Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
Relatedly, this concept became the root of another series developed many years later: Miyamoto said that Zelda became the inspiration for Animal Crossing, a game based solely on communication.
Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, said that the games were slated for release on the 3DS, including The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man 2, and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, using some of the 3DS's features, such as 3D effects, analog control, or camera support.
Upon release in North America, Computer Entertainer called it an "excellent" adventure game that exceeded expectations and said it had "more to offer than the typical hack-and-slash" epics, with "monsters to fight, secret doors to discover, and plenty of frustration" rewarded with new treasures, weapons, experience, places and discoveries.
The review also praised the "very appealing" and "beautiful, fairy-tale" quality, the battery backup save feature, the "charming graphics, superb original music, excellent animation, and smooth transitions in scrolling between locations".
They called it "an incredibly rich, deep gaming experience that goes far beyond the typical cartridge game" with appeal "to both male and female players" of all ages, making it a "must-have" for every Nintendo owner.
Computer Gaming World in 1988 named the game as the best adventure of the year, stating that Zelda had been a "sensational success" in bringing elements of computer action-adventures to consoles.
In 1990, the magazine implied that the game was a killer app, causing computer RPG players who had dismissed consoles as "mere arcade toys" to buy the NES.
They said it has "an enormous country to examine" with "dozens of things to collect" along with hidden power-ups and bonuses, while praising the "supreme" playability and the "excellent" graphics and sound; however, they criticized the "hefty" price tag of £39 or in the United Kingdom.
ACE magazine reviewed the game in 1989, calling it a "role-playing epic" that proves "consoles can be just as good at role-playing games as they are for arcade entertainment" while listing it as one of the top four best games available for the NES (along with Super Mario Bros., Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, and Super Mario Bros. 2).
A 1993 review of the game was printed in American magazine Dragon #198 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column, scoring the game 4 out of 5 stars.
It was reissued in 1992 as part of Nintendo's "Classic Series" and featured a grey cartridge.
The Legend of Zelda was also voted by Nintendo Power readers as the "Best Challenge" in the Nintendo Power Awards '88.
The staff praised its "mix of complexity, open world design, and timeless graphics".
Re-reviewing the FDS release in 1991, Hirokazu Hamamura complimented the games sound quality and said that the actions sequences were reasonably difficult.
Another reviewer in the magazine said the game felt dated by early 1991, but no other similar game has surpassed it.
On the games 1994 re-release in Japan cartridge, two reviewers in Famitsu called it a "masterpiece".
In 1995, Flux ranked the game 2nd on its "Top 100 Video Games".
In 1997 Next Generation listed the North American release in their "Five Greatest Game Packages of All Time", citing the die-cut hole which revealed the gold cartridge, full color manual, and fold-out map.
Despite this, Miyamoto did not consider Zelda an RPG, but classified Zelda as "a real-time adventure game"; he said he was "not interested in systems where everything in the game is decided by stats and numbers" but what's "important to me is to preserve as much of that 'live' feeling as possible" which he said "action games are better suited in conveying" to players.
In 2009, Game Informer called The Legend of Zelda "no less than the greatest game of all time" on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that it was "ahead of its time by years if not decades".
Also, in the first issue of Famitsu, it was featured as the very first new-title introduction, as an RPG commemorating the release of the Disk System, over 2 pages and with an ending screen included.
More than a year later, it was released in North America and Europe on the Nintendo Entertainment System in cartridge format; the US version was one of the first games to include an internal battery for saving data.
Since Nintendo did not have many products, it made only a few commercials a year, targeting high quality for each.
One of the first commercials made under Bill White, director of advertising and public relations, was the market introduction for the Legend of Zelda, which received a great deal of attention in the ad industry.
The Legend of Zelda was first re-released in cartridge format for the Famicom in 1994.
Upon release in Japan, it sold 1 million copies on its first day of release, and sold a total of 1.69 million for the Famicom Disk System (FDS) in Japan.
It became the first NES game to sell over 1 million cartridges in the United States during 1987, increasing to more than 2 million cartridges sold by 1988.
In Japan, a reviewer in the magazine Bi-Weekly Famitsu was impressed with the audio, smooth graphics and easy to control characters, and concluded the game's popularity was in its design, while difficult at first, players who put in the effort would be rewarded.
