Things haven’t really gone my way this month, the one thing I was looking forward to? Zelda. How did I mess up? I accidentally bought an EU based gift card when I should have got a UK one. So I’m going to have to wait until next month for my adventure into Hyrule, but you don’t have to! I know it’s not all the cost but hopefully, it will help you get what you want.
I’m giving away a 25 EUR eShop digital code. [Proof Here](https://imgur.com/a/a0hMSvx)
Please post your best Zelda story, to tide me over until next month. I’ll be back tomorrow at 6pm BST to pick the best entry.
by adriftollie
26 Comments
When I was 12 I played tloz ocarina of time. It was great.
How long
When I first played alttp, I couldn’t read yet. I was excited to finally go to school so I could learn to read and finally figure out where to go after beating Eastern Palace.
My first memory of Zelda is when I was just 3-4 years old and I watched my brother play Ocarina of Time. Seeing him go through the desert temple and finding the gloves has always been stuck in my head.
Then a few years later finally getting to play the game myself. Exploring Hyrule on my brothers save file and of course (as every little brother) accidentally deleting his save and losing it all. Then it was my turn to dive in and save Zelda and Hyrule!
Now almost 25 years later I would love to give the world of Zelda with my daughter and hopefully give her the same magical memories and stories for life
That’s really nice of you!
Can you not contact Nintendo to see if they can help?
**Don’t sent me the code as I’m in the UK but here’s my story anyway for fun:**
I was suffering with a lot of depression and anxiety last year so I brought a Switch for something ‘fun’ to do when feeling overwhelmed. I picked up a OLED version and decided to pick up links awakening as my first game as I had it on my old Gameboy and wanted to finally complete it. Was quite a shock seeing the plastic like graphics on Switch version coming from the black and white gameboy version.
I completed it and continued the retro fun with SOR 4.
EDITS: Speeling 🙂
Zelda is just my favourite game of all time. When I was a little kid, my mom and me went into a Nintendo store to buy me a game or two.
I was maybe 5 or 6 years old at that time and had no idea which games I should even play. The seller told my mom that Zelda Ocarina of Time is a masterpiece and that she should get me that one for Nintendo 64.
I still remember almost everything in that game, the sword, horse, Hyrule, Ganondorf, even the music. I was in love with it, I played it daily over and over for years. I still have the game at my parents home and never gonna sell or throw it away. It’s one of my best childhood memories.
More than 20 years have passed and I still have not found anything that comes close. Even new Zelda games don’t bring the joy I had that time.
Thanks a lot for your giveaway friend and good luck to everyone.
My mom called me at 3am and woke me up to ask me how to get into a skyview tower. I had no idea because I hadn’t been there yet.
For my entire childhood, my older brother always got the consoles, and so any RPG was his to play and I couldn’t (even when they supported multiple saves!).
Ironically, through all this, I now treasure RPGs way more than he does because he was such a gatekeeper and so I always longed to play so much.
I’ve since played every Zelda game from the Oracle pairing release in the nineties and have been loving TotK so far.
I doubt I’ll 100% it, because boy that’s a lot of hours, but I’ll definitely sink good time in like BotW!
I don’t know if this counts as a story, but seeing and playing A Link to the Past on a school buddy’s Super Nintendo instantly made me want to have them as well. I wasn’t a child that pestered their parents to buy them stuff because I was usually very content with the toys I had, but I just had to have a Super Nintendo and Zelda. I have been a Nintendo gamer ever since.
Ok this is a funny one. While I was trying to beat Calamity Ganon, the last boss in BOTW, I was in my living room with it connected to the TV. My cousin had his dog sleeping on his lap. When I finally beat it, it was my first Zelda so it took me a couple of tries, I got so happy that I screamed a bit. This scared my cousins dog and he accidentally bit my cousin in his thighs, he still has the mark to this day😂😂.
Botw was my first zelda game, and i have to say it has one of the smartest enemies i have seen. I remember one time when i accidentally triggered an entire bokoblin camp and they were chasing me. I tried to drop my bombs behind me and detonate it near them. imagine my surprise when they started going around it. Another funny thing is when they kick the bombs back at me. It has been a really fun ride so far. My next agenda is to finally beat a lynel effortleslly
When I played BOTW I liked to take pictures of people, characters, and items and I had to make sure they were funny or just looked good. Some of them I even put little captions on. I named the dog maple!
My first zelda experience was my friend lending me spirit tracks, and ever since then i’ve been a huge fan. Toon Link and Spirit Tracks have a special place in my heart.
My story goes as follows:
I had a very tough year in 2017 – parents divorced, breakups and could not fit in my job.
It felt – constrained. Like i just could not see past the dark clouds above my head.
This all changed when I got breath of the wild and a switch.
This game allowed me to make my own choices. I was free. I could think. I could enjoy. Oh- there is a mountain, let me just climb up the because I want to. Not because I was told to.
It really helped me shape my reality.
Now, I have a beautiful life with my s/o, a job I enjoy and freedom.
