20 Game Anniversaries Coming In 2026 That'll Age You Mercilessly

The Legend of Zelda is one of the cornerstone series for Nintendo, with some iteration of the game appearing on every single one of the company’s consoles, up to the Switch. But this year we want to look back to the series’ beginning, on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The NES gave us our first taste of Zelda action in 2D, with The Legend of Zelda, a top-down action-adventure with 8-bit graphics and a style that feels part Pokémon, part Pac-Man and part Super Mario, but stands distinct from all three. We play as Link, an elf-like boy and aspiring adventurer, who journeys through the fantasy land of Hyrule collecting the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom needed in order to rescue the titular Princess.

While the game doesn’t feel anything like new, it comes as quite a surprise that this year it celebrates its fortieth anniversary. With twenty-one games to date, it is safe to say the franchise has been a wild success and each milestone – Ocarina of Time; Twilight Princess; Breath of the Wild – seem so much more recent than they are.

And, yes, forty years on, that lil guy in green is still Link – and Zelda is the Princess.