As time marches on inexorably – week after week, year after year – it should come as no surprise that The Legend of Zelda is 33 years old today. No, not the cartridge version – that wouldn’t make an appearance until July ’87 in North America – we’re talking about the Famicom Disk System original.
The game also shares a birthday with the Famicom Disk System itself, the Japan-only console that plugged into the original cartridge-based Famicom and offered an improved experience over the base console. That console launched with The Legend of Zelda and a disk version of Super Mario Bros. – quite the one-two punch, wouldn’t you agree?
There are lots of things you can do to celebrate this fine day. If you’re stuck in front of a computer screen or sitting on the bus with your phone, why not head over to The Cutting Room Floor for a comprehensive examination of the differences between the disc and cartridge versions of the game.
Or perhaps Legends of Localization’s analysis on how Nintendo has continually modified the game over its 33-year life would be more to your liking.
Alternatively, you could settle down with a nice Zelda tome like the Hyrule Historia or something of that ilk, or enjoy some of Nintendo’s original design documents for the game in this very short video.
We’d argue, though, that the best option would be to fire up your nearest Nintendo console and dive into the classic game for an hour or two. The Switch version is convenient if you’re a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, and save states make the game vastly more user-friendly than it used to be.
Don’t be afraid to seek out help if you need it, either – there’s no shame in a little helping hand, especially if you’d otherwise chuck in the towel and miss out on a true gaming classic.
Have you gone back to this classic recently? Making you feel old, is it? Us to – feel free to commiserate in the comments.