Here’s to 25 Years of Zelda Magic – Part 3

Article first published as Here’s to 25 Years of Zelda Magic – Part 3 on Blogcritics.

Over its 25 year span, The Legend of Zelda has held a place not only within Nintendo consoles, but has seen appearances in a multitude of other media, and has flourished with a huge impact on gaming culture as a whole.

Manga, light novels, TV parodies and even appearances in other companies video games are just some of the cultural effects the Zelda series can hold to its name. Back during Nintendo’s push into the American market, the Legend of Zelda got its own mini cartoon series alongside the Super Mario Super Show. The Link of the series was constantly heard stating the catchphrase “Well Excuuuuse me, Princess” as a reply to an often annoying Zelda character, a catchphrase which became a popular internet meme along with the quote”it’s dangerous to go alone! Take this” from the wise old man of the original game. Considering Link shares the “mute” trait of other famous characters such as Gordon Freeman of the Half Life series, it often seemed out of place to put a voice to him in other media, as it can easily damage the personality he displays as a character who will just nod his head and get on with whatever he needs to do.

Here’s to 25 Years of Zelda Magic – Part 2

Article first published as Here’s to 25 Years of Zelda Magic – Part 2 on Blogcritics.

The Legend of Zelda series quickly became one of Nintendo’s most recognised and influential pieces of work, much like Super Mario and Pokémon. The games have sold in excess of 52 million copies since the original legend began. Link has consistently come out on top of character popularity contests for websites such as IGN and Gamefaqs beating other Nintendo favourites and more modern characters such as Marcus Fenix, Altair and Nathan Drake along the way.

Critically acclaimed, every major title in the Legend of Zelda series has been hailed by fans and critics, A trend which sets the series apart from others. Each release is regularly praised for fantastic musical scores despite the limited audio technology in the earlier platforms in turn with incredible level design and dozens of hours of side quests and collectibles. Ocarina of Time has consistently been recognised as the greatest game of all time with the earlier release of A Link to the Past sharing some of glory for it’s deep landscape. Both Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker have been awarded perfect scores by Japanese gaming mag Famitsu to become the only franchise to be awarded a perfect score across multiple titles. Each of the major 3D titles across the Nintendo home consoles, aside from Majora’s Mask, have received perfect scores by one or more reviewers with 13 of the 15 major releases having aggregate review scores higher than 80%.

Here’s to 25 Years of Zelda Magic – Part 1

Article first published as Here’s to 25 Years of Zelda Magic – Part 1 on Blogcritics.

The ever continuing journey of the Hero of Time in his quest to save Hyrule for returning threats has now, officially passed its 25th birthday. Players have controlled the various iterations of Link for the past two and a half decades fighting to protect the contents of the sacred realm from falling into the wrong hands. Now we take a look back at the series’ history and origin to see the effect Link’s adventures have had on the world (and myself) along with a guess as to what may be on the horizon for the blade-wielding hero.

The Legend of Zelda has spanned over 15 major titles in its 25 year grip on gaming, rarely branching out of the formula which helped to define not only its place in the action/adventure genre but also define the genre itself, we will highlight some of the peculiar direction changes it has attempted in the past.

Nintendo’s 3D Dream: The Story so Far

Article first published as Nintendo’s 3D Dream – The Story so Far on Blogcritics.

Nintendo has long dreamt of bringing 3D to the masses, their 3D focused Virtual Boy console was a short-lived and daring creation which left a sour taste in the mouths of the company and its customers. Now, Nintendo is attempting to make its mark in the midst of the 3D craze, but just how it is working out for them so far?