Last verified: 2026-11-10

The 1986 Legend of Zelda

The original Legend of Zelda was sold first, in 1986, and Nintendo's chart places it near the end of the downfall path.

Key art © Nintendo, used with a link to the product page. Chart art on this site is original.

Japan's Famicom Disk System release is 21 Feb 1986. North America is 22 Aug 1987. Europe is 15 Nov 1987. Those gaps are large enough that a single year would be a lie, so the table keeps three dates. The hero is the young Link of this late era. Zelda is a princess described as a descendant of an earlier Zelda. Ganon is the antagonist named on the box.

Echoes of Wisdom is the story predecessor on the current chart. Zelda II is the successor. Between Echoes and this cartridge the page describes a Golden Era and then an era of decline. I am not filling those eras with games Nintendo did not list. The decline is why the manual's Hyrule feels ruined even though, in the legend, many adventures already happened.

A Game Boy Advance port is recorded only as 2004, without a month in our fields, so I leave the month blank. Nintendo Classics on Switch and Switch 2 is how many people play it now. The classics line in the record has no single day, and I am not borrowing the 1986 day for a subscription service.

This is the page for the NES original, the words legend of zelda nes, and the question of where the first sold game sits. The disambiguation page answers first in one table. Skyward Sword remains the story's beginning. If a searcher only wanted a release year, the release-order page has every box.

Zelda II continues directly: the same kingdom, a sleeping princess, and a different kind of action game. It is the last title on the downfall path. Nothing on the official page stitches this pair onto Wind Waker or onto Breath of the Wild. I have seen that stitch in theories. It stays on the theories page.

• Previous: Echoes of Wisdom
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• Two meanings of first