Thirty-five years ago, Nintendo introduced an adventure RPG called The Legend of Zelda. It was a runaway hit in Japan then; and when it arrived in the United States a year later, it became the first Nintendo game in the states to reach one millions copies sold. After the original game, The Legend of Zelda series would expand to encompass sixteen more titles (seventeen, if you want to count next year’s Breath of the Wild 2), and become one of the most recognized and beloved Nintendo franchises. With the recent trend towards remakes, remasters, and compilations, a number of the earliest Zelda games have been made more readily available to a new generation of players, further cementing the series’ place in gaming history. Later this month, fans will get their hands on the HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the narrative of which marks the very beginning of the Zelda timeline.

It is with all this in mind that we decided to pay tribute this month to The Legend of Zelda series with a list to end all lists! (Well, maybe not all lists…) If you’ve been following Virtual Bastion for any length of time, you may have caught that we are fans of the series. The Legend of Zelda games have been among the most memorable and most treasured games we’ve each played. The games have grown with us over time, becoming more expansive and ambitious with each new title. We’ve watched them evolve and change with each new console generation. We’ve embraced Hyrule as a second “home,” walked among its motley inhabitants, and experienced joy and pain within its vastness.

Here on the site, we’ve done other Zelda-related lists and countdowns before, but this one — #Zelda35 – will mark a culmination of sorts as we count down our top 35 favorite things about The Legend of Zelda series as a whole. These “things” span anything and everything about the series, from the actual games themselves, to their general aspects, characters, items, environments, quests, and even related media. You can be certain that we left no door unopened, no pot unbroken, and no patch of grass uncut in making this list.

After coming up with an initial ranking of only about a zillion great things about The Legend of Zelda games (ha!), we managed to narrow it down to the 35 of the greatest. We then broke the list up into posts covering two to three items each. These individual countdown posts will be published according to our regular posting schedule (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday) starting on Sunday the 4^th and ending on Thursday the 29^th. We’ll share highlights and achievements; cherished memories; wishes and relics; and moments that will never be forgotten (and probably a few we wish we could forget). Along the way, we hope you’ll share your own favorite things about The Legend of Zelda series, too. Our countdown begins soon, and we hope to see you on the journey to number one!