My Experience with Zelda Part 1
It's funny to think about it now, but in between the time that Majora’s Mask and the next Zelda game came out, I had met and dated the woman who would become my wife, got married, changed jobs, and moved to Ogden. The next Zelda game was really a pair of games – The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, both of which I bought after work on release day. They were made for the Game Boy Color, but I figured I could play them in the Super Game Boy. Alas, it was not to be, and I had to make the decision to either go out and get a Game Boy Color, or wait 3 weeks to get a Game Boy Advance. I decided on the latter option, and had to be patient.
I bought the Game Boy Advance at midnight of release day, and played Oracle of Seasons for about 10 minutes before heading to bed since I had work the next day. I took the GBA and Seasons with me to work and played a little on breaks. I saw the obvious reuse of the LA graphics, sound, and engine, as well as characters from both OoT and MM in the game, so the game had a familiar feeling to it. I really loved the password system between the two games, and ended up playing each game twice. I actually started Seasons, then erased it and started Ages, then started Seasons again because I was really concerned with which one happened first chronologically (turns out, it doesn’t matter). 
Whenever I played them, I always played them one right after the other, and then each a second time in the reverse order. This is because there are some slight differences in the endings and a few other things depending on which direction they are played. I'm a completionist, and like experiencing everything the game has to offer. I ended up playing them more so while on vacation than at home, mostly as a way to avoid unpleasant interactions with extended family members and to escape the frustration that was produced by said interactions. One Saturday I waxed artistic and felt the need to do mini posters of each of the Zelda games' logos with some accompanying artwork. For some of them, I happened to own some of the promotional materials, for others only the instruction manual, and for a few of them nothing at all. I got some initial sketches/layouts done but got stymied at how complicated the trees for the Oracle games logos were, and sorta became disinterested. I later completed the idea, but I used Photoshop to do the logos overtop of the original Master Sword artwork from ALttP and then a second version using realistic textures/pictures.
The next game was a Game Boy Advance port of ALttP that also included a
multiplayer feature called The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. I wasn’t in a huge rush to get this
game as I already had ALttP on SNES, and didn’t have anyone to play Four Swords
with at the time. But I eventually got the game. I enjoyed being able to take
ALttP with me and play a familiar game with a couple new features, but it
wouldn’t be for a few years that I got to play Four Swords.
Then in 2003, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was slated to be released. I
found out online that Toys’Я’Us had a special deal where players could pre-order Wind Waker,
and get a GameCube port of Ocarina along with a new feature called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. I still had a few days before WW was going to be released so I rushed
down there to get my copy of the Master Quest. It turned out to be a version
where all the dungeons were remixed and made considerably harder, especially
for those who had gained habits on the original. I think someone who had never
played the original OoT wouldn’t find the MQ to be super difficult, but those
who had played OoT got locked into one way of thinking and it was frustrating
(but in a good way).
Less than a week later, I got The Wind Waker. From the
preview videos for it, I was a little disappointed at the art direction of the
game. It appeared Nintendo was making Zelda more “kiddy,” and less
realistic. But once I got into the game,
I absolutely loved the