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‘Afterschool activity’ gave birth to Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Zelda creator talks of link(s) to the past

‘Afterschool activity’ gave birth to Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The creator of the original handheld version of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, has revealed that the series only began on the Game Boy as an ‘afterschool club activity’ on top of normal work.

Takashi Tezuka, talking to Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata on the official Nintendo website, said that the project began as an experiment to ‘see how it would work’, and that initial designs were drawn ‘like a jigsaw puzzle’ onto paper.

It was also revealed that he initially envisioned the game world to be ‘like [the TV Series] Twin Peaks’ and that the idea of a proper story running throughout the game was born from the classic Game Boy title.

‘I wanted to make something that, while it would be small enough in scope to easily understand, it would have deep and distinctive characteristics’, Tezuka said.

Link’s Awakening was released in Europe for the Game Boy in 1993 and gave birth to the immensely successful handheld Zelda games.

The latest entry, Spirit Tracks, was awarded a Pocket Gamer Gold Award last year and is one of the best DS titles of 2009.

Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).