Originally released for the Nintendo Famicom in Japan in February of 1986, the Legend of Zelda would later be released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. It would go on to not only become the sixth best-selling game for the console in the United States, but it would be an influential video game title that would spark one of the most successful and most popular video game franchises in history.
Here are 6 facts about one of the most popular video game franchise of all-time – the Legend of Zelda.
6 Legend of Zelda Facts
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- Koji Kondo, the legendary creator of many famous gaming soundtracks, is responsible for The Legend of Zelda soundtracks. (source) Koji Kondo is a longtime music composer for many classic and very popular video game titles, including Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the past.
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- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game ever in the series. (source) Released in 2017 as one of the console’s launch titles, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the 4th best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch as of 2022, and is also the best-selling title ever for the Legend of Zelda series. With 25.80 million copies sold as of 2022, it sits only behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. as one of the hottest games for the Nintendo Switch.
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- Both The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario were created by the same person. (source) Shigeru Miyamoto is the creator of the Legend of Zelda series, and has been a game designer, director and producer at Nintendo since 1977. Miyamoto is responsible for creating several of Nintendo’s most popular gaming franchises, including the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Star Fox, Pikmin and Donkey Kong.
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- Indiana Jones and Peter Pan were both big inspirations for the Legend of Zelda. (source) The creator of the Legend of Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto, is a big fan of Disney, hence the similar look between Link and Peter Pan. Also, Miyamoto had said in reference to the Indiana Jones films, that he “wanted to bring that sense of adventure to a video game.”
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- The largest Legend of Zelda memorabilia collection in the world has over 1,800 items. (source) Anne Martha Harnes of Norway, as of 2016, boasted the largest Legend of Zelda collection of memorabilia in the entire worth, with a recorded 1,816 items.
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- Princess Zelda’s name has an interesting inspiration. (source) Despite being created in Japan, creator Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed in the past that Princess Zelda was actually named after novelist and feminist Zelda Fitzgerald, who was also the wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Legend of Zelda is undoubtedly one of the most famous and best-selling video game series in history. What other fun facts can you share with us?
Featured image photo credit: GogDog, 2011. Originally found on Flickr.com. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 2.0.
