The History Of Zelda
 

From: www.eurogamer.net

Writing a Legend of Zelda retrospective might not seem like a particularly arduous undertaking; there's so much history attached to the Zelda series, and so much to be said about it, that the words should surely just fly onto the page.

The challenge is in finding anything to say about them that hasn't been said before. This feature started out as a simple history, but unfortunately it soon emerged that such pieces are even more uninteresting to write than they are to read.

Anybody can wander onto Wikipedia and find out when a particular game was released, how it was received and what its key features were - I would hope that this article, which should whet your appetite for Eurogamer's imminent review of Twilight Princess, delivers a more subjective and (with any luck) more entertaining viewpoint than that, even if you disagree with every word of it.

There are some omissions; add-ons, spin-offs and expansions like Zelda BS, the infamous Philips CD-i games and Link's Awakening DX are not chronicled (trust me, this article is long enough as it is), and there are no sales figures or statistics or lists of different versions and cartridge colours. I genuinely believe that the Zelda series is a bit more interesting than that. Where some games embody particular genres and some particular themes, Zelda has always defied categorisation.

These games are not RPGs, they are not puzzlers, they are not purely action games, they are not anything in particular; they are entirely themselves. It's this singular identity, on top of their ingenuity, spark and sheer character, that makes these games worthy of our respect, attention and, in so many cases, adoration.

Zelda titles mark some of the most significant milestones in the history and development of videogames, and they are also the reason that thousands of people (myself included) got into gaming in the first place - they have enchanted generation after generation with their imagination, playfulness, beguiling innocence and enthralling, enticingly secretive virtual worlds.

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