The Legend of Zelda (universe)

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The Legend of Zelda universe refers to the 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 a dozen 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 Melee: The main hero Link, his Young Link incarnation, the titular princess Zelda, her alternate ninja-like guise Sheik, and series villain Ganondorf.

Franchise description

As a young boy, Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto explored the hillsides and forests surrounding his home of Kyoto, Japan. One day, he found a cave entrance in the middle of the woods, and he explored its depths with the aid of a lantern. Miyamoto, after having created and established the successful Mario franchise for Nintendo later on, designed and released The Legend of Zelda for the NES in 1986, and the vivid memory of his past experience was clearly an influence on the game: cave and dungeon exploration was a major element in the game. For its time, The Legend of Zelda was quite advanced, featuring an open-ended game world to explore at one's leisure, puzzle-and-monster-filled dungeons to complete with dozens of pieces of equipment such as bombs, boomerangs, and a bow and arrow, and the cartridge's ability to save progress via battery-backed memory. The game was wildly popular in Japan and North America, and many consider it one of the most important video games ever made, because like Super Mario Bros. before it, The Legend of Zelda broke new ground into what a videogame can be.

Zelda was made into a full Nintendo franchise in the years afterward with the release of several follow-ups: 1988's radical action-RPG departure Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, 1992's SNES entry The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (an especially highly-revered game by the press), and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. After another hiatus, the series made the transition to 3D on the Nintendo 64 in November 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it is lauded as one of the finest adventure games ever developed. With a new, more realistic design for the characters, a giant game world with a darker, more narrative mood imparted onto the experience, and a lock-on-based 3D combat system that would serve as a model for 3D game design forever afterwards, Ocarina of Time became one of the most notable games in both the series and the game industry in general. It is because of this that the characters and properties from Ocarina of Time are featured in Super Smash Bros., and its direct sequel, 2000's The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, is featured as well in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

After Melee, the Zelda franchise went into a radical new direction in art style for the 2003 GameCube release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, featuring cel-shaded graphics and a very different cartoon-like incarnation of Link that would later be referred to as "Windwaker Link" to differentiate from "Ocarina Link". Fans were shocked initially but accepted the new style in good grace with the game's release. Since then the style has been continued in new releases such as The Minish Cap for GBA, Four Swords Adventures for the GameCube, and official Wind Waker continuation The Phantom Hourglass for DS. However, the franchise's Wii launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, went back to a more realistic character and world design independent of the other games, featuring yet another Link redesign. With a lengthy development time, Twilight Princess was met with very glowing reviews and is considered perhaps the best Zelda experience yet. Partially as a result of this, the "Twilight Princess Link" is the incarnation of link that features as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Generally, each game in The Legend of Zelda series is a fantasy-adventure game with action and puzzle-solving elements. The player controls either a boy or young man named Link, garbed in green clothing and possessing some of the physical characteristics of an elf, and in many Zelda games Link is called upon (by divine forces at times) to rescue Princess Zelda and the fictional world of Hyrule from (usually) the series antagonist, a demon named Ganon (or alternatively an imposing man whose name is extended as Ganondorf). The action often involves a divine relic known as the Triforce, a set of three magically bound golden triangles of great power. One aspect of the franchise to make it notable, however, is that not many of the games in the series seem to share a chronology and continuity, and some games may not even take place in the same reality as other games in the series. In a sense, there are many different Links, Zeldas, and Ganon(dorf)s found in the franchise, with different sets of these characters being associated with different games in the franchise.

There are various sub-chronologies of the Zelda games that can be pieced together, however, to form the various dimensions of the Zelda franchise. It's likely that The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link are part of the same chronology, and it's possible that A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening are part of another dimension's chronology as well. A far better-known and expansive chronology, however, is the one that begins with Ocarina of Time, featuring a young Link that can shift guises into a 7-years-older teenaged Link, a Zelda that uses magic to change her appearance and identity into a stealthy ninja named Sheik to assist Link, and Ganon in his incarnation as a powerful human warlock named Ganondorf. These are the five character appearances that are featured as separate playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it is the teenaged Link from this dimension that is playable in the original Smash Bros. as well. This chronology is continued in the direct sequel Majora's Mask, and the two games are made to be the "backstory" to The Wind Waker set in the same dimension hundreds of years later, and The Phantom Hourglass is the sequel to the Wind Waker. Also, the most recent Zelda game, Twilight Princess, is said to be set in between Ocarina and Wind Waker. Other more recent chronologies and dimensions include the one set in the pair of Oracle games for Game Boy Color, the one in The Minish Cap, and the one in the Four Swords subgame included in the GBA rerelease of ALTTP and continued in Four Swords Adventures.

