Years ago there was a huge videogame exhibition at the Barbican in London. It was filled with magical stuff: old consoles, weird experiments, art works, design documents, all manner of stuff. But the most memorable thing, I think, may have been a quote from a child who had played Zelda and had their world transformed by it. “When I go out playing now, the stick I carry with me becomes a sword.”
Zelda games are the kinds of games you set your watch by – they’re a big deal and they elicit big emotions. They seep from their world and into ours. With Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom almost upon us, we thought it might be nice to sit down as a team and talk about some of what we love about this most storied of gaming series. What does Zelda mean to us? What are the best items? What are the memories that have lingered the most? Oh yes, and why was knocking a book off a shelf once so very thrilling?
Ocarina of Time wasn’t the first Zelda game I played – that honour goes to the dreamily black and white Link’s Awakening – but it was certainly my gateway into modern gaming. Where the Game Boy game hinted at an epic world I expanded on in my imagination, Ocarina of Time presented it right to me, in full colour and 3D. My tiny mind was blown.
