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Zelda's hidden history on handhelds
Join us on a journey through the archives to discover the lost legend of Zelda's portable outings.
Zelda's hidden history on handhelds
© Nintendo
Zelda is back, and not just on Wii U. Alongside a HD debut in The Wind Waker, our hero Link is hitting pockets around the world with a new entry on Nintendo 3DS, A Link Between Worlds.
The direct sequel to the SNES classic A Link To The Past, it ditches the 3D third person viewpoint we’ve grown accustomed to over the years for an old school top-down 2D perspective gamers will fondly remember from their youth.
It’s far from the first retro-inspired Zelda game on handhelds however. While the series has proven Nintendo’s Master Sword in the home console battle, it’s had just as illustrious a history on handhelds, even in that long forgotten time before the mighty Game Boy.
Here, we trace the legendary franchise’s lesser known handheld history, from humble monochrome beginnings to dual-screen domination.
Humble Beginnings: Game & Watch
Even before Nintendo cooked up the massively popular Game Boy line, Zelda was already gobbling up players’ spare time as part of the company's Game & Watch series. Technologically crude by modern standards, these pocket-sized titles were revolutionary for the time, wielding dual-screens and directional pads in an era where the idea of a game in your pocket rather than the arcade was all but unknown.
Released in 1989, the Zelda Game & Watch was one of the final big-name entries in the series before the Game Boy arrived and rendered solo LCD portables largely redundant. Even so, it remains an impressive achievement: the side-scrolling action gameplay was divided between the upper and lower screens, with the top display also holding a inventory section. Around the same time, Nintendo licensed the Zelda name to American firm Nelsonic, which produced a wrist watch edition of Zelda that crams in top-down hack-and-slash gameplay more akin to the full-blown NES title. Got one gathering dust on the shelf? Collectors are now snapping them up on eBay for more than a few rupees.
The awakening of Link
By the early 90s, the Game Boy had become a phenomenon, and Nintendo cashed in with high quality portable outings for all of its key franchises, including Zelda. Based on the visual style of SNES hit A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening managed to overcome the limitations of the console's blurry green and black display to deliver one of the most engaging and enjoyable instalments in the history of the series.
Link's awakening
© Nintendo
The visuals and sound were both stunning for the time, and the quest more than a match for the 16-bit edition. The game would receive a remaster of sorts when the Game Boy Color launched in 1998; Link's Awakening DX boasted colour graphics and new content. It goes to show just how beloved the title is that Nintendo chose it to be the killer app to sell its new console half a decade after its original release.
Capcom takes over
The Game Boy Color needed more than just a rehash though - fans wanted a new instalment, and Nintendo knew it. Unusually, the Japanese giant turned to Capcom - yep, the folks behind Street Fighter - to create two new adventures, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, both of which offered a gripping quest in their own right, but when combined allowed the player to gain access to the 'proper' conclusion.
Both titles are considered series classics, despite the fact that they were made by an third-party studio. As the name suggests, Seasons changes dramatically depending of the current season, with pathways only becoming accessible at certain times, while Ages plays the same trick, but with time - a similar mechanic to the one seen in Link to the Past, where the player skips between two different periods to solve puzzles.
Having done such an excellent job with the Game Boy Color titles, Capcom was entrusted with the next handheld Zelda project: a port of the esteemed SNES entry, Link to the Past. While the base game was little different from its domestic parent, the cartridge also included the multiplayer title Four Swords. Taking place in randomised dungeons where the objective is to be the player with the most Rupees by the end, Four Swords has since been adapted for the GameCube and Nintendo's DSiWare service. In a move which predates the recent trend for second-screen gameplay by a decade, the GameCube version allowed players to use their Game Boy Advance as a controller via a special link cable.
Map of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
© Nintendo
However, Link to the Past and Four Swords were merely appetisers for Capcom's main course: a brand-new Zelda adventure for the Game Boy Advance called Minish Cap, which landed in 2004. In Four Swords there was an item called the Gnat Hat which allowed the player to shrink and enter small spaces - in Minish Cap, this becomes the game's central mechanic. Showcasing some of the best 2D graphics yet witnessed in the series, Minish Cap gives players the chance to explore the world in two ways - full-sized and tiny, the latter of which allows you to enter tiny spaces or quest through the undergrowth.
Touching a new era
With the arrival of the dual-screen DS console, Nintendo shifted its focus from 2D visuals to full-on 3D. 2007's Phantom Hourglass employed the same art style as Wind Waker but employed an intuitive touchscreen control system which saw you bossing Link around with the stylus.
Back in 2007, this was genuinely groundbreaking - and tellingly, gamers struggled to acclimatise. Experienced today, it's clear to see just how ahead of the game Nintendo's designers were. The second DS title retained the touch controls but placed Link behind the wheel of a train. 2009's Spirit Tracks swaps out the nautical theme for railroads, making the game feel totally unique in the Zelda canon.
3D or not 3D?
For the first Zelda entry on the 3DS, Nintendo decided to reimagine the N64 classic Ocarina of Time for a whole new audience. Employing the handheld’s 3D screen to impressive effect, the remake gave what many consider to be the high point of the entire franchise a new depth - literally.
Packed with rearranged dungeons taken from the GameCube Master Quest version and blessed with touchscreen inventory management, Ocarina of Time 3D is the definitive version of Link's epic adventure - no small feat when you consider how highly the home console version is rated.
Which brings us neatly to the present, and the next handheld Zelda. A first for the series, A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS takes place in the same world as Link to the Past - something Nintendo’s previously avoided, preferring instead to transplant familiar characters to new worlds and locations. The overworld is just as you remember it, with the same buildings and locations - but the enemies and dungeons buried underneath are very different.
The game also represents a major change in gameplay: instead of securing special items in each dungeon, you can "rent" them all from the outset, aa mechanic which radically changes the blueprint laid down by Link to the Past two decades ago. By marrying the familiar with the unfamiliar, A Link Between Worlds feels like an entirely fresh adventure, but packs a nostalgic quality that’ll bring a smile to your face if you still fondly remember battling Ganon on the SNES two decades ago.
