Last week’s much-anticipated debut of Nintendo’s new Wii console also saw the release of an even more
anticipated arrival: the newest Zelda game. For almost 20 years the Legend of
Zelda franchise has been one of the top — if not the top — properties in the video game industry. Mario may have
the sales and number of games, but Link has the near-universal critical and fan
acclaim. In honor of the release of The
Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess, here’s a
look back on Link’s most noteworthy adventures.

The Legend of Zelda: The
original Zelda title arrived for the original
Nintendo system in 1987. Who’d have thought that the adventures of a little
fairy boy trying to rescue an unseen princess from a giant pig monster would
capture the world’s imagination so completely? The basic concepts are all here:
the sword-wielding Link, damsel-in-distress Zelda, big bad Ganon,
complicated dungeons crammed with bizarre monsters, the magical land of Hyrule, and
the all-powerful Triforce. Gamers scoff at the clunky
graphics now, but at the time the game’s scope, difficulty, and sense of
adventure really were revolutionary. And graphics aside, the game’s still a
thrill to play.

Zelda II: The Adventures of Link: Link, now a teen, has to
again save Zelda, who’s kicking it in a coma Sleeping Beauty-style. Released in
1988, the second and final Zelda game
for the original NES was a huge departure from the original, switching from an
overhead angle to a bizarre side-scroller/RPG hybrid.
The game was still a success but is largely considered the worst of the series.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Link got a couple
years off, returning in 1991 on a new, more powerful system to — you guessed
it — once again save Zelda’s bacon. The first and only game released on the
16-bit Super Nintendo switched back to the original Zelda‘s overhead style, but dramatically amped
up the graphics and the breadth of gameplay, as Link
travels between the Light World and the Dark World, mirror images of one
another, and must explore dungeons and perform tasks in both.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: The
first Zelda game for the portable
Game Boy came out in 1993 and continued A
Link to the Past‘s continuity. But in a big shocker, Zelda herself is
nowhere to be found. In this game, Link is shipwrecked on a far-flung island
and needs to free the magical Windfish to get home.
It’s also the first Zelda game to
feature an item-trading side quest, which has become an (often maddening)
staple of the series ever since.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Considered by many gamers
to be the single best game of all time, Ocarina
hit the 64-bit N64 in 1998 and brought Link and Co. into the third
dimension. The game both resets and expands on the series’ mythology, as fairy
boy Link once again sets out to save Zelda and take out Ganon,
but this time goes back and forth through time itself using a magical flute thingie (Zamfir would be proud).
Amazing graphics, a sprawling, fully interactive 3D world, and insanely
creative dungeon puzzles make this a tough game to beat. And did I mention that
it adds a pony for Link and cross-dressing for Zelda? Hot damn!

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: Mask is a direct sequel to Ocarina and features nearly identical
graphics and gameplay, even though it’s set in the
totally separate world of Termina. Sometimes referred
to as the Empire Strikes Back of the
franchise, Mask is a dark, twisted
game in which Link has to relive three days over and over again (using that
time-traveling flute-thing) in order to stop a creepy-looking moon from
literally smashing into the planet. Definitely weird.
In addition to his typical arsenal of swords and arrows, Link also uses a
variety of masks on his quests, some of which transform him into other “races,”
like the water-breathing Zoras.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Another
huge departure for the series, this 2003 entry for the GameCube
abandoned Ocarina and Mask‘s realistic look for a decidedly cartoony, cell-shaded adventure. The result is visually
stunning, with some gorgeous classical Japanese flourishes. With a new look
came a new setting, as this game is set hundreds of years after the previous
games and features a young boy who just happens to be named Link who sails around
a flooded world and gets roped into stopping the machinations of evil dude who
just happens to be named Ganon. The wind-directed
sailing portion of the game is novel at first, but had a tendency to grow
tiresome after a while.

The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess: Apparently another
different Link and Zelda reunite in this new adventure for the Wii and GameCube, in which Hyrule has been overtaken by the Twilight Realm and young
farmer boy Link has to save the world and the princess to boot. The revolutionary
Wii remote completely changes the gameplay
(no more button-pushing to swing your sword; now you actually have to swing your remote to make a cut), and
the game has added a form-changing element as Link becomes a wolf while in the
Twilight Realm.

This article appears in Nov 22-28, 2006.