The Legend of Zelda (universe)

Zelda Wiki has an article on The Legend of Zelda (Series).

The Legend of Zelda universe refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from Nintendo's long-running and famous Legend of Zelda game series. It is a series of fantasy adventure titles produced by Nintendo throughout the company's history. It is widely considered one of the most influential video game franchises ever created, and has earned a spot as one of the company's flagship franchises alongside such notable series as Mario and Metroid. It has had over fifteen official titles which together have sold 47 million units, making it the 7th best-selling video game series ever. Therefore, Zelda is heavily featured in the Super Smash Bros. series, with five separate characters playable in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl: The main hero Link, his Young Link and Toon Link incarnations, the titular Princess Zelda, her alternate ninja-like guise Sheik, and series villain Ganondorf.

Franchise description

In 1986, the development team of game designer Shigeru Miyamoto worked concurrently on two equally ambitious projects for the recently-released Famicom/NES: Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. The team made a conscious effort to conceptually separate the two titles; while Mario was a linear platformer, Miyamoto wanted Zelda to feel like an open adventure that forced the player to think about what they should do next, and also to convey the idea of a game "world" that could be explored at one's leisure. Miyamoto drew his inspiration from his experiences around Kyoto in his early life, where he explored nearby fields, woods, and caves and realized the feeling that could be instilled by going on such an "adventure". Meanwhile, Miyamoto designed the player character, Link, as a coming of age motif for players to identify with; Link begins the game as an ordinary boy, but is strengthened by his quest until he triumphs over a great, evil force. Further revolutionary features of the title were a replay mode that, very unusually for the time, contained an entirely new set of more difficult levels - the "Second Quest" - and the first-ever instance of password-free progress-saving in any cartridge-based system or game, made possible by battery-powered RAM.

The Legend of Zelda, released in North America on August 1987, was an all-time bestseller for Nintendo, and much like Super Mario Bros. before it, it often appears on the highest spots in game publications' listings of the greatest games on the NES. It is often considered a spiritual forerunner of the RPG genre, more specifically the action RPG genre, despite lacking key RPG mechanics such as experience points, and is largely responsible for a surge of RPGs that focus on real-time action combat as well as puzzles. It was the spawning point for one of Nintendo's longest-running and most popular video game franchises, which as of 2013 has released over fifteen "primary" installments and several spin-offs. The now well-known "Zelda-style" Action RPG formula is central to almost all of the main series, which in some ways is ironic because the first Zelda sequel ever released, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, was the only game to feature a considerably different style of gameplay: a side-scrolling platformer with JPRG elements.

At least two other releases in the main series were arguably revolutionary in their own right. The third game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Super Nintendo in early April 1992, advanced many of the conventions introduced by the original game's formula to resemble what a modern-day top-down Zelda-style game traditionally features, with refined combat, item-usage, puzzle-filled dungeon aspects, and more detail to the archetypal story. It is widely considered today to be one of the greatest video games ever released, and the many Zelda games that make use of this top-down style are typically relegated to Nintendo handhelds. However, even more momentous was the late-1998 release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, which seamlessly converted the Zelda formula into a fully-realized and detailed three-dimensional world presented in the third person, and introduced what has since become common elements in 3D action-adventure games: a target-lock system to orient the player-character towards specific enemies and circle strafe around them in combat situations in areas with a freely rotatable camera, and context-sensitive buttons. On its initial release, it received perfect review scores from the majority of video game publications that reviewed it, and it sold over seven million copies worldwide. Like A Link to the Past for the top-down 2D perspective, Ocarina of Time introduced to the series the 3D-style of gameplay regularly used by console-based Zelda releases, which typically are the "biggest" releases in the series.

It is customary for at least one main Zelda title to be released over the lifespan of a given Nintendo console or handheld. Many of these adhere by default to a realistic, comparatively "adult" aesthetic, starting with Ocarina of Time and including titles as recent as Skyward Sword; however, in early 2003, a radically different "younger" alternative look and style was introduced into the series with the release of The Wind Waker for the GameCube. This introduces a heavily cartoon-stylized, cel-shaded design and graphical style both to Link and the rest of his world, and this exact "Toon Link" design and aesthetic is reused in several subsequent releases on Nintendo handhelds, all of which are separate from the games featuring the "adult" aesthetic. Given the nearly-Mario-scale importance and relevance the Zelda franchise has had both to Nintendo and to the industry as a whole, it is unfailingly one of the first franchises confirmed for a starring role in each game in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games. Later games in the Smash series have featured content from both the realistic and the cartoon Zelda styles.

