Slashdot this morning has one of those articles that makes you feel old just looking at it. One of those milestone articles where you look back and go, "no, it can't be." And it is, and the gap of 20 years comes rushing at you in a cold, merciless whoosh.
"The Legend of Zelda" videogame series turns 20 today. For those of you not versed in gaming lore, it's safe to say two things: 1) The Zelda franchise is Shigeru Miyamoto's third smash creation (after Donkey Kong and Mario) and 2) Zelda not only helped ensure Nintendo's success in America, but it's also one of the best franchises in video gaming history. While Mario saved the video game industry in the 1980s, Zelda gave it style.
Why? It's the reason why the Lord of the Rings films worked. Strip away all the magic and monsters, and it's about heart. A young child (all named Link) is picked every generation to defeat the encroaching forces of evil, and the player (you) controls Link on his epic quest, which encompasses moments of awe, terror, and even humor (go hit a chicken with your sword a few times, see what happens). Zelda games work in that everything makes its own sense. You get a living, breathing world where (as found in good novels) the stakes constantly get raised, until you have to take on the evil that's just about to win. People hear about your deeds, respond to you as the good guy, giving you (the player) a sense of rising from obscurity to some fabled status that only the best and most noble reach. In short, you are the hero, the one true force of good in the world, and you are enchanted with this purpose to rise to meet the evil. It's the fever dream of all of us wandering in some mundane life to have just one moment where we make a difference, saving the world and winning the girl along the way. We become Link, and we carry Link's task of saving his pastoral Hyrule each and every time a new Zelda game hits shelves.
You want to know how good this game series is? I've been playing behind one deck or another since the Atari 2600, and "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is the only game that made me tear up at the end. I didn't want to wave goodbye to a tried-and-true companion as he floated up and away from my Link. I wanted to see what came next, to turn an invisible page and continue on. But like all good stories, it has to end. And like all those good books, you go back to the beginning, ready to begin the quest again, taking those first steps to be a hero and set things right. In the end, that's why the Zelda franchise will live beyond what's temporarily hot and hip. In video gaming today, it's cool to be an anti-hero, a gangsta, a brooding killer....and yet gaming message boards are ablaze with anticipation over the upcoming (and oft-delayed) Zelda title "Twilight Princess." Why? Simple. It goes back to something any Zelda title gives you in that unspoken way.
Why play the thug when you can be the hero?
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