The Legend of Zelda

The Ultimate Video Game Music Cover Band

Award-winning composer and Blizzard dev Jason Hayes has gathered an army of prolific musicians, from session stalwarts to symphony stars to the pianist from freaking Toto, just to do video game music covers under the name Critical Hit. Here’s the first one. It’s pretty amazing. Not to discount the work of the thousands of video…

Do You Have A Real Master Sword? This Guy Does.

Reader Adam had a smith craft him a replica Master Sword. It’s so good I hope he goes and hides it in a temple somewhere. The sword was built by Australian Brendan Olszowy, who stresses “The swords I make are REAL swords. Fully functional. Built for durability, and to perform as a live sword for…

Kanye West Makes Wind Waker HD Infinitely Better

Boy howdy, the ability to take selfies in Wind Waker HD is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it? Just being able to take selfies in of itself is amazing in this game, provided the right commentary, sure. Nevermind when you add hip hop to the selfie mix—yes, we technically already knew how great…

The Guy Behind Zelda Says He Sucks At Mario Games

You might know peppy Nintendo game designer Eiji Aonuma as the man in charge of all things Zelda. You might also know that he came up underneath the tutelage of Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created Mario. But did you know that Aonuma isn’t that good at games featuring the company’s most iconic character? Aonuma’s…

You Might Need Your 3DS If There’s Ever A Legend of Zelda Movie

We all remember the disastrous Super Mario Bros. movie. It’s pretty much the entire reason that Nintendo generally doesn’t put its properties in other media. But, Eiji Aonuma—the guy in charge of all things Zelda—says that if there ever were a film based on the Hero of Hyrule, it couldn’t be just another passive, sit-down-and-watch-it…

The Man In Charge of Zelda Says He Wants to Keep Changing It

Any little change in a Legend of Zelda game—tweaks to established mechanics, a shift in art style or sly nods to a previous iteration—excites and infuriates the players who love Nintendo’s iconic RPG series. Eiji Aonuma knows this and the designer who’s charting the future for the franchise came to New York ready to tease…

Eight Minutes Of Lovely Zelda: Link Between Worlds Gameplay

Today at New York Comic Con, Nintendo didn’t just show a new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds—they demoed some gameplay footage, too. Kotaku video man Chris Person was in attendance at Nintendo’s panel, and he shot a bunch of the item renting, dungeon crawling, and dimension shifting that will characterize…

Slick New Zelda: Link Between Worlds Trailer Introduces ‘Lorule’

It’s not Hyrule—it’s Lorule. Get it? That’s the twisted new dark world that Nintendo will introduce in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which is out for 3DS on November 22. Check out this sleek new trailer for an introduction to Lorule… and someone named Hilda? It’s unclear how Lorule is related to…

Lorde’s ‘Royals’ + The Legend of Zelda = A Sweet Love Song

Ah, young love. Check out this adorable mash-up by Nerdist of the ridiculously catchy ‘Royals’ by Lorde and Zelda—not only is the result charming, but it’s also chock full of references to the Nintendo franchise. I apologize if this gets stuck in your head the rest of the day. At least, the original song—which is…

You Won’t Believe How Many Little Changes Are In Zelda: Wind Waker HD

It’s fascinating, picking up The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for the first time. You get something like culture shock—holy crap, everything’s so bright! The faces are so goofy. Is that really what Link’s grandma looks like? And then… after 10 or 15 minutes, you start to get it. Ah, yes. Here’s why this is…

Zelda Really Is One Of The Classics

Let’s admire this painting of Link by James Zapata. Just…soak it up. It’s the kind of treatment you normally see for the absolute classics of history and mythology. So it’s also the kind of treatment Zelda deserves. We featured Zapata’s work recently on our Fine Art feature. Check it out here Kokiri [James Zapata, via…

Oh Wow, The Next Zelda Will Be Totally Different

No linear dungeon progression in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds—instead of getting items as you go through the world, you’ll be able to buy items in one big shop and traverse between dungeons in an order of your choice, according to Nintendo. Video above. Bizarre, right? And fascinating. I can’t wait to…

Odd Man In Cave: “Stop Naming Princesses Zelda”

A tradition based on a great tragedy that only seems to breed more tragedy? Awkward Spaceship has a point — maybe Hyrule needs to revisit its princess naming policy before everything explodes. There are plenty of perfectly good princess names out there that won’t cause powerful evil to arise and threaten the land. Princess Bubblegum…

Robin Williams Likes Games Other Than The Legend of Zelda, Y’know

Maybe you picked up on the fact that Robin Williams likes The Legend of Zelda—just, you know, based on subtle stuff like being in Zelda commercials and having a daughter named Zelda. But that’s not all he likes, you know! Yesterday, Williams did a fantastic Ask Me Anything on Reddit, where folks asked all about…

Wind Waker’s Link Enters The Smash Bros. Fray, Knocks a Few Heads In

Call him Toon Link, Young Link, it doesn’t matter; Link is one badass swordsman in any shape or form. This new batch of screenshots for Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS shows off what his Wind Waker iteration will look like in action. Here’s seven Wii U shots, in addition to the one on top: And…

Zelda-Themed Animal Crossing Town Is Crazy Impressive

There are impressive Animal Crossing towns, and then there’s this: an incredible recreation of Koholint from the Game Boy game The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, presented as if it’s a dream world of its own. Check out the video—it’s quite well done.

The Best Part of Wind Waker HD Isn’t The Beautiful Visuals

Sure, Wind Waker HD is gorgeous—absurdly so! But if the Twitter account Linkstagram is any indication, the best part of playing Wind Waker HD actually is having the ability to take ridiculous and silly selfies (aka self-portraits). The visuals help in that regard though, sure…but the pictures don’t have to be of anything particularly amazing,…

The Legend of Zelda’s abysmal CD-i adaptation from 20 years ago—Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon—were KGB’d out of Hyrule Historia, the series’ canonical volume. MTV Multiplayer asked series director Eiji Aonuma why, and got a rare comment from Nintendo about one of the worst games of all time.

Before Finally Playing Wind Waker HD, Why Not Enjoy One More Trailer?

As you know, the graphically (and otherwise) upgraded version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker arrives in brick and mortar stores around the US early next month. Good thing there’s also a digital download version which comes out today. So while your Wii U happily chips away at the download in the background,…

Link Almost Had Laser Eyes In Wind Waker

Did you know that the Hero of Time Winds almost shot laser beams out of his eyes? For real. It’s true. When making The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for the GameCube, Team Nintendo had to figure out a way to use the iconic hero’s newly-cartoony eyes, and one possibility came up quickly: laser beams.…