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 teenaged 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 SSB with his various tools from Ocarina, but his smash attacks, though powerful and great to use in the single-player mode, are slow to execute, and this actually makes Link a fighter in the lowest possible tier for the competitive metagame.

Stage

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

Hyrule Castle: A somewhat wide stage taking place on the top of the castle seen in Orcarina 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 SSB:

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

For the GameCube sequel of Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Zelda is a much more substantially represented franchise this time around.

Characters

Five of the 25+ fighters are characters from the Ocarina of Time dimension, making Zelda the second most represented franchise after Mario.

Link: Returning from the original with a somewhat redesigned moveset and a chargeable bow-and-arrow as a new B-move, Link becomes somewhat higher-tier than before, but not very much because his Smash-A moves lack knockback.

Zelda: A new and original fighter, Zelda is unique in that she is the only character who can be replaced by another character in the midst of battle, the nimble Sheik, so she is two characters in one. In Ocarina of Time, she and Young Link met as kids and Link went off on his journey, but Link was sealed away in the Temple of Time right as Zelda's nurse, Impa, fled Hyrule Castle and right before Ganondorf took over the land. Seven years later, she assists the older Link under the alias Sheik, but late in the game, she reveals her true identity to Link, and Ganondorf immediately kidnaps her and enslaves her in his castle, and it is up to Link to save her and the rest of the world. As a Melee fighter, Zelda strikes strong but not all that fast. Players often prefer to fight as her quicker counterpart Sheik.

Sheik: A new and original fighter, Sheik is the alter-ego to the slower and heavier Zelda, so she is two characters in one. In Ocarina of Time, Zelda must flee from Hyrule Castle as Ganondorf conquers it, and after seven years, Link returns, so Zelda uses her magic to alter her physical appearance and attire to conceal her identity, taking on a variant of the name of the Sheikah tribe. As Sheik, she explains to Link what happened to Hyrule during his absence and assists him in his journey to bring down Ganondorf by teaching him melodies for his Orcarina of Time that allow Link to teleport across Hyrule at will. Late in the game, Zelda decides to reveal her true identity to Link. As a Melee fighter, it is widely agreed that Sheik's B-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, though this can be circumvented by holding the A button at the beginning of a match when playing as Zelda, which allows players to begin the match as Sheik.

Young Link: A new fighter that functions as a clone of Link. The Hero of Time starts out in Ocarina of Time as a young boy living in a forest settlement with a race of child-like men called the Kokiri, but he is a human with Hylian ancestry and is fated to embark on an epic journey across the land of Hyrule in a quest to defeat Ganondorf, who plans to take over Hyrule. Though brave, Young link is ultimately too young to be the Hero of Time worthy of wielding the Master Sword, so when he draws the Master Sword out of its pedestal in the Temple of Time, he is sealed away for seven years, to return as an older Link to a world where Ganondorf reigns supreme. 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.

Ganondorf: A new fighter that functions as a clone of Captain Falcon but with a significantly heavier, slower, and stronger nature. In the deserts of Hyrule, there lives the Gerudo tribe, a tribe of fierce women, and every 100 years a man is born to lead the clan. Ganondorf is this man, and an especially imposing one at that, and he possesses both dark warlock powers and a dark ambition to lead a conquest of Hyrule and rule as the King of Evil. And that he does, and he gains the Triforce piece of Power, but the other two pieces, Wisdom and Courage, go to Zelda and Link, respectively, and by the end of the game the two defeat Ganondorf in battle and banish him to another dimension. 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, will attempt to grab a character in front of it and do damage before letting go. In Orcarina 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 Orcarina of Time appearances.

Stages

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

Hyrule: Temple: This does not necessarily represent a specific location in any Zelda game, 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 competitive tournament play because of how much room for stalling tactics the stage layout allows. The cave-like paths leadong 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 into an alternate dimension away from Hyrule called Termina, and he must save the dimension 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 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.