It was 1993. Link’s Awakening finally reaches North America and was a big hit, proving that portable games can be epic, and giving Link his most original quest to date (in 1993). Fans had a field day with the bugs that were discovered (Screen Warp, anyone?) and the inclusion of side-quests beyond the basic heart container gathering. It was a great time for Zelda, especially since this game came out on the heels of probably the best Zelda game ever, A Link to the Past. With two of the best Zelda titles finally arriving after a long drought, fans were in the golden age of Hyrule. You see the last Zelda game before A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening came out over three years earlier.

None can doubt just how worth the wait Ocarina of Time was.

From 1988 until 1992, there was no Zelda. Sure, a Game and Watch came out, and we had cartoons and comics, but there was nothing substantial in the gaming realm. Yet, A Link to the Past delivered the fans from recession and withdrawal. Then, it ended. I very well know there were Zelda games released since Link’s Awakening that came out before Ocarina of Time. BS-Zelda. BS-Ancient Stone Tablets. The CD-i Zelda games. How many of you played them? How many of you own them? That’s what I thought. Unless you lived in Japan, participate in illegal activities, or spent a fortune on pieces of crap (like I did), you have not played any of the above Zelda games. They don’t count – they weren’t worldwide, mainstream Zelda releases (and not to mention either remakes or pieces of trash – did I say that already?).

For two years after Link’s Awakening, we heard nothing of Zelda except tidbits of these games we never really played. In 1994, when Super Mario All-Stars came out, fans thought a Zelda All-stars was surely on board for the SNES. Never happened. I remember getting online around this time, and the small little communities that did exist which discussed Zelda were distraught. Then, a flicker of hope. In 1995, Nintendo unveiled “Project Reality” in Nintendo Power (I know its existence was mentioned before, but this was pre-internet and NP was the biggest way Nintendo fans got information back then), a CD-based system that would utilize next-generation processors like the ones used to render Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park in order to make 3D video games. There was mention of a Zelda game in the works, and the fans rejoiced.

Then, screenshots trickled in. Then Nintendo 64 was finalized, and Nintendo Power fans got a promo video which had a small trailer of Zelda 64 footage. We got an issue with the first “100” screenshots of Zelda 64. Have we even gotten 50 screenshots officially from Nintendo in the two years of Twilight Princess’s existence? As early as 1996, we knew Ganondorf would be in it. We knew he was the bad guy, and he was after the Triforce. Then, as each trade show passed, we constantly got more media, and with the advent of Zelda fan sites online, the community exploded and the hype began.

We got so many previews, interviews, screens and videos of Zelda 64, that it was nonstop hype with no let down. And somehow, the screens never revealed too much. Yet, no news of a release date. When they finally announced a summer 1997 release, fans thought the drought of Zelda games would end. Then E3 1997 came, and we got the delay. Zelda 64 delayed till fall 1997. Then Space World 1997 happened. Zelda 64 Delayed till spring of 1998. E3 1998 roles around, and finally we get a release date of November 1998. To make up for the delays, in August a pre-order bonus was announced saying if you pre-ordered in October, you would get a limited edition gold cartridge.

I’m sure there really is no way to convey what happened then unless you were there. Maybe someday I’ll put back up the original ZHQ section with the Ocarina of Time news. But, there is one point I don’t think many fans today who weren’t around then understand that they need to. From 1993 until 1998, there was no “official” Zelda game. A stretch of five years and change. To better illustrate this point, The Minish Cap came out in January of 2005 in North America. If Twilight Princess pulled an Ocarina of Time, we wouldn’t see it until Fall of 2009. How much would you enjoy waiting that long instead of this fall for Twilight Princess?

I’ve heard several arguments against this analogy in the past few weeks. The most popular is that game development has changed since Ocarina of Time, and games should be coming out sooner and still be great quality. That sounds logical enough, and then I look at The Wind Waker. That game came out two years after Majora’s Mask, the last Nintendo-only developed Zelda title (Oracles was largely handled by Flagship). That game, as pretty as it was, was very bad. Poor game design, a lack of a true “Zelda” feel to the pace of the game, and overall lack of dungeons really hampered this title from being great. Then Eiji Aonuma comes out and says they cut dungeons in order to get the game out sooner. Excuse me? Baking powder? Did he just say they cut dungeons to get it out sooner? I thought games with more modern development practices would have handled this with no problem.

