The Legend of Zelda celebrates its 25th anniversary today

By Jeffrey Van Camp February 21, 2011

One of gaming’s most enduring and inspiring franchises, Zelda, turns 25 years old today. On Feb. 21, 1986 Nintendo released the original Legend of Zelda on the Famicom (NES) in Japan. On that day, gamers got their first chance to pick up the Master Sword and kill Octoroks on an epic quest to save Princess Zelda from the clutches of the evil beast, Ganon.

Since it’s inception, the series has been a consistent best-seller around the world, with its 17 installments selling more than 59 million copies.

With the exception of three Zelda games released by Phillips for its CD-i system in the early 1990s, every Legend of Zelda game has been a critical and commercial success thanks to the series’ constant ability to reinvent itself using new art styles and gameplay. However, it’s focus on adventure, exploration, and unique puzzle-solving has continually remained intact. Every Zelda game’s story also ties in with the complete legend of the series, though creator Shigeru Miyamoto and director Eiji Aunoma have continually refused to share the complete timeline of the series.

Currently, Nintendo is working on a new game in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii), and a 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS. Skyward Sword is said to release sometime later this year and is said to be one of Nintendo’s largest departures yet for the series, offering more motion control and new types of gameplay.

What is your favorite Zelda game?

Topics

Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

Computing

Save $400 on this Razer gaming laptop with an RTX 4060

A game playing on the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop.

For a gaming laptop that will be able to handle the most demanding games, you're going to want a machine that's as powerful as the Razer Blade 14 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. It's understandably expensive, but you can currently get it with a $400 discount from Razer that drops its price to an even $2,000 from $2,400 originally. We're not sure how much time is remaining before this offer ends though, so if you want the savings, you're going to have to complete your purchase as soon as you can.

Why you should buy the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop
The Razer Blade 14 is capable of challenging the best gaming laptops with the help of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, which offers excellent efficiency and strong ray tracing performance. Combined with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor and 16GB of RAM that's good for gaming, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need, not only will you be able to play the best PC games without any issues, but you'll also be prepared for the upcoming PC games of the next few years.

Computing

These are the 10 best gaming PCs I’d recommend to anyone

Graphics card in the CLX Hathor PC.

We review dozens of gaming PCs each year. In 2024, there are a ton of great options, but we've narrowed them down to a list of the 10 best gaming desktops that deserve your hard-earned money.

In 2024, we still recommend the Alienware Aurora R16 because of its fantastic design, solid performance, and decent value. However, there are several other options depending on your needs and budget. If you want a deeper look into how we evaluate gaming PCs, make sure to read about how we review desktops.

Gaming

NYT Strands: answers for Friday, April 26

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you'll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There's no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you're stuck and need to know the answers to today's Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.
How to play Strands
You start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the "theme words" hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.