The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is the first game in the Legend of Zelda video game series. Although not the first adventure game, it is credited for perfecting the adventure genre.

Gameplay

The goal of The Legend of Zelda is to collect the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, defeat Ganon and to rescue Zelda. To obtain the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, the player must explore the first eight dungeons in the game then go to the last dungeon to defeat Ganon.

Controls

D Pad: Moves Link around and select your secondary item. Also controls the direction of the boomerang

A:Sword Attack

B:Secondary Item

Start:Brings up the progress screen

Select:Lets you move the cursor on the save select screen and pauses

Save Select

The Legend of Zelda is one of the first if not the very first video game to have a save feature. On the select screen, you can continue your progress, register your name, or eliminate your name. When you register your name, you start a new game and create a name for the file. In elimination mode, you are able to erase one of the files so you are able to start a new game on that file. The numbers below the name of your file represent the number of game overs you had during your quest. The hearts under Life represent the amount of health you currently have in your quest.

Development

The Legend of Zelda and the original Super Mario Bros. were being designed simultaneously by the same development team. They had set out to make the games opposite of one another. Where as Mario would follow a linear pathway, while the Legend of Zelda would have a more open world experience. Miyamoto got the idea of the open world experience from his childhood, where he would go out exploring into the wilderness.Miyamoto was less concerned with Zelda being a game of getting the most points or reaching the end of a linear path. Instead, Miyamoto wanted gamers to relax and enjoy themselves as they made their way through the adventure. It was because of this that some basic gameplay elements, such as communicating with characters and shop owners were included.

The name for Princess Zelda was inspired by Zelda Fitsgerald. Miyamoto stated, "Zelda was the name of the wife of the famous novelist Francis Scott Fitzgerald. She was a famous and beautiful woman from all accounts, and I liked the sound of her name. So I took the liberty of using her name for the very first Zelda title."

On February 21, 1986, the Legend of Zelda released as a launch title for the Famicom Disk System. It was released alongside several other titles including a re-release of Super Mario Bros, along with a number of sports titles.

Story

This story is taken directly from the western localization of the game's instruction manual...

A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos. In the middle of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being banded down from generation to generation, the legend of the "Triforce"; golden triangles possessing mystical powers.

One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Princess Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the cluthes of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? ... But wait!

All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skillfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death. His name was Link. During his travels he had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom together to rebuild the mystical Triangle.

If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived. Can Link really destroy Ganon and save the Princess Zelda? Only your skill can answer that question. Good luck. Use the Triforce wisely.

Reception

The Legend of Zelda placed first in Game Informer's "The Top 200 Games of All Time" list. [3]

Re-Releases

The game has been re-released plenty of times. The game made its way onto the Nintendo Gamecube in "The Legend of Zelda:Collector's Edition" in 2003. The game was also re-released on the GameBoy Advance in 2004 as part of "Classic NES Series." The game has also been ported the Wii's Virtual Console and the game is also part of the Ambassador's Program for the 3DS. All of the ports have an updated translation since the NES version has a very poor translation.

Characters

Main article: The Legend of Zelda Characters

Link
Princess Zelda
Ganon
Impa
Old Man
Old Woman
Merchant

Races

Main article: The Legend of Zelda Races

Enemies

Main article: The Legend of Zelda Enemies

Main article: Gallery of The Legend of Zelda Enemies

- List of enemies that appear in The Legend of Zelda. [show][hide]

• Armos
• Blade Trap
• Boulder
• Bubble
  • Flashing Bubble
  • Red Bubble
  • Blue Bubble
• Darknut
  • Red Darknut
  • Blue Darknut
• Gel
• Ghini
• Gibdo
• Goriya
  • Red Goriya
  • Blue Goriya
• Keese
• Lanmola
  • Red Lanmola
  • Blue Lanmola
• Leever
  • Red Leever
  • Blue Leever
• Like Like
• Lynel
  • Red Lynel
  • Blue Lynel
• Moblin
  • Red Moblin
  • Blue Moblin
• Moldorm
• Octorok
  • Red Octorok
  • Blue Octorok
• Patra
• Peahat
• Pols Voice
• River Zora
• Rope
  • Red Rope
  • Flashing Rope
• Stalfos
• Stone Statue
• Tektite
  • Red Tektite
  • Blue Tektite
• Vire
• Wallmaster
• Wizzrobe
  • Red Wizzrobe
  • Blue Wizzrobe
• Zol
  • Green Zol
  • Black Zol

Bosses

Here is a listing of all of the bosses found within The Legend of Zelda.

Items

Here is a listing of all of the items found within The Legend of Zelda.

Locations

Main article: The Legend of Zelda Locations

Walkthrough

For the Zelda Dungeon walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda click [4]

Merchandise

• This Delta Apparel Link Kneeling Shirt wasn't release at the time of the original Legend of Zelda, but it contains the original games Logo and Official Artwork.