User:Orokusaki/ZAge

''An essay by User:Orokusaki. The content of this essay does not at this time represent an encyclopedia article.''

The Zelda Age denotes a time period when console role-playing games, and fantastic imaginations became a way of life for some. Like baby boomers, or any other generation the children born in the late 70s and early 1980s were destined to fall into their own furrow of style and trends. More apparent though was that the children of this time period might not fall into the same type of fashion based trends as their parents and those before. With a new type of nostalgia, created not by longings for a different life, or awe time stories at the campfire with grandpa, but rather by something much more complex, and perhaps 16-bit. When Nintendo Company, Limited announced the Nintendo Entertainment System, an 8-bit video gaming system, people went crazy over it. Stunned by the seemingly great graphics and interesting games, parents bought them for their kids, and themselves. At that time people did not have as many concerns about kids becoming obsessed with games, and thought them to be only entertainment. Simple games like Donkey Kong remained extremely popular throughout the NES's production period making an NES purchase easily justifiable for parents who liked the simplicity of a 20 minute game in the evening. In 1986 Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda, a role playing game, which quickly became popular, especially among youth. The adventure, and variety offered by this RPG kept kids coming back for more, and by the late 80s, playing games like "Zelda" was already becoming a nightly routine. Then, in the early 1990s Nintendo announced the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. As you might have guessed, a lot of the same people who owned the NES ran straight for the 16 bit successor to the already successful NES with better graphics and the promise of great games to come. A 16-bit bus meant that the system could run 16 different bits at one time in parallel*. A bit is 1/8th of a byte**. When the top-down arcade game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released for the Super Nintendo, this was not only great news for Zelda fans, but for many, it really was a link the past. The thought of continuing their quest, started many years before, was nostalgic for the youth and teenagers who played this new edition, and a version of the game has since been released on every Nintendo platform to hit the US, and for many who are now in their early to mid 20s this is a connection to their past that can't be broken. The Hyrule fantasy: Zeruda no densetsu was released in Japan and in 2003 a special edition Gamecube edition was released in the US according to IMDB(Internet Movie Data Base) The trend has frayed into different categories, and now RPGs exist on many levels, such as complex card games, PC games, and game consoles other than Nintendo’s. Zelda, however might arguably be what started this age of "Adventure Through Gaming" for their generation, and this year (2006) Nintendo will release their newest console, the Wii and this time, they'll turn a new leaf for the Zelda Age, for the Wii console will be the first game ever to be released side-by-side with a new Legend of Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Will this lead to closure for many Zelda Agers or will it be a new beginning?