The Legend of Zelda

Takaya Imamura, The Man Who Designed Tingle, Has Retired From Nintendo

In his three decades at Nintendo, Takaya Imamura worked on some of the company’s most iconic games, including F-Zero, Star Fox, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. He also designed Tingle, and for that, we will be forever grateful. Today, on his Facebook page, Imamura uploaded a selfie taken outside Nintendo’s Kyoto headquarters and…

How The Past Year Got Me Thinking Of Post Apocalyptic Games In A New Light

Almost every day, I go for a walk with my kid. She’s just over two. There’s a strange serenity in the isolation of entire city blocks when there’s so few people out and about. In the first few months of the pandemic, it felt like we were walking through an abandoned city. I’ve lived in…

This Incredible Link’s Awakening Song Is Actually From Its Commercial

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s frequent hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s column is all about a reinvigorating classic that didn’t actually make it into the game it was used to promote. Link’s Awakening (playlist /longplay /VGMdb) is one of the greatest games in the Legend of…

Nothing Takes Me Back To 1987 Like The Legend Of Zelda

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s object of aural inquiry requires no introduction, so what am I even writing here? Let’s get to it. Sometimes I’ll think back to a fascinating music/gaming/cultural scene and think, “damn, I wish I had been…

Two Of The Worst Zelda Games Have Been Recreated On The PC

Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon were the first two of three Zelda games Nintendo published on the ill-fated Philips CD-i system in the early 90s. They are very bad—so bad Nintendo doesn’t recognise them as series canon—but they’ve still got a certain charm to them, and so this fan effort to rebuild them…

We Wrote The Greatest Horror Movie Twist Of All Time (Using Video Game Characters)

It is once again almost that time: Tomorrow, the scary day will be upon us. In light of that, we did not talk about horror games/movies on this week’s episode of Splitscreen—that would be too obvious. Instead, we made our own. (Also, we talked about things in non-horror games that terrify us and a bunch…

A Return To The The Legend Of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time Reminded Me Why It’s Special

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time is widely considered not just one of the greatest games in the Zelda series, but one of the best games of all time. The 1998 Nintendo 64 game felt vast. It’s story was epic. It made controlling a character in 3D space feel intuitive. It was Zelda…

New Hyrule Warriors Is A Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Prequel, Arrives In November

Nintendo’s not ready to tell us more about the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but they’re fine springing a surprise prequel on us. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, due out November 20 for the Switch, is a hack-and-slash RPG set 100 years before Breath of the Wild. Developed by Koei…

After a year of Apple Arcade exclusivity, Cornfox & Brothers’ Zelda-riffic sequel, Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm, is coming to Nintendo Switch this fall. Where the original Oceanhorn is more of a Windwaker-esque affair, Oceanhorn 2 is a full-on open-world action RPG shades of Breath of the Wild.

New History Novel Somehow Includes Breath Of The Wild Recipe

A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom is the latest historical novel from Irish author John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). Telling tales from across the breadth of human history, it deals with a lot of stuff that was real and actually happened, as well as some stuff that has only happened if…

Mario Modder Creates All-New Zelda Game In Ocarina Of Time’s Engine

Kaze Emanuar, who we normally post about thanks to his astounding work modding Mario games, has with the help of some friends only gone and made an all-new Legend of Zelda game. It’s called The Missing Link, and has been made in the Ocarina of Time Engine. Set in between Ocarina and Majora’s Mask, it…

A Link Between Worlds Is Still A Zelda Like No Other

I’m a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but I hadn’t played all the way through its direct sequel on the Nintendo 3DS, A Link Between Worlds, until recently. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like it more than the original. At first glance, A Link to…

Sudoku Plus Zelda Is Actually Pretty Good

I’m not going to lie, sudoku isn’t my cup of tea. I like watching clever people solve these numbers-based puzzles, sure, but it’s not something I go out of my way to do in my free time. When I stumbled upon an elaborate sudoku puzzle based on The Legend of Zelda, however, I found myself…

Retro Nintendo Games Come To Life With A Violin

Of course, violins are used in making modern game music, but I didn’t know how good the instrument was at bringing to life retro game scores. YouTuber Teppei Okada has been playing game scores on the violin, such as F-Zero. Super Mario Bros. The Legend of Zelda. What makes his covers so cool is that…

Wind Waker’s Ending Was Incredibly Badass

My kids have started playing Wind Waker recently—for the record, my favourite game of all time—and it’s been a joy seeing them encounter everything for the first time. Gasping at Aryll’s abduction, laughing at the Killer Bees, screaming “this stealth level is the worst I hate it”. I wonder, though, what they’ll make of the…

Majora’s Mask Still Hits Hard 20 Years Later

The Legend of the Zelda: Majora’s Mask is 20 years old. It’s been the dawn of the final day for two decades, and looking back after all this time reveals one of the most interesting games of its time. It’s creative use of limited assets led to an experience drenched in anxiety. Existential, human, experimental.…

Link To The Past’s Hyrule Recreated In Animal Crossing

That is a lot of terraforming. VaynMaanen has taken their regular Animal Crossing island of Forsena and completely transformed it into the Link to the Past version of Zelda’s Hyrule, from towns to waterfalls to mountains. That is, uh, a lot of work, but it also looks fantastic, not just as a homage, but just…

Legend Of Zelda Keycaps For Heroic Keyboards

All keyboards have letters. Most have numbers and arrows. A keyboard sporting GMK Hero, an upcoming keycap set inspired by The Legend of Zelda, can have all of those plus hearts, shields, swords, ocarinas, bombs, and hookshots. It’s like having a hero’s arsenal at your fingertips. Designed by Geekhack heroes mkljfox44 and ogWalker, the GMK…

How Speedrunners Can Now Beat Ocarina of Time In Under Eight Minutes

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the most beloved games of all time, has always had a devoted community of speedrunners—people who try to complete the game as quickly as humanly possible. Ocarina of Time, released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, usually takes around 20-30 hours to finish. Using bugs and…

After Confessing To Playing 300 Hours Of Breath Of The Wild, St. Vincent Realizes She’s Played 300 Hours Of Breath Of The Wild

The above picture is of indie rock artist St. Vincent from a recent interview with Variety. It’s also the face of someone who would rather be playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild than admitting how many hundreds of hours they’ve already spent with it. Variety’s interview with the infamously enigmatic St. Vincent…