Commercial evolution of a legend (of zelda)

That boy we’ve all come to know and love has quite the story behind him. There are also scores of marketing people, creating amazing commercials at every turn to entice us to buy the latest and greatest version. Now, with the recent release of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and over a dozen Zelda games already blessing every Nintendo system ever made… except Virtual Boy but, let’s not go there. Instead, let’s take a look at the commercials from over the years for the best game series ever, after the break.

Before we start, I’ll warn you that the audio volume shifts hugely between commercials… Love thy YouTube.

The Legend of Zelda – 80’s rap (NES)
Not having cable while growing up, these original commercials seem downright ridiculous but, who knows, they made have been “hip” in the 1980’s… When everyone was confused as to what “hip” was and why. I wonder, if I had seen these as a kid, would this make me want to play this game and all its subsequent, amazing, sequels. Also, I find the last line hilarious, “your parents help you hook it up,” because its the exact opposite these days.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link – lost in dungeons (NES)
This commercial is the opitamy of what I thought of the original two Zelda. Walking around, searching for Zelda for what seemed like forever.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Japanese dancing version (SNES)
An androgynous Link saves Zelda by dancing. Thank you, Japan. For making a hilarious and amazing commercial for the greatest game of all time.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – German rapping re-cut of Japanese dancing (SNES)
For Germany, the marketing peeps decided to take the amazing Japanese commercial and re-cut it so it doesn’t show that the people are Japanese. They also rap in German…. and have a heavy metal riff over the final title.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – North America thief (SNES)
So, finally, we come to the North American commercial for this fantastic game. It features some random thief climbing up a mountain with some extreme voice over. This unknown warrior is definitely not Link, due to the complete lack of a green, red or blue tunic but, I will leave my fan-boy heart piece at the door and move on with the list.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – hip-hop is hip (GB)
It’s the 90’s and the mainstream has caught wind of this music genre known as hip-hop. Legend of Zelda gets the royal treatment with someone trying very hard to be Ice Cube appearing in their commercial.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – are you a girl? (N64)
Back when the gaming industry assumed girls would only play games if they ponies or dainty girls in them. These days, they would probably not put those two ending lines, “Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?” Link rides a pony and Princess Zelda is one of the hottest and proper digital girls in video games.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Japanese girl moaning (N64)
Meanwhile, in Japan, they advertise using a girl moaning while playing Zelda…. um, yeah… Being a hero gets your girls…. or something.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – one North American man saves the world (N64)
Here in North America, we love to think that one all-powerful person saves the entire world.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – one Japanese man saves his apartment (N64)
Over in Japan, they have slightly less of an ego, choosing to instead save their apartments.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracles of Seasons / Ages – one man saves the world (GBC)
The opening to this animation is really cool but I don’t like how it doesn’t actually show any of the game. This is a pretty common theme since special effects look (arguably) much better than the game itself. I finally forgave them for this with the Spirit Tracks trailer (later in the post).

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures – confused psychologist (GC/GBA)
No wonder some parents think playing games warps the mind. This commercial riffs on that idea but, doesn’t do a great job of it.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures – Japanese kids playing together (GC/GBA)
Meanwhile, in Japan, kids are playing four swords together while some old people talk about them around a table of delicious food. Another win for Japan… mmm… chicken.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – epic adventure (GC)
This reminded me how amazing Link looks in cel-shading. Also, it tells the heart of the epic Zelda adventure story. Win for North America.

The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (GBA)
Catchy music and cool 3D graphics are great and all but, really, it makes this game look like its in full 3D, which it wasn’t. It was an amazing 2D and it should be proud of itself for that, gosh darn it!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC/Wii)
New Legend of Zelda game + Wii controlling for the first time = sells itself.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – white girls (DS)
Even though this girls are clearly acting, this shows that Nintendo realizes how many women play their games. Only took about a decade but, yay!

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – Japan (DS)
Beauty in simplicity.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
Finally, we come to the latest installment in the Zelda series and, by far, the best ad. Although, like many of their commercials, it shows nothing of the actual game, it gives all the fans a nice tip of the hat in the form of many geeky details.

And so the legend continues, forever in our hearts and on our screens. In fact, some dedicated fans over at IGN even decided to create an official looking trailer to tease the hearts of oh-so-many fans.