Some of the wonderful things we've written about The Legend of Zelda over the years
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It's remarkable to me how a series like Zelda, which stretches back to the beginning of gaming time, can somehow be more popular now than ever. Breath of the Wild sold an order of magnitude higher than any previous Zelda game, even the really famous ones, and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom looks poised to surpass that. It's terribly exciting!
Given Zelda's importance to gaming, it's no surprise we've written quite a damn lot about it over the years - and we've been around for a while now. So I thought I'd go spelunking into the archives and try to resurface some of those pieces for you. Here, then, for your convenience, are some of the loveliest Zelda pieces we've written.
Apparently Omar Hafeez-Bore only writes about Zelda, I am now discovering! But if you've read his breathless love-letter to Zelda trailers, then you'll already know how entertaining he can be on the subject. An given his general Zelda excitement, it probably won't surprise you to hear Zelda Wind Waker inspired Omar to build a boat. Like, for real.
There's something deeper in his piece reminiscing about living with Breath of the Wild for three months, though. It reflects on a life spent with Zelda, which I'm sure many of you can relate to. Funnily enough, though, BOTW is not his favourite Zelda game. That honour goes to Skyward Sword, which, yes, he's well aware is a controversial pick.
Former editor Oli has written a lot about Zelda for us too. He's reviewed many of the mainline games - Breath of the Wild, Skyward Sword, Wind Waker HD, Majora's Mask 3D - but he also took the time to do things like return to Ocarina of Time's infamous Water Temple 20 years on to discover if it was really as bastard hard as he remembered it. And Ocarina is one of those games we've had other writers go back to too, such is the place it holds in people's hearts, though sometimes it's because new secrets about the game have come to light.
It was during Oli's tenure, in 2016, that he plus other Eurogamer Zelda fans Donlan, Tom, Martin and Johnny tried to decide upon a Top 10 Zelda games list. Naturally, we knew you wouldn't agree, so we also gave you your chance to vote on your favourite Zelda games. Note that Breath of the Wild hadn't come out at that point and presumably it would feature highly (very highly) on both lists now.
We've more than made up for the lack of Breath of the Wild on those lists with the pieces we've written since, though. We've had Ellie Gibson equating her enjoyment of Breath of the Wild to her enjoyment of Love Island, as you do - well, as only she can do; we've named Breath of the Wild one of our Games of the Decade; we've talked about how BOTW fixed open-world games and how it's a Zelda game for a Minecraft generation, and how it learnt a lot from many PC games that came before it.
Breath of the Wild has also pushed our thoughts wider, to things like weaponry in games, or photography in games - "Did you know that in 2015 more people died while taking selfies than were killed in deadly shark attacks?" Wrote Simon Parkin in that piece. We've even delved deep into Celtic mythology to discover more about Epona, and many other things, and we've had an archaeologist examine Breath of the Wild's archaeology, and the storytelling it does through it.
But Breath of the Wild isn't the only Zelda game, you know! Why, we've a whole History of Zelda to catch you up, should you need it. We've also thought about the origins of the series while ruminating on an unforgettable 25th anniversary orchestral performance of the music from it.
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Perhaps you remember some of the DS Zelda games, like Spirit Tracks? Or maybe you go back further and it's Minish Cap that you think gets overlooked. Link's Awakening? It did get an excellent Switch remake recently, after all.
I bet it's more likely a game like Majora's Mask that keeps coming back to your mind, the darkest of the Zelda games - and the Zelda game with the saddest song in all the series. Wherever your mind goes with Zelda, it's impossible to ignore the effect it's had on games and gaming. You can even see traces of Dark Souls way back in the original Legend of Zelda.
And we've been lucky enough to talk to the leader of so many of the brilliant Zelda games, Eiji Aonuma, a few times. We first spoke to him back in 2009, in an interview that charted Aonuma's childhood memories of games, then traced a line through Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask and beyond (there was a video, too, but I don't know where it is now). Then in 2013, Oli met Aonuma, to talk about the Wind Waker revival and Skyrim, among other things, before Tom met Aonuma in 2017, this time in the build up to Breath of the Wild.
That's by no means everything but it'll do for now, and I hope there's something that grabs your attention. Oh, and remember, we have loads of Zelda guides, both for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (which is expanding as you read this).