Links

"When the young lad took out his sword, he split into four separate beings."

- Four Swords Adventures manual

This is just the name for more than one Link. In Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap, Link splits into more than one of himself, thus Links. These Links also are identical to The Wind Waker Link character's appearance, commonly known as Toon Link.

So far, the series has used the Links for games that include multiplayer, with the exception of The Minish Cap, which is a single player adventure like the rest of the series.

Links may also refer to the many different incarnations of Link which have appeared in the various games in The Legend of Zelda series, many of which have been identified as different individuals.

Four Swords
These Links made their first appearance in Four Swords. In this game, the Links made their appearance when Link pulled out the Four Sword. Each of the players takes control of a Link, and when one obtains an item, that Link is the only one to have it. The Links have to work together to get to where Princess Zelda is held, Vaati's Palace of Winds.

The Minish Cap
During the adventure, Link empowers and reforges the Picori Blade into the White Sword, with the Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind Elements. Upon the addition of each new element in the Elemental Sanctuary, Link gained the ability to split into a new copy of himself at certain tiles. The other three Links would disappear upon taking damage. Each of the resulting clones were apparitions wearing the exact green tunic. The tiles set the formations in which the clones would aid Link in fight bosses such as Gyorg Pair and Vaati.

Four Swords Adventures
The use of all four Links is available from the start in Hyrulian Adventures mode, but depends on the number of players in Shadow Battle. In a single player game, the Links can fight in preset Battle Formations (Cross, Wide, Long, Box). The formations are also used to solve puzzles and push blocks. Although the Link donning the green tunic is the default leader, the option exists to use any to lead the others.

Battle Modes
The Battle Mode versions of the four Links serve only as Nintendo's manner of delivering a multiplayer using Link as the fighter for each player. Despite the clever artwork depicting Red Link using a Fire Rod and Blue Link using Bombs, the colored tunics offer no differing set of skills.

Phantom Hourglass
This two player Battle Mode only uses the red and blue tunic colors and players are assigned randomly. While playing as Link, certain cloning items can be picked up to generate another exact copy which will run in the opposite direction, potentially luring the Phantoms away.

''Spirit Tracks
Links also make an appearance in the multiplayer mode in Spirit Tracks, and were used to differentiate up to 4 different players.

Trivia

 * Each of the four Links' tunics match up to one of the colors of the elements which forged the Four Sword.
 * In the manga of Four Swords Adventures, each Link has his own personality: Green is focused and motivated, Blue is hotheaded and aggressive, Red is innocent and optimistic, and Violet is calm, cool, and collected.
 * Although in The Minish Cap Link's clones retain the Green Tunic when he splits, drinking an Oracle Charm has the effect of changing the original Link's tunic alone to either Red, Blue or Purple, depending on the type. This is reminiscent of his appearance in Four Swords.