Each of the Zelda games, for the most part, are self-contained variations on the same basic "legend": In a fantasy land named Hyrule, which had been created by a trio of goddesses that subsequently left behind embodiments of themselves and/or their power in a three-triangle artifact called the Triforce, a great evil - most often a demon named Ganon, or alternatively a powerful human sorceror named Ganondorf, depending on the game - threatens the land, and the only hope is for a young boy or man garbed in green, Link, in cooperation with a princess named Zelda, to go on an adventurous quest across Hyrule to smite the evil, most often with a blessed blade in an altar named the Master Sword. There is almost always some sort of variation to a given installment's narrative that ties both into the story and the gameplay; in some games there is a parallel world that Link must explore, while the world may be mostly covered in ocean in other games. Link himself may undertake his quest under a different set of circumstances each game, such as in Twilight Princess when he can transform into a wolf and receive assistance from an imp-like creature named Midna, or The Minish Cap where a talking hat he acquires allows him to shrink and grow back in size at will. Even Zelda's backstory, role, and relevance can vary between games, such as whether she is a classic damsel-in-distress or a capable ally of Link, but very rarely is any sort of romance between her and Link even implied.

Besides instances where some games are direct sequels and continuations to each other, there is usually no relevance in continuity between any of the seemingly independent portrayals of Hyrule. But this did not stop fans from speculating wildly on how all of the titles could be ordered in a chronological timeline that assumes Hyrule in all of these games is, in fact, the same world in different stages of its history, and that the reappearances of Link and related characters represent different individuals that are unwitting reincarnations of eras and Links from the past. But due to contradictions between games that arise when trying to place them all in a linear timeline, estimates were made that the Zelda chronology branched off into separate directions. On the 25th anniversary of the franchise, Nintendo posted an official timeline for the series that affirmed that there were, in fact, three separate timeline branches, and explained which games belong to which branch. The official ordering of The Legend of Zelda series is explained below:

"Legend of the Gods & the Hero of Time": The beginning timeline before its triple-branch. After the creation of the heavens and Hyrule, the earliest chronological game is Skyward Sword (released on the Wii in November 2011), taking place on floating islands in the sky named Skyloft, which the goddess Hylia had lifted to safeguard the Hylian people from the hordes of the demon king Demise infesting the lands below. The original incarnations of Link and Zelda, living on Skyloft along with the other Hylians during this time, are involved in a quest that explains and lays the groundwork for the patterns shown in the rest of the series. Following this, the Sacred Realm wherein the Triforce resides is sealed, and Hyrule Kingdom is established. Then, in both The Minish Cap (released on the Game Boy Advance in January 2005) and Four Swords (released as part of a Game Boy Advance remake of A Link to the Past in December 2002), separate Links fight the wind mage Vaati. Finally, in Ocarina of Time (released for Nintendo 64 in November 1998), a child Link takes part in a pivotal moment of the timeline when an evil human sorcerer, the original Ganondorf, covets the Triforce beyond the Sacred Realm, and Link must regularly travel back and forth between periods separated seven years apart - with Link himself assuming the form of a teenager during his time in the later period - and receive help from the enigmatic Sheik in order to defeat Ganondorf and the monstrous form Ganondorf eventually assumes, Ganon.

"Hyrule's Decline & The Last Hero": This first timeline branch assumes Link is defeated in his battle against Ganon in Ocarina of Time. This leads to A Link to the Past (released for the SNES in April 1992), where a Link has to contend with the revival of the demonic Ganon at the hands of the wizard Agahnim. The most recentl Zelda game, A Link Between Worlds, is a direct continuation of this setting. What is likely the same Link then contends with separate villains named Onox and Veran in Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (a simultaneous, interlinking pair of Game Boy Color games released by Capcom in May 2001), which may lead to another revival for Ganon that Link must destroy. The same Link stars in one more game, Link's Awakening (released for Game Boy in August 1993), where during a voyage outside Hyrule to hone his skills, Link washes ashore on Koholint Island, and must wake the island guardian, a whale called the Wind Fish, to return home. Taking place in an era after this are the original Legend of Zelda (released for NES in August 1987), where a Link defeats a revived Ganon and saves a princess named Zelda, and the followup The Adventure of Link (released for NES in December 1988), where the same Link goes on a quest to awaken a different Zelda while avoiding getting killed by followers of Ganon seeking to revive the demon once more.

