Today marks a pretty significant anniversary in the videogame industry– the Japanese release of The Legend of Zelda.
The game first launched in Japan on the Famicom’s new disc drive. It utilized its superior sound and space to make a game that wasn’t quite like anything before it. There was no point system, a bit of a story and an objective to boot. Playing as Link (or whatever you wanted to name him), gamers were dropped in the fantasy world of Hyrule. A kingdom in disarray after the evil pig-demon-person-thing Ganon steals the Triforce of Power, and sets his sights on the Triforce of Wisdom. The Princess Zelda then shatters it and the pieces fall across the kingdom.
Now this anniversary is for the Japanese release. The gold cartridge didn’t hit North American shores until almost a year and a half later. And the title became the first Nintendo game to sell over a million copies. In fact it surpassed 6.5 million, and hit the number one spot in Nintendo Power’s “Top 30” section, and in the Magazine’s final issue, it ranked as their 12th favourite game of all time.