I mean, Final Fantasy XII is only coming out…5 years after Final Fantasy X, the last REALLY new standard Final Fantasy RPG (X-2 is a rehash of X with minor additions, XI is an MMORPG, the VII spin offs are trash and not traditional games). Half-Life II? Halo 2? The Metal Gear Solid sequels? It seems most pretty good games take three to four years to come out, if they are not a rehash of the predecessor (see Prince of Persia, Madden or Grand Theft Auto). In fact, it took less time during the NES and SNES days to make a great game than it does to make a new great game now. Just call me crazy, but more advanced systems and coding require more people just to do the job in the same time as before. Maybe that is why development teams are bigger now. And maybe games that come out sooner are crappier because they’re being rushed out, not because they have so many people working on them.

There is another complaint I’ve heard that does have merit. This complaint asserts that Nintendo is blowing a big chance. Twilight Princess should have come out in fall 2005 to counter XBOX 360, or in Q2 2006 to fill in the void until Revolution to keep Nintendo churning. Yes, Twilight Princess’ delays have been at the expense of opportune times to exploit the competition. But since when has a Zelda game, no matter when it comes out, not deterred the competition whatsoever? Not to mention, Nintendo held its own against XBOX 360 with Nintendo DS’s WiFi service along with Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing: Wild World. Nintendo will hold its own this spring with Metroid Prime: Hunters and Tetris DS should PS3 decide to show its ugly face.

Here’s the rebuttal I’ve been saying all along – no matter if Twilight Princess has Revolution functionality with the controller or it will just be backwards compatible with the system – Twilight Princess being tagged as “playable” on Revolution is the greatest advantage Nintendo could have, and it is the single best use I can see in the current time frame and scope of events for the game. Twilight Princess will sell. That is not a concern. The concern is; does Nintendo want to move GCNs with this game, at the twilight of its era, or does it want it to move Revolutions, the future of Nintendo. It’s pretty simple.

I concede that delaying a game, if it was finished, solely to release it at a prime time for your company is a bit greedy and disrespectful to the fans. But, I doubt this game was ready. I believe Nintendo when it says it is working on this game to make it the best ever. The more time Nintendo has with this game, the better it will be. While it won’t have five years of development, we can assume it will now at least have three, maybe four (we don’t really know when the development of this game began). Twilight Princess was also derived from The Wind Waker’s engine. Imagine if Nintendo spent three to four years on Majora’s Mask.

I want Zelda now. I want it badly. But you can’t always have your way. We’re also all in the same boat. Nintendo fans are awaiting Revolution and Twilight Princess with little to no information. Sony fans are desperate to know what is up with PS3. XBOX fans want to know when Halo 3 is coming out, if ever. In general, fans are way too impatient nowadays.

You also should be careful what you wish for – for a rushed game usually sucks. I see the cliché of “a bad game is bad forever, a delayed game is eventually good” tossed around a lot. I think the cliché of “patience is a virtue” should be getting more attention. Go back and play Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker in preparation for Twilight Princess. I mean, after all, it takes place in between them, so you might want to be up-to-speed on the lore and stories.

Regardless, people screaming for the game need to pipe down. I know right now, we have no new info. We haven’t had any truly revolutionary information confirmed about this game since we learned Link would transform into a wolf at E3 2005. Sure, Ganondorf was confirmed. Who didn’t see that coming? We’ve been given conflicting reports on whether this game will be on GCN or using Revolution’s controller. After the delay in August, you had to at least suspect something was being considered. What about the story? What will Zelda look like in-game? What does Ganondorf look like, period? Is the Triforce in the game? How about the Master Sword? Yes, we don’t know jack about this game really. But if the past is any indicator, the E3 hype machine begins with the GDC conference in March.

Guess what month just began today?

- Mike "TSA" Damiani is the Senior Editor and Owner of The Hylia

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