"The Dark World & The Hero's Descendants": The second timeline branch assumes Ganondorf was never able to enter the Sacred Realm in Ocarina of Time, and therefore much of that game's quest never transpired and Link never left being a child; instead, Ganondorf faced execution. Beginning this "child timeline" is Majora's Mask (released for Nintendo 64 in October 2000), where Link ends up in an alternate world called Termina, where a Skull Kid under the evil influence of the eponymous mask has set the moon on a collision course into the land. Link must use a time-resetting method to repeatedly relive the 72-hour time period before doomsday so that he has the time to set up the means to avert Termina's fate. A century later, in Twilight Princess (released for GameCube and Wii by December 2006), a Link is thrust from a life as a ranch-hand into a world-spanning quest against the forces of the king of an alternate twilight realm, Zant, and he is forced into the form of a wolf whenever he enters a twilight-covered area of Hyrule and must accept help from the Twilight native Midna to compensate. Finally, in Four Swords Adventures (released for GameCube in June 2004), another Link goes to battle against Vaati's last chronological appearance.

"The Hero of Wind & A New World": The third timeline branch is the one that results from Link's defeat and sealing of Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm, as seen in the ending of Ocarina of Time; it is referred to as the "adult" timeline. At a later date, Ganondorf is revived, and the gods flood Hyrule to seal him back; this sets the stage for The Wind Waker (released for GameCube in March 2003), where a young Link sets sail on what is initially a quest to rescue his sister from a monstrous bird, but later on becomes a fight against a once-again-revived Ganondorf. A direct sequel to this game is Phantom Hourglass (released for Nintendo DS in October 2007), where a ghost ship steals away Link's ally Tetra, and he must enlist the help of a reluctant steamboat captain, Linebeck, to rediscover her. Finally, a century later, Spirit Tracks (released for Nintendo DS in December 2009) takes place on a newly-discovered continent that has since been civilized with an extensive railroad network, and an incarnation of Link that is an aspiring railroad engineer is accompanied by Zelda in spirit (quite literally) on a quest to discover why the tracks are disappearing.

In Super Smash Bros.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the most recent Zelda game at the time of the release of Super Smash Bros., and certainly the most popular and notable at the time because of its 3D nature on the N64, so it was very easy to feature Zelda content from this chronology and dimension into the N64 fighter.

Character

Link: A teenage sword-and-shield fighter with elven ears, a green tunic, and a long floppy cap, the Link from Ocarina of Time was formerly a young boy from a forest but was divinely chosen to oppress the future rule of Ganondorf by being transported seven years into the future, where he became a brave, capable warrior in his older form and wielded the Master Sword along with the Triforce piece of Courage and was assisted by Princess Zelda in the form of the mysterious Sheik to combat Ganondorf. Link is never heard speaking throughout the games; he is only heard grunting and yelling in his many battles. He fights in Smash 64 with his various tools from Ocarina of Time. His Boomerang is a good projectile for spacing and his smash attacks, though powerful and great to use in the single-player mode, are slow to execute, and his recovery is arguably the worst in the game. This actually makes Link a fighter in the second lowest possible tier (next to Samus and tied to Luigi) for the competitive metagame.

Stage

Like most other franchises in Smash 64, there is one Zelda-themed stage featured:

Hyrule Castle: A somewhat wide stage taking place on the top of the castle seen in Ocarina of Time. The castle is where the royal family governs the land of Hyrule. Whirlwinds pop up here from time to time, though it seems to be more in reference to the transportation whirlwind seen in the first Legend of Zelda than anything in Ocarina.

Item

There is one Zelda-themed item in Smash 64:

Heart Container: In Ocarina and any other Zelda game, when Link defeats a boss, he wins one of these which increases his total life meter by one heart. As an item, any character who picks it up will have his life meter completely healed, making this a powerful item.

Music

7: A remix of the classic Zelda theme heard since the original The Legend of Zelda. It is heard on Hyrule Castle.
17: The victory fanfare of Link is an orchestration borrowing elements from the traditional "adventuring music" heard in Zelda games.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

In the GameCube sequel of Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Zelda franchise is much more substantially represented.

Characters

Five of the 25+ fighters are characters from the Ocarina of Time dimension, making Zelda the second most represented franchise after Mario if their sub-series were to be counted for.