Can’t wait to explore TotK ☺️
My first Zelda game was actually The legend of Zelda Wind Waker, the gameplay, story, characters & every thing just blends so well together! I really don’t know how Nintendo do it but many of their first party games have that magic sauce that draws you in for more and of course the new TOtK didn’t disappoint.
In my country we never had original NES available. Instead, like most of Eastern Europe, we had a bootleg version of the console. Actually very well made bootleg of Famicom. I had one of those and in late 90s I found a bootleg cart of The Legend of Zelda on a local flea market and asked my dad to buy it.
There was one problem (and the other one I had no idea, but I will get to that). The game was in Japanese. Fortunately the game has very little text, so I figured out everything with try and error method.
But there was a second, much bigger problem. This cartridge didn’t have a battery (and probably SRAM chip too, but I’ve never checked the insides) so I couldn’t use save feature. Moreover, using save immediately bricked the game.
So what else could I do? Play it from time to time to kill few monsters? Nope, I finished it. Without manuals, guides and without turning off the console. That wasn’t a nice walk through Hylian plains. Once I accidentaly clicked “Save” instead of “Retry” on Game Over screen. Once my younger brother poked a cart and crashed a game. On the other attempt we had a power lines maintenance, so I’ve lost my progress due to power shortage.
But about a year after I’ve got a game I had my golden attempt. I did it in about 2 weeks. 2 weeks without switching off a console. That was probably one of the best and the most memorable thing in my life of gamer. I still remember running to my dad and calling him to see an ending screen.
Today, many years later I still love this series. My copy of Tears of the Kingdom is now waiting for me in a local store. I can’t wait to play it! What a great birthday gift to make for myself! 😀
In elementary school (so a really long time ago for me) I had a friend who was the lucky one to have a console to play Zelda on. She loved it so much she decided to do a Zelda-themed birthday party and wanted everyone to dress up.
We are talking 10-12 years old kids in the era when the internet was not so available. So of course you can imagine everyone trying to “cosplay” Link and introducing themselves as Zelda. I didn’t have a lot of green clothes to go for it but I had a pink dress. Obviously not in any shape or form similar to any Zelda’s ones but I just randomly put some triangles on it with my mum and called it a day. Imagine my surprise when my friend told me that I’m the only real Zelda at the party lol and she is glad that at least somebody listened to her.
After that (and quite a few years later) I remember that event and decided to play the games myself on my 3DS and later Switch. I obviously enjoyed them, plan to buy Totk when I have more time 🙂
I forgot to save Link to the Past after getting the red boomerang, forgetting how I acquired it, and then crying so hard I threw up.
I think the best story I have to share is how I got into the series:
Well to be fair, I don’t remember how I first heard of the franchise but at least I knew the name when I bought my first game. That game was Oracle of Seasons. I bought it on a flee market in Czechia in 2004. We went there during a small family vacation we spent in Bavaria.
But after I bought it, I was kinda disappointed. As a child, I didn’t really understand the game and I never finished the first dungeon. In addition to that, the game didn’t save my progress and I couldn’t figure out why. Furthermore, the Capcom logo at the start made my wary. I knew that The Legend of Zelda was a Nintendo series so why was there a name of different company on the bootscreen? It certainly didn’t help that Eastern Europe was notorious for selling fake products which was kind of confirmed by fake Yu-Gi-Oh cards we purchased as well. So my first impression wasn’t all that good and for over decade, I wouldn’t touch another Zelda game because of this bad experience. But that all changed in 2017.
Although my first impression of series was quite terrible, you can’t say that the series in generell wasn’t well received and as gamer, I noticed the praise quite often. Over the years, I heard it again and again with every new entry of the series how great these games are. People in some other forum also informed me about Capcom’s involvement in Oracle of Seasons, so I stopped thinking about it as a fake but still as a broken game. Nevertheless, I was thinking about giving the series another shot when Skyward Sword released on Wii in 2011. However, shortly before the game was released, I switched to PS3 and because I didn’t have enough money to support both consoles, I decided to stay with my new console. It probably was the more reasonable move since it was already clear that the Wii was soon to be replaced by the Wii U.
So my second shot at the series has been postponed again for some years until 2017, when after the release of Breath of the Wild, I finally decided to close an educational gap by playing Ocarina of Time, the quintessential 3D Zelda game. And although it showed its age, it still was a lot of fun and I was finally interested to play more Zelda games. However, that didn’t happen until 2019 when I got my hands on a GBA emulator and The Minish Cap. I absolutely fuckin’ loved that game. I still is one of my favorite Zelda games and because it was so great, I decided to fully dive into the series. And my first step was Oracle of Seasons. Since 2004, I kept this game in my shelf and over the years, I acquired the knowledge to understand why the game didn’t work. So I opened up the catridge, cleaned it, replaced the battery and after 15 years, I finally played Oracle of Seasons as it was supposed to be.
