From Tingle’s bartering game to a Mario cross-over of sorts.
It always seems like a uniquely long time between Zelda games.
It feels like we see Zelda’s cast much less frequently than we see a lot of other characters.
They have rich lives, presumably, that they live elsewhere.
Zelda’s characters, though.
It’s an unfair comparison.
But maybe it’s unfair in an interesting way.
Mario does a lot of sports in between all the platforming.
As much as Mario is anything, he’s a sense of energy and weight.
From early days, Mario was practically an athlete!
With the Zelda series it’s a lot more complicated.
And I think this is because Link is not a mascot in the same way that Mario is.
Mario is Nintendo’s Mr Peanut.
Link and Zelda feel more like ghosts that haunts the mansion Nintendo lives in.
Ghosts with whims and strange demands.
Ghosts that make their presences felt in unusual ways.
And now I’ve done this: it’s an odd list.
Yes, Link has been in Mario Kart, which has always felt slightly sacreligious to me.
And he’s been in Smash Bros and Soul Calibur 2.
Link in Mario Kart?
That’s Link turning up to cut the ribbon at a friend’s supermarket.
Elsewhere it gets much more interesting, however.
The games I think are most fascinating, though?
Well, here’s my favourite part of the list I made.
Navi Trackers,Cadence of Hyrule, that Tingle game with the really long name I can never remember.
Let’s tackle these out of order.
Cadence of Hyrule is an absolute stunner.
It feels like Zelda.
It feels almost classic.
Tingle, meanwhile, gets an adventure that’s almost as indescribable as the character is.
Maybe it’s both these things.
I don’t know what to make of any of this.
And then there’s Navi Trackers.
We’re a long way from Hyrule Baseball here.
(God, I would honestly buy that game in a second.)
It’s also just weird.
It’s trying to create a Zeldaish sense of exploration and delight in a slightly more party-friendly setting.
Is this my favourite Zelda off-shoot?
Exhibit A is Mario 3D Land, world 5-2.
This is a Mario game that suddenly turns into a Zelda game.
Link’s Awakening is just a riff, really, a bit of a joke.
It’s a skit, a bit.
It feels like that moment in Friends where the doctors from ER turn up for a few laughs.
World 5-2 is much more involved.
It’s top-down Mario, which makes sense because 3D Land was all about stereoscopic 3D.
5-2 isn’t a long level, but it’s very sweet.
And yet now and again they brush up against each other in strange, crackling ways.
