The Legend of Zelda (Series)

The Legend of Zelda is a video game series that takes place in the fictional Kingdom of Hyrule. The protagonist of the series is Link, a young man who is destined in most of the games to save Hyrule. His goal in most game is to rescue the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda. The antagonist of the series is the Gerudo King of Thieves, Ganondorf, or his alter-ego, Ganon. Some of the games have different antagonists, such as The Wind Mage, Vaati, Onox, and Veran.

The Beginning
Video games were in it's infant stages back in the mid-80's and a relatively small company known as Nintendo was making a run at the video game market. The company, which has originated as a toy and card making company, decided to jump into video games, starting with small games that caught no interest. It wasn't until they let the creative mind of Shigeru Miyamoto join the ranks of the R&D department. It was there that Miyamoto creates some classic games such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and of course, Zelda.

Miyamoto wanted to create a game that challenges the gamers mind with puzzles and a rich atmosphere. He created The Legend of Zelda in February, 1986 (in Japan; July, 1987 in USA) for the Famicom Entertainment System (Nintendo Entertainment System in USA) and it became an instant classic. The game was set in a land of Hyrule and a young man dressed in green set on an adventure to save the Princess by recovering a mystical item known as the Triforce. The game started the series and introduced all the major elements known to all Zelda fans.

The instant success of the game sparked a sequel less than a year later. In January, 1987 (in Japan; 1988 in USA), The Adventure of Link was released. Instantly, it came under heat by gamers. Instead of the overhead view the original had given fans, the sequel was more of a side-scroller, like that of Mario. Fans alike usually disregard Zelda II as a Zelda game because of this reason.

Jump to Super Famicom
Video games were becoming more and more popular among the community. The NES was an 8-bit system, the most simpliest form of graphics for a console. In 1989, rival company Sega, released the Sega Genesis, a 16-bit system. Unfortunately, Nintendo decided to linger on the 8-bit system far to long, but eventually in 1990 (Japan, 1991 in USA), Nintendo released the SNES, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console boosted the amount of colors available. With that, A Link to the Past was released.