The 20th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda
by Taylor Carik

Goddamn, we're getting old.

If you're a twenty- or thirty-something who has yet to feel any anxiety about the onset of old age, here's a fact that might do it for you: on Feb. 21st, 1986, the first version of Nintendo's the Legend of Zelda was released.

That was 20 years ago.

For those folks who neither predated nor partook in the home gaming console revolution (1974-present), Zelda's anniversary may not seem all that significant. And really, the holiday is as much about Nintendo's salesmanship as nostalgia, since Nintendo and the King of Games are celebrating by releasing commemorative 8-bit figures of Link and the monsters, back when they were just a squat little guys.

Such salesmanship is of course to be expected — it's a large part of what so deeply ingrained video games into our upbringing. Along with other successful Nintendo games, Zelda is no stranger to cartoon crossovers or product tie-ins. There were Zelda sheets and Zelda garbage cans. There was the Zelda cereal (it was actually pretty gross). And on Fridays, "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show" that had Captain Lou Albano as Mario would change it up with Zelda cartoon instead of the Mario Twins.

In video game terms, however, Zelda is... well, legendary. It was really the first game to pioneer locating, either through discovering or purchasing, objects for strategic use in the course of game play. G4 magazine even went so far as to declared it the best video game of all time. And although all-time lists always draw dissention, Zelda inarguably sits among the other greats in the pantheon of early NES games, an assembly that includes such well-known and well-loved games as Super Mario Brothers, Metroid, Megaman, Tetris, Contra, Super Tecmo Bowl and on and on.

And with these memorable games, the Nintendo console saw such success that Nintendo also started its own monthly promotional and informational magazine, Nintendo Power, which this month celebrates its 200th issue.

Although Zelda was first played two decades ago, it's only been a few years since my last quest through Hyrule to capture and assemble the sacred Triforce. My roommate at the time borrowed an "old school" Nintendo and a few games from his then girlfriend, and we spent most of our free time revisting the avocations of our youth.

But as we fell back in love with the game console, his relationship fell to the wayside. And before we knew it, the relationship was on the rocks. Unfortunately, we had — for several weeks — been trying in vain to defeat the last dungeon. Only we couldn't. So we asked around and were shocked at how many people remembered that we needed to find the flute in order to drain the lake and get the extra armor, "otherwise it's going to be impossible." So that meant that even though he and the girlfriend wanted to part ways, we needed the relationship to go on for at least another week.

Did my buddy put off breaking up with a girl just so we could finish Zelda? Yep. That's how good of a game the first Zelda is. And that's why, even if you don't get into video games, you should celebrate Zelda's legacy. That is, of course, unless you feel too old.

E-mail Taylor Carik at cari0021 at umn dot edu.