For the 3rd week of the series we present you with a famous protagonist from the wonderfully creative minds at Nintendo. This Hero currently has over 14 titles to his name, ranging over 3 decades, 5 consoles, and 3 handhelds. He is the walking Hero of Time that is Link.

Link in Ocarina of Time (Old and Young)

Created by now legendary Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of many other Nintendo franchises, such as Mario 1986, and Starfox 1993), Link was the main protagonist in the Legend of Zelda series. The first Game (The legend of Zelda) was released in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and with it Miyamoto broke the mold quite substantially . Designed to be more about game play then the creation of high scores, which was an unusual concept at the time, Miyamoto drew upon his childhood for inspiration, with labyrinths within the game being based on getting lost among the sliding doors of his family house as a child. This sense of adventure within the game was born from Miyamoto’s experiences of exploring. As a child, Miyamoto would explore quite a lot, wandering around the country without a map finding paths and routes that no one knew of, he even mentioned in an interview that once, when hiking, he found a lake, and was surprised but happy to stumble upon it.

Although no one is quite sure where the design for link came from, his appearance has changed in every game, although his green cloak and brown boots has stuck as a fairly universal design. Every game changes his age, and every game has a character that resembles Link, but is in fact a different Link. In fact upon trawling through pictures of his different incarnations you’ll see that only the slightest tweaks occur, he still has his blonde hair, his pointed ears and always possesses the same mannerisms and facial expressions.

Over the years he has appeared in various different titles, but his most famous game was The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; it was even voted by the gaming community as one of the most influential games ever made, and for rather good reasons. It was the first to feature an open world (i.e. you can travel around the world without being on a mission), the first to feature in-game mini-games, and it really pushed the N64 and 3D capabilities for the time. These are all features that are pretty standard in the modern gaming world, but back when this game was released in  1998 it was a huge leap forward. It gave people the ability to complete the game whichever way they wanted with necessary items being collected as part of the game play, but other items and weapons were dotted around the game that could be bought or found when the player wanted them. One memory that will stick forever in my mind is trying to accomplish Death Mountain with a wooden shield, the shield offered no protection from the falling rocks, but carry on we must! If you were good enough at the game though, it could have been achievable, despite a horrific difficulty level. That was what made the game special: you could play it the way YOU wanted.

The actual Timeline for Link in the Zelda series is very vague. Miyamoto announced that Ocarina of Time was the first in the timeline several years ago, but the newly released Skyward Sword is now set before Ocarina of Time. Nintendo have admitted to having a large document that links all of the Legend of Zelda games, but has kept it secret for decades.

Earlier this year we did a big feature on The Legend of Zelda cannon for his then upcoming 25th Anniversary. For those wanting to know even more about the Hero of Time you can still visit it.