The first Famitsu Best Hit Game Awards gave Zelda the award for best background music and listed it as the third best Game of the Year (just below Dragon Quest and Gradius).
The game placed first in the player's poll "Top 30" in Nintendo Powers first issue and continued to dominate the list into the early 1990s.
An arcade system board, called the Triforce, was developed jointly by Namco, Sega, and Nintendo, with the first games appearing in 2002.
MAP 2 was rebroadcast only once, in March 1996.
Released as 1 of the titles in the Famicom Mini series.
In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by the magazine Family Computer Magazine,it scored 21.63 out of 25, as shown below.
Also, in the "Famicom Disk Card All Catalog", a special supplement to the 1991-5-24 issue of the same magazine, it was described as "such a major work for a 1st title" and "it may be called the software that showed the world the ability of Nintendo's developers.
In the "Disk Card Category BEST 5" carried at the end of the "Famicom Disk Card All Catalog", a special supplement to the 1991-5-24 issue of Family Computer Magazine, it took 4th place for character, 3rd for music, 1st for addictiveness, 2nd for originality and 2nd for overall rating.
At an auction held in the United States on 2021-7-9, the auction house announced that an unopened copy of this software entered in that auction had been sold for 870,000 dollars, about 96,000,000 yen, the highest price in the history of video games.
Furthermore, a copy of Super Mario 64, released in 1996, entered on the 11th of the same month, 2 days after that sale, was sold for 1,560,000 dollars, about 100 million 72,000,000 yen, breaking the record for the highest auction price for a video game again within a short period.
By early 1988, there were over 1 million Fun Club members, which led then-Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa to start the Nintendo Power magazine.
Upon release in Japan, it sold 1 million copies on its first day of release, and sold a total of 1.69 million for the Famicom Disk System (FDS) in Japan.
It became the first NES game to sell over 1 million cartridges in the United States during 1987, increasing to more than 2 million cartridges sold by 1988.
It went on to sell 3 million cartridges in the United States by 1990, and eventually 6.51 million copies worldwide.
Zelda was reviewed in 1992 by Total! where it received a 78% rating due in great part to mediocre sub-scores for music and graphics.
Among the personal computer games of the time, action RPGs with a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world, such as the Hydlide series, Dragon Slayer and Xanadu, were popular, and The Legend of Zelda was developed as a game making use of the Disk System, which could compete with the capacity of personal computer floppy disks.
The review also praised the "very appealing" and "beautiful, fairy-tale" quality, the battery backup save feature, the "charming graphics, superb original music, excellent animation, and smooth transitions in scrolling between locations".
They said it has "an enormous country to examine" with "dozens of things to collect" along with hidden power-ups and bonuses, while praising the "supreme" playability and the "excellent" graphics and sound; however, they criticized the "hefty" price tag of £39 or in the United Kingdom.
The staff praised its "mix of complexity, open world design, and timeless graphics".
In Japan it was released on 1986-2-21 for the Family Computer Disk System, and in regions where the Disk System was not sold, on ROM cartridge.
As noted above, outside Japan it was sold on ROM cartridge from the start.
In 1997 Next Generation listed the North American release in their "Five Greatest Game Packages of All Time", citing the die-cut hole which revealed the gold cartridge, full color manual, and fold-out map.
The opening theme in particular was described in the order sheet only as "title music", so at first an arrangement of Maurice Ravel's Bolero for the Family Computer was used, as being suitable for an opening theme, but just before the game was finished it came to light that the copyright on Bolero would expire only after the release date of the Disk System.
Development began in the fall of 1984, and the game was originally intended to be a launch game for the Famicom Disk System.
In Japan, a reviewer in the magazine Bi-Weekly Famitsu was impressed with the audio, smooth graphics and easy to control characters, and concluded the game's popularity was in its design, while difficult at first, players who put in the effort would be rewarded.
Re-reviewing the FDS release in 1991, Hirokazu Hamamura complimented the games sound quality and said that the actions sequences were reasonably difficult.
It was reissued in 1992 as part of Nintendo's "Classic Series" and featured a grey cartridge.
The game placed first in the player's poll "Top 30" in Nintendo Powers first issue and continued to dominate the list into the early 1990s.
In Japan it was released on 1986-2-21 for the Family Computer Disk System, and in regions where the Disk System was not sold, on ROM cartridge.
The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.