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1985 saw the world completely enthralled in Nintendo's groundbreaking Super Mario Brothers,
but its designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, was already hard at work on what would become his next
masterpiece: The Legend of Zelda.
Inspired by his childhood experiences of exploring forests and caves, Miyamoto teamed up with
Takashi Tezuka to create a game that would impart a sense of freedom and wonder to the
player - the complete opposite of Super Mario which relied heavily on high scores and arcade-style
gameplay. So along with an expansive overworld and cryptic dungeons, Miyamoto made Zelda
a non-linear game that lacked clear instruction, forcing confused and frustrated gamers to
communicate in order to solve puzzles, defeat bosses, and uncover every heart container
- a scheme that added to the mystique of Link's adventure
Yet, with all its innovations, the Legend of Zelda still had one last revolutionary
feature packed into the cartridge: game saving. Zelda was the first home-console game to have
a battery-powered backup to record progress which encouraged gamers to play beyond failure
or death - it was a proper 'adventure' in every sense of the word, and one that you
could return to at any time at that. Glazed in gold, The Legend of Zelda sold 6.5 million
units and was an instant hit. But beyond sales and critical acclaim, Miyamoto and his team
single-handedly defined the action-adventure genre and ushered in what many consider the
modern era of gaming. The rest is history.
Have fun!