Link: Returning from the original with a somewhat redesigned moveset and a chargeable bow-and-arrow as a new neutral special move, Link becomes somewhat higher-tier than before, but not very much because his Smash-A moves lack knockback. A major difference from the original is that his recovery move has drastically increased in height.
Young Link: A new fighter that functions as a clone of Link. As a Melee fighter, Young Link is expectedly less strong and resilient than Link, but with added strength in some of his other moves, as well as the ability to wall-jump.
Zelda/Sheik: Zelda/Sheik refers to both Zelda and Sheik as one character slot, and it also refers to players who alternate between the two characters. Zelda is unique in that she is the only character who transforms into another character in the midst of battle, the nimble Sheik, who may also transform back into Zelda. Unlike in Brawl, not many people use both Zelda and Sheik in Melee and the union of the two is not considered as its own character slot in the tier list.

Zelda: A newcomer and unique fighter. As a Melee fighter, Zelda strikes strong but is not all that agile. She mainly uses magic and fire attacks. Players often prefer to fight as her quicker counterpart Sheik and usually do not transform back into Zelda because of how long it takes; However, Zelda's up special reaches significantly farther than Sheik's, which some Sheik users will take advantage of by transforming into Zelda and using the move for spacing or to recovery.
Sheik: A new and original fighter, Sheik is the alter-ego to the slower and heavier Zelda. As a Melee fighter, it is widely agreed that Sheik's special moves are not especially useful, yet in spite of that her fighting style affords her a very high position in the tier list. Sheik is not selectable from the character select screen and can only be accessed by transforming from Zelda or by holding the A button at the beginning of a match when playing as Zelda, which allows players to begin the match as Sheik.

Ganondorf: A new fighter that functions as a clone of Captain Falcon, sharing many animations and all special attacks, but with a significantly heavier, slower, and stronger nature, in addition to "dark" effects instead of fire effects. As a fighter, Ganondorf is powerful enough that it practically compensates for his lack of speed in the competitive metagame.

In addition, a modified version of Link seen in Event 18: Link's Adventure is named Dark Link and is sometimes considered a separate character. A pitch-black Link model, Dark Link is not playable without hacking. Its appearance in Ocarina of Time was as a sub-boss for Link to fight in the Water Temple, and it mirrored his every movement, so it was tricky to damage and defeat without killing oneself.

Common Enemies

Melee features some easily KO'ed common enemies from Ocarina of Time in the Adventure Mode stage Underground Maze.

ReDeads: These hollow zombies, forged from dark magic, they would bite onto you and do damage before letting go. In Ocarina they also demonstrated the ability to paralyze Link to where he was standing with their gazes.
Octoroks: Octopus-like creatures that can shoot nuts from their cannon-like mouths at Link in many Zelda-series games and at characters in Melee. They are modeled off their appearances from Ocarina of Time.
Like-Likes: Giant leech-like creatures that would swallow up Link and digest his shield before spitting him back out in many Zelda games. They incapacitate a character temporarily in Melee and damage him before spitting him back out. These are modeled off their Ocarina of Time appearances.

Stages

Super Smash Bros. Melee features two stages representative of the Zelda franchise, like several other franchises in Melee:

Temple: A fan-favorite stage, this does not necessarily represent a specific location in any Zelda game, though it does bear semblance to the temples in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It is essentially a generic depiction of the sorts of ruins that Link descends into and explores in many of his games. It is a gigantic stage, the largest seen thus far in Melee, and it is banned from much competitive tournament play because of how much room for stalling tactics the stage layout allows. The cave-like paths lead on down the center-left of the stage represent the cave-like areas Link often explores in his games as well.
Termina: Great Bay: This stage is based on the N64 sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, a game where Young Link travels to another country away from Hyrule called Termina, and he must save the country from being annihilated by an evil moon's collision course into the ground by awakening four giants. This takes place in the west coast of Termina where the third of the four dungeons in the game lies.

In addition, a stage based on the Majora's Mask trophy is featured as the battleground for Trophy Tussle 3. It is designed in the shape of Majora's Mask, the main antagonist from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The trophy Majora's Mask is earned for completing the event.

Also, level 3 of the game's Adventure Mode is titled Underground Maze, where the player must contend with common Zelda enemies, those being Octoroks and ReDeads, and try to avoid fights with Link to reach the stage's randomly placed exit, consisting of the Triforce above an altar. It is not a stage available for multiplay.