Because they donāt count the CDi Zelda games, and because they count the repeatedly re-released Ocarina of Time twice, Nintendo promotes a worldview in which 17 [1] Zelda games have been released in the past 25 years.
Iām fine with that.
But I didnāt notice until I was looking at Nintendoās new Zelda history chart today that in the first half of our quarter century of Zelda we only had five Zelda games. In the second 12 1/2 years of the Zelda era, weāve had a dozen more.
Are we fine with that?
People do love their Zelda, and Iām an admitted Zelda outlier. I prefer Majoraās Mask to Ocarina; Spirit Tracks to Phantom Hourglass. I have a hunch that, if I were to go back and play them, Iād prefer Minish Cap to A Link toā¦ oh, who am I kidding? Iām not that much of a contrarian.
How odd (and commercially comprehensible) it is that in 25 years, Zeldas have gone from being rarities to being an annual cascade. But if weirdos like me are going to like the Zeldas a lot of other people are going to say were the weak ones, maybe we need that many to keep folks (those with my refined tastes and those without) happy.
Looking at Nintendoās Zelda history chart, a few other things stand out to me that I also never noticed until now:
1) He stopped using what looks like a Christian shield a long time ago.
2) He changed his hair color.
3) The Zelda releases are slowing down a tad lately, so maybe new ones are going to be rarities again. (Aside from this year sort of being a two-release Zelda year, of course.)
Want more Zeldas? Less?
[1] *Nintendoās Zelda history chart may show 16 spots, but the keen observer will notice that Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages share a spot. ā
