My Top 100: #44 – The Legend of Zelda

1986 – Nintendo (NES, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Virtual Console, eShop)

 

What can be said about The Legend of Zelda that hasn’t been said already?  The number of innovations this title brought to the genre have helped cement its place in gaming history.  The map was filled with secrets, and though you had to acquire certain items or accomplish certain feats to progress, there was still that sense of freedom that encouraged you to progress however you wanted to.

You could also start a game, explore for hours, then not have to worry about losing all your progress when you shut off your NES.  Incredible!

Also, it was shiny.  Shiny is always fun.

The first Zelda was one of those games that, even though I enjoyed it tremendously, I never actually asked for it as a present.  Maybe I was too wrapped up in newer games, or maybe it just didn’t rank high on my G-A-S scale, I’m not sure.  I did manage to snag a used copy when I was in high school, but the gold on the cartridge was in pretty rough shape.  With all the black splotches on it, you’d think it had gone through a fire, or something.

At that point, my NES’ was wearing out quite a bit, and my N64 and PlayStation were taking up most of my time anyway.  The used and abused Zelda cartridge would sit in my collection without getting much use.

 

 

Fast-forward to the end 2003…  nine years ago.  Gross.

As usual, I kept an eye on any interesting upcoming releases by going to the GameSpot website.  One day, I saw the headline “Nintendo announces The Legend of Zelda Collector’s Edition Bundle“, and my heart sank.  I had purchased a GameCube only a few months earlier!  Why couldn’t I have waited just those few extra months?  Why—ohhh why did Nintendo do this to me??

I kept reading the article through my jealousy, and discovered that aside from being an exclusive pack-in with the GameCube, you could register certain games online – ones I had no interest in owning – or get a subscription to Nintendo Power, and get the game that way…  hmm.  That seemed like a decent option, actually.

Why the heck not???  I whipped out my credit card, dialed up the folks at NP and made sure I got hooked up with the Collector’s Edition disc.  I barely cared about the magazines I’d be getting – I’d finally get to play Zelda on a platform that worked for me!  No more ROMs for this guy!  I wanted to play on a bigger screen, and it would look fantastic on the new 27″ TV in my bedroom.  Whoo!

I got the disc (and my first new NP in years) in the mail that November, and I got a reminder of just how badly my 8-bit gaming skills had diminished.  That didn’t matter to me – I was just so happy to hear that great music again, to find all the secrets I remembered, and to go through those challenging dungeons one more time.  So happy, in fact, that I ignored that weekend’s NASCAR season finale and played the game all weekend long.

I finally got to experience The Wind Waker with the on-disc demo, and actually enjoyed it quite a bit!  That was a shock, because I had never played a demo before that actually made me want to buy the full game.  Well done, Nintendo.

It was also the first time I ever got to play Majora’s Mask, and…  erm…  while it’s certainly not bad, it’s definitely not countdown-worthy!

 

One of the most collect-ey things in my collection.

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