by blowing the whistle.
• Dodongo: An orange boss that resembles a rhinoceros. It can be killed by putting two bombs in front of his head.
• Gleeok: A big green dragon with up to four heads. The boss will fly around the room trying to attack Link.
• Gohma: A big crab boss with an eye as his weak point. The only way to kill the boss is to shoot arrows into the eye.
• Manhandla: A plant boss with four arms. You must defeat all the arms and then the boss to win the battle.

[edit] Gameplay

The gameplay incorporated four different genres into one game: action, adventure, RPG's, and puzzles. It had a huge overworld with dungeons and houses that would lead to an indoor setting with plenty of enemies and puzzles. The main goal of the game is to gather all 8 pieces of the triforce, defeat Gannon, and save Zelda. But to do that, you must travel through labyrinths and dungeons destroying all the bosses and collecting new items that would help you defeat Gannon.

One interesting point in the game is that you do not have to collect every item or heart piece that you come across, as it's your choice to get it or just pass it by. If you do, it would of course help you beat the game.

Once you beat the game, or if you named your character Zelda, you were able to start the Second Quest, which had harder challenges, and re-arranged levels. The magic whistle will also let you do more things than in the previous quest as well.

[edit] Development

Interestingly, the the team that worked on Super Mario Bros. was working on The Legend of Zelda at the same time. According tot he developers, they would often remove some aspects of one game and bring them to the other. For example, the spinning fire bars from Super Mario Bros. were initially featured in The Legend of Zelda, though Shigeru Miyamoto decided that they would fit better in Mario's game. The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. were the first games that Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, and Toshihiko Nakago all worked on together as a team. The first part of the game that was added were the dungeons. Then the team suggested that they expand that and add an open world which Link could traverse that would connect all of the dungeons together.

Originally, The Legend of Zelda was being developed as an arcade game before the team decided to release it as the first Famicom Disk System title.

[edit] Mistranslations

There are various mistranslations throughout the game. Those in the intro were fixed in subsequent ports.

Some examples of mistranslations include:

• Prince of Darkness "Ganon" stole the Triforce with power- this was fixed in subsequent ports to "Ganon, prince of darkness, stole the Triforce of Power".
  • There is also a mention of a "Triforce with wisdom", which was also fixed to use the word "of" instead.
• Dodongo dislikes smoke- the phrase should be "Dodongo does not like smoke" or "Dodongo hates smoke".
• Secret is in the tip of the nose- It could possibly be better phrased as "there is a secret at the nose".
• Digdogger hates certain kind of sound- Properly translated as "Digdogger hates a specific sound".
• All of treasures- Subsequent ports omit the "of", though it could also have been simplified to "treasures".

[edit] Release List

• BS Zelda' - Super NES - A downloadable game for the Sattalview.
• Though not available through in-game, you can get this game by cheat device in Animal Crossing, 2002(US)/2001 (Japan)/2004(Other)
• Classic NES Series: The Legend of Zelda - Game Boy Advance, 2004
• The Legend of Zelda: Collectors Edition - Gamecube, 2003
• Wii download - Wii, 2006

[edit] External Links

• The Legend of Zelda at Nintendo.com
• The Legend of Zelda at Virtual Console Reviews