A Nintendo Entertainment System console with the full version of The Legend of Zelda was to be available as an item, but was made unobtainable. It can still be played by hacking into the game, however.
Kafei's shirt and Anju's shirt are available as clothes for your character.
On the back wall of the fortune teller's tent, there is a picture of the Triforce.
Tortimer tells a story about him defeating the great sea snakes at Pinnacle Rock, which is what Link had to do in Majora's Mask.
In some villagers' houses, if the player tries to look in a cupboard or drawer, they may get a message that says that they've found some rupees but cannot use them as currency in the game.
Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube had an e-Reader feature. Scanning certain cards added Zelda based pattern designs to be used as wallpaper, clothing, etc.
If you buy a shell from Bazaar's Shop, ask him about a castle, and refuse to pay for the story; Bazaar will tell you a story about another boy who asked about a castle and payed for it in rupees.
Link in Rose Town's Inn after you get the second star.
If you sleep at the Inn at Rose Town, Link will be sleeping in the bed next to you. If you talk to him it will play the classic Zelda discovery theme. As seen here.
One of the items is the Great Force, a yellow triangle. The people at TMK discovered that the item was originally supposed to be the Triforce and Link was supposed to appear when you got it.
Throughout the game you are guided by a hint giving pixl named Tippi. She has the appearance of a rainbow colored (but mostly light blue) butterfly, and is obviously a parody of Navi. Also, when Mimi insists that you pay for a vase you broke, she will not accept coins, since she prefers to use octagonal gems called Rubees, again a parody of Rupee. There is a Pixl inside a bathroom on the moon named "Fleep" which requests a piece of paper. The player then must buy a map, which is then used a toilet paper by Fleep (in a similar way to ???), who rewards you by joining your team.
Game director Yoshiaki Koizumi said in an interview with Nintendo Power (issue #225) that the battle strategy against the boss character Megaleg is inspired by what was going to be used for the final battle against Ganon in Ocarina of Time, but that was scrapped due to difficulty on camera control. Also, in the third mission of Good Egg Galaxy, Mario fights giant creatures that resemble Deku Scrubs firing cannonballs at you.
The game's concept of light/dark duality, as well as the collection of Temple Keys, was compared to the gameplay mechanic from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In fact, the developer of the game, Retro Studios, was assisted by one of the creators of the SNES Zelda game to properly incorporate the aforementioned concept into the new game (source).
Interestingly, some game journalists and critics also compared this game to Majora's Mask, as both games are credited for being darker and more challenging than their respective predecessors, albeit also less influential[1][2]
Players can unlock a special feature known as Ship Bumper Stickers, which decorates Samus Aran's gunship with stickers based on certain Nintendo games that have data stored in the players' Wii consoles. One of these games is Twilight Princess, which makes the gunship have a sticker portraying the crest of the Triforce.
As an extra note, the drawn pictures on planet Bryyo (which house scannable lore data for Samus) are reminiscent of The Wind Waker's' cel-shading art style.
At one point in the game, it mentions a Great "Dekuh" which was "the most gorgeous tree in the forest" and its "magical power protected the forest from the attacks of dark creatures", obviously a reference to the Great Deku Tree.
There's a part in the game where the player goes to Sunny Peak ands pull The Legendary Spoon out of its pedestal, similar to Link pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal. It references A Link to the Past, in which Link also had to get a blue, red and green orb before he could pull the sword from its pedestal. This specific quest has also been featured in several other Zelda games.
Ham-Merchants across the game say "Buy something, will ya?", like the merchants from the first game.
Flora's shawl has an image of a Triforce on it, which can be seen in the opening scene.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
In the special episode "Igglybuff the Prodigy", there is a cutscene involving a room in a dungeon filled with many Zelda dungeon puzzle-like implements that a character explains are probably all used to open the door in that room. A later cutscene involves the same character talking about a single simple, common (but reverse-solution) Zelda puzzle type found in front of him inside another dungeon.
One quest involves collecting the four pieces of the Quadforce. One piece is found outside Linken's house. The Quadforce is like the Triforce and the boss of the quest is Gananana, a name which sounds similar to Ganon, and the rewards are a dagger, sword and staff of eye-rule, which sounds like Hyrule. The rarest price which can only be sold for 250 gold is Ocarina of Thyme.
If you read a certain tombstone in Final Fantasy 1 it reads "Here lies Link". It is in the town of elves, Elfheim, near what could be called the bottom of the map.
In part 4-1 of the second case in Justice For All, Phoenix utters the line "Well, excuuuse me, Princess", a reference to The Legend of Zelda cartoon series.
In Warcraft III and the expansion, if you click a "Druid of the Claw" enough times he will say "Can't ... stop ... DANCING!" possibly in reference to Darunia (with music in the background somewhat like Saria's Song).
A long quest chain is available in the zone Un'Goro Crater which heavily references The Legend of Zelda series.
It begins when the player locates a stranded raft (a reference to Link's Awakening) in Un'Goro Crater, which starts the quest "It's a Secret to Everybody". The player must then find a bag nearby it, containing a Curled Map Parchment, a Large Compass, a Lion-headed Key, and a Faded Photograph. The photograph shows a picture of a pair of gnomes dressed similarly to Zelda and Link, standing in front of a ruined castle. The player then has to find the gnome dressed as Link in the photo, named Linken, who is located at a camp in the zone, to continue.
Further down the quest-line, you are tasked with stealing a plant from a gnoll named Miblon Snarltooth. Miblon will respond with "Grumble grumble" if you speak to him. To distract Miblon to steal the plant, the player must purchase a Bait item from a nearby dwarf, who will sell it to you with the quote, "Buy something, will ya?" Both quotes, and the ability of meat to distract monsters, are a reference to the first Zelda.