Since then, I have been on a mission to play through every mainline Zelda game. So far, I have finished 11 games and Tears of the Kingdom will be number 12. And I already own the NES Zelda games, so those two will be the next ones.
For me personally Zelda is the series that was with me during my whole life. I could count on Link when I was sad, when I was happy, when I felt lost or disoriented.
I remember my first Zelda to be the links awakening. The gameboy version. I was a little kid and I got the German version so I could not understand anything. I just remember being amazed by the music and the gameplay. I wandered endlessly clueless didn’t know what I’m supposed to do but I still had fun. I was able to finish it after several months but even in the end I did not know what the story was about. Later on I got the DX version in English and finally I could experience not just the game but the story.
I remember few years ago when I was really miserable, I went through a nasty break up and to cheer me up my friend gave me his old wii and a copy of twilight princess. The story and the whole atmosphere was so great I could not put it down. Even though I was sad I felt great that I could help link on his quest.
Last year I went to the hospital for two weeks. I was so sad there and so bored by my brother got me the game and watch device with Zelda games. It was so cool playing the first Zelda ever and feeling what 80s kids felt all these years ago.
For me Zelda is a series that connects all generations. No matter how old you are you can find joy and bliss in Hyrule.
I cannot wait for the day I have kids and I can show them the magic of hookshot or to show them Biggoron and watch their faces when they learn they can wield his two hands sword.
I keep my fingers crossed for you man that you will be able to play the new Zelda
game soon.
Playing Ocarina of Time with my dad when I was 7. Still remember as it was yesterday.
Behind me I leave a dying father figure beyond salvation
and when i take my first steps on the bridge
that binds my home to the rest of the world
happy melodies and friendly faces have turned
into howling winds and one somber face
the face of my only friend
we both know that I must go
that the only thing to do is to pass her by
but something in me wants to stay forever
and something will
my friend gives me her ocarina for my journey
she tells me to play it and remember her
and that it will take me home again
but maybe we both know that I will never return
the person that returns 7 years and many trials later
is someone completely different
someone you will not know
a few tentative steps
before I run out towards the unknown
behind me I leave my childhood
before me lies eternity
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Nothing in gaming has touched me quite as deeply as when I played through Ocarina of Time as a child around 11 years old. Without it I don’t think I would have been the gamer and ultimately, the person I am today. I think that leaving kokiri forest hit some weird note in me because of how well the metaphor of wanting and needing to leave childhood behind but still hoping that I would never grow up.
When I was younger me and my older brother had the original Gameboy and would play Link’s Awakening. My brother however has always been an angry gamer with zero patience, which on this one occasion didn’t turn out too well.
He was playing on it before school and was on one of the dungeons, but kept getting killed and being thrown back to the beginning. Maybe after 3 or 4 failed attempts he head butted the Gameboy and cracked the screen, causing all the liquid display to leak. Knowing he would get into shit we decided to come up with a plan.
We went to our bedroom and hid the broken Gameboy under the mattress. We then asked our little brother if he wanted to play jumping on the bed 😂. Which obviously he did, as kids do. We let him have a good few minutes before stopping him and saying “oh shit, the Gameboy is under the bed”. We pulled out the broken Gameboy and were like… “look what you’ve done”, and then proceeded to grass him up to our mum.
We were little fuckers to be fair, but I’ll never forget that. We had no Gameboy for a while after that either, so had to go without.
After attempting the original (and giving up after a while), watching The Legent of Zelda related videos and progressing a bit in ALTTP, after so many years, I can finally say I beat my first Zelda game!
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It was freaking Cedence of Hyrule on Game Trials. Very fun game, I will add.
>christmas 1998
>father hands me and my sister a big box, mother smiles
>NINTENDO SIXTY FOUUUURRRRRRRR and ZELDA OOT
>father and mother let us set it up before going to sleep (we used to live in argentina and presents are opened at midnight)
>we start the game and we are in awe but time for bed
>father grabs the controller and says “im going in a minute”
>woke up next morning for breakfast and father is still there playing without blinking at less than 1 meter from the TV
Since it’s about buying something by mistake.
When I was a kid (around 10 years old), the coolest thing was to secretly record south park episodes on tape with friends and then watch them. And of course playing N64 games. Thats why, when I had enough money for a new game, I really wanted the South Park ego shooter. But since I didn’t want to say it so openly, I said to the son of my father’s girlfriend that I want to buy the game where you control “a hand” because most of the screenshots of the South Park game showed a hand holding a snowball. The son knew right away, of course. Glover! I didn’t have a concrete plan on how I wanted to break it up in the shop, but just agreed. But I really didn’t want to buy Glover. When we arrived at the shop, I immediately was disappointed. South Park was not there. But at least Glover wasn’t there either. Now I was standing there with my money I had saved up and a plan to buy a new videogame I really didn’t want to go home without a new video game. So, solely because of the sword on the cover, I took “The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time” home with me. Without even knowing what kind of game it was. Today, almost 22 years later, I’m grateful for every new Zelda title that comes out, because this string of events brought me to my absolute favourite game series.