The Legend of Zelda (and why we should all love video game music)

Being the first commercially successful RPG adventure game on a gaming console, it was nothing short of amazing to see how long the first Zelda game stayed on top of the Nintendo sales charts. Every month, I would read Nintendo Power and in the back, they would list the top selling video games of the last month, and well, month after month Zelda was at the top. Outside of the Mario franchise, Zelda was the NES top seller, with roughly 11 million copies sold between both Zelda and Zelda 2. There’s no doubt that one of the many reasons why Zelda was and is held in such high regard is its musical score.

I spent three months with my friends playing that game almost every day until we FINALLY beat it. Check this: before Nintendo Power came out with their full color, glossy “overworld” map, my friend James’ mom pain-stakingly drew us a map of the entire world of Zelda. And it looked just as good as the official version. For those three months, she was like the coolest mom ever! (except my mom)

Let’s see if these bring back some memories:

“It’s a secret to everybody.” The Lost Woods. Waking up the ghosts in the cemetery so you can score a lot of coin, only to lose track of the “head ghost”. Discovering a secret door only to have to pay some old man for destroying it. The “skull” shape of dungeon 9. The Magic Sword. The Power Bracelet.  Defeating those knights that can only be killed by stabbing them in the back. The Bait (most useless tool in the game). Accidentally drinking your last potion. Boomerang! “Dodongo dislikes smoke.”

Without further ado, here are a few unique samplings of the Zelda theme song played by its fans: