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THE LEGEND OF ZELDA (1986): RESCUING ZELDAS AND UNITING TRIFORCES

Like most of the games covered in this book, Shigeru Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda needs no introduction. A gamer who'd never heard of Zelda would be as bizarre as a science fiction fan who'd never heard of Star Wars, or a fantasy buff who'd never read Tolkien. Love it or hate it, The Legend of Zelda is a foundational game, one of only a handful of titles that can truly be said to have helped to define the industry as we know it today. Its popularity and name recognition is rivaled only by the likes of Super Mario Bros. (Chapter 19, “Super Mario Bros. (1985): How High Can Jumpman Get?” also from Miyamoto) and Pac-Man (Chapter 13, “Pac-Man (1980): Japanese Gumption, American ...

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