Happy 40th Anniversary to The Legend of Zelda and welcome to another episode of the Zelda Universe Podcast. This month, Connor, Jason, and Joshua begin the festivities by looking at some unique variations in releases of “The Adventure of Link,” and then take it’s most iconic enemy to its most recent showing in Hyrule Warriors.…
Though the industry has gotten much better at it these days, it has always been a struggle for video games to make their way out of their country of origin. Back when the internet was less prevalent, it generally took a lot more time for video games to go through the neccessary localization and translation…
Welcome to the September edition of The Zelda Universe Podcast. In this episode, Connor and new Features writer Alex discuss Fi and Skyward Sword before looking at the Goddess Din’s influence on Hyrule then looking at an age where everything – even Zelda – was getting a board game. They are then joined by Jason…
Nintendo has released the official soundtrack for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on the Nintendo Music app, featuring both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom Disk System versions. Both editions will take you about 16 minutes of listening time, but interestingly, the NES version offers 20 tracks while the Famicom version features 19,…
Nintendo hasn’t shyed away from making live-action commercials that feature animated segments and even utilizing puppets for their ads. While some of their commercials were great, others weren’t. This creativity has led one animator and Zelda fan in particular, Capsyst Animations, to turn the artwork from a Zelda II instruction booklet into a full-blown animated…
Though we have been blessed with the official Zelda timeline to make sense of the chronology between the games within the Zelda Series, it is actually pretty difficult to make definitive connections between the different games. For example, though Twilight Princess technically takes place directly after Ocarina of Time, landmarks like Death Mountain and Lake…
It’s no secret that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link has divided more fans of the series than almost any other entry. Being such a drastic change from the original game, and so dissimilar to the many entries that followed it, this reception is understandable. Zelda II is a demanding game: it demands attentiveness, planning,…
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a pretty dark game; after all, every time the player loses their last Link vanishing into a pit or under an Iron Knuckle’s blade, they are met with the nightmarish laugh of a gloating, risen Ganon. Yet, even in those moments of defeat, players only find themselves back…
As anyone working in the arts and creative industries knows, ideas often interact with other ideas to germinate new ones, and sometimes ignite with enormous success. Such ideas include J.R.R Tolkein’s critically acclaimed The Lord of the Rings novel trilogy, written between 1937 and 1949. The high fantasy trilogy has long been considered a staple…
Remember in my last column when I mentioned that The Legend of Zelda merchandise was scarce in the 80s? Well, figurines were even harder to come by. By hard, I mean there were virtually none except for a series of Nintendo trophy figures, which were essentially a set of dioramas featuring multiple games, including The…
It’s no secret to anyone that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is hard. The tricky part about that, though, is the question of if it’s hard hard or just NES hard. Back when the Adventure of Link released in late 1988 as the much anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda, it was in…
Many of The Legend of Zelda games have a ghost town as a featured location. Hyrule Castle Town in the adult timeline of Ocarina of Time is probably a classic example, along with the Hidden Village in Twilight Princess. One of the central images of Breath of the Wild is the decaying buildings of an…
A fresh batch of Nintendo Switch profile icons have appeared, this time promoting the newly released Switch game Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. Close to twenty different styles are available to choose from featuring classic Nintendo Entertainment System games like the very first Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and of course The Legend of Zelda. Now…
This Nintendo Direct delivered quite a bit of pulled punches for Zelda fans that included an immediate Nintendo Switch Online release of A Link to the Past and Four Swords for the Game Boy Advance, a graceful golden Zelda themed Switch Lite, and an all-new 2D Legend of Zelda game that is being released this…
The Legend of Zelda series has a rich history spanning multiple decades, with each installment adding new layers to the lore and gameplay. While many of these games have stood the test of time, several titles could benefit from the remaster treatment. Whether it’s to update the graphics, improve gameplay mechanics, or introduce new features,…