Near the end of the quest-line, the player must summon a water elemental named Aquementas to do a task for them, in reference to the dragon Aquamentus.
The end of the quest chain, named "It's Dangerous to Go Alone", involves the player slaying a fire elemental and taking the Golden Flame it was guarding back to Linken. The Golden Flame resembles a golden triangle, and Linken says it is "dangerous in the hands of those with an evil heart." The rewards for completing this quest are Linken's Sword of Mastery, Linken's Boomerang, and the Spirit of Aquementas.
There is a kodo in Un'Goro Crater named Dadanga, and its owner says it "dislikes smoke." A reference to the first game, when a man says "DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE."
Although does not contain a direct reference, director Hideki Kamiya admits he has been influenced by the Legend of Zelda series in developing the PlayStation 2 title, which was also adapted to the Wii in 2008.[1] Coincidentally, both Ōkami and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess feature a wolf as a playable character.
In the Ponc'tan area, the houses' doors show a symbol identical to that of Kokiri's Emerald.
The creators of the game have stated they have been heavily influenced by The Legend of Zelda-games, and that the structure of the game is much like a Zelda game.[2]
This game is about bringing back the 8-bit nostalgia, and shows many hints from many popular games, specially for The Legend of Zelda. Many of the Zelda similarities include:
The over-world is very similar, it has many areas such as towns, dungeons, a lost forest, a castle, and a mountain area where rocks bounce while falling.
If the chicken get hit a many times, they will get mad and bring back up.
The enemies resemble the Armos, Darknuts, Gibdos, Moblins, Keeses, Lynels, Like likes, Octoroks, Stalfos, Tektikes, Zols, Wizzrobes, Patra, and a Ganon with extra arms, all in 3d pixels.
The sword will shoot beams is the health is at it's max.
If a character breaks into a secret cave, he can either be rewarded or fined. Even an old man tells "It is a secret to everyone"
A fairy will join the hero's party.
One of their characters is called Moyomoto, who is brother to Wigy. A reference to Zelda creator.
The fight with the Dark Bishop Fuelle is very similar to the boss fight with Agahnim in Oracle of Season.
The final boss name is Onyx, similar to Onox. Onyx is also a dragon, much like Onox's true form.
The dungeons and it's puzzles are the same but in 3D.
In the episode "Hill Billy," Dennis the Dirt Gnome's hand looks exactly like a Dexihand when it protrudes from the ground. Also, in the episode "The Prank Call of Cthulu," Cthulu's face slightly resembles Majora's Mask.
In the episode "Child Fearing", there was a character who resembles Link. The character was not officially announced as Link, but it has many of Link's key features, as well as what looks like a fairy. The character was in a game, controlled by the mayor of Townsville. The mayor made the character slash his sword, get smashed by giant brick squares twice, run into walls, and kill the creature which looks like a fairy. Afterward, the mayor gets a "start over?", in which the screen zooms out of the game, and the viewers can clearly see that the character was in fact in a game, as well as the mayor holding what looks like a Nintendo 64 controller.
In one episode, Mario is rescuing some aliens known as Quirks from Moon Man Koopa. In the episode, the Quirks sing a song to stop Koopa. The song that the Quirks play is the beginning theme from the Zelda cartoon.
A Zelda parody is shown in Robot Chicken's episode 5 from season 3. Link goes to free Zelda with excitement after killing Ganon. Zelda, on the other hand, is bored and states that this is the eighth time she has been rescued. She gives Link eight Rupees and goes away.
In the second episode of the Imaginationland trilogy, when the wall breaks away and the bad imaginary characters charge out to cause havoc, Link, who is one of the good imaginary characters, can be seen running away within a second.
Ganondorf can also be spotted in the third episode of the same trilogy, during the war of the good imaginary characters versus the bad imaginary characters.
In the animated TV series Drawn Together, the character of Xandir’s girlfriend is largely based on Zelda. Voiced by Cree Summer. From the episode Gay Bash, she was Xandir's girlfriend before he came out of the closet. The evil Lord Slashstab used to capture her for no reason, leading to Xandir's never-ending quest to save her. She seems to be a terrible homophobe, refusing to allow Xandir to rescue her once he informs her he is gay, even though at the time she was being lowered into a pit of megacobras in Lord Slashstab's castle.
At the beginning of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the movie plays the Great Fairy Fountain theme song and, later on, it plays the chime from when Link obtains an item.
Issue 27 (Starcrash) of the Star Wars comic series features characters strongly resembling Link and Zelda. The boy is named Yoshi, and the girl is named Lourdes. She has pointy ears, and they both wear similar clothes to their respective counterparts. Further supporting this is the fact that Lourdes is a princess, and Yoshi is a Jedi Knight, which is looked upon as being a hero.
Cultural influence
The band Showbread have expressed devout appreciation for the series in several ways. They came onstage to The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker intro music during their Reptilian Empire Tour in 2006. Three members of the band can be seen wearing matching Triforce rings in their music video for mouth like a magazine.
Joe Pleiman created a song parody of the main Zelda theme for his album The Rabbit Joint. The song is commonly falsely attributed to the bands, System of a Down or The Rabbit Joint.
In The Kids in the Hall Season 5 Episode 5, Gavin (played by Bruce McCulloch) wears a green Legend of Zelda cap.
Robin Williams named his daughter "Zelda" because Zelda is his son's favorite video game series.
