Today marks the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. Originally released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986, Nintendo’s ambitious adventure kicked off the most beloved high-fantasy video game series of them all. Through decades, the tunic-wearing hero has slain stalfos, obliterated octoroks, and harassed cuccos. But behind all the sword and sorcery lies another campaign in waiting, an adventure Link has never braved but come very close to undertaking: some outer space shit.
In 2017, Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, art director Satoru Takizawa and technical director Takuhiro Dohta gave a keynote at GDC. It offered a rare and candid glimpse at the production behind the latest (and to some, greatest) Legend of Zelda, released only a few days prior. Getting a peak behind the curtain at how the toybox of physics and elemental effects came to be was a treat, but one of the more bizarre parts of the talk regarded an earlier pitch.
In a segment called “Trial and Error,” Takizawa reviews concepts for a version of the game called The Legend of Zelda: INVASION. “This is where things got a bit dodgy,” Takizawa said. “And here’s an invasion from outer space.”
As chuckling swells in the crowd, bizarre slides of this would-be Zelda cycle. It features a UFO descending on to Hyrule, a storyboard for an alien autopsy, spacesuits and Ganondorf in what appears to be a Metallica t-shirt. Most offensive of all were slides of the most fuckboy Link ever developed. Dressed like a frosh week volunteer, Link dons baggy denim pants, a striped winter hat, a Triforce guitar and a motorcycle. To think we came this close to a Link with a Superbad poster in his room still gives me chills.
Thankfully we got the incredible game we got instead, but it’s probably no coincidence that Takizawa brought up INVASION when discussing the design for Breath of the Wild’s ancient ruins and Guardians. Sheikah technology has a strong, otherworldly and out-of-place appearance to it. Mechanical octopus arms. Ominous glowing spotlights. Metallurgy so distant to the masonry everywhere else. Hell, Link’s main weapon is a damn smartphone. It always felt like some of the sci-fi elements remained deep in Hyrule’s soil, built by ancient visitors.
This Stargate-aside wasn’t The Legend of Zelda’s only near miss with a different genre. Fact is, since day one Shigeru Miyamoto considered giving The Legend of Zelda a harder sci-fi bent. In an interview with the French publication Gamekult, Miyamoto confirmed that the series’ original idea revolved around time travel.
Obviously time travel is a frequent occurrence, but this initial concept is less Ocarina and more Back to the Future Part II. This plot seemingly concerns a bygone era of steel and shield rubbing up against strange future devices, and the source of the Triforce’s incredible magic being microchips and computer parts. In that same conversation, Miyamoto even muses that Breath of the Wild producer Eiji Aonuma might have added the Sheikah Slate as a kind of callback to this original idea. 1992’s A Link to the Past got so close to Link facing off against flying cars that concept art was drafted for a tubular, ‘90s, cyberpunk Princess Zelda, resurfacing in 2013’s Hyrule Historia. Come to think of it, the title A Link to the Past would make a lot more sense for a game about time travel than one in which you merely hop between a good dimension and a scary dimension.
After 40 years, it feels unlikely that Nintendo will send Link, Zelda, Tingle, all our Hyrule friends spiraling into wormholes and far off nebulas now. When Hylians land on the moon, it usually means the moon came to the Hyrule. Nintendo has reigned in their style guide before. As they venture into movies, Netflix shows and theme parks I expect them to only become more conservative on what their IPs do and do not do. Still, as much as INVASION’s Link… disturbs me, I am that steadfast Jackie Brown and Ed Wood are their best movies kind of hack who finds that great artists often do their greatest work beyond the comfort zone. Throughout the ages, people who work on Zelda seem to dream of one day lobbing Link into the cold void of space. Perhaps, one day, they will get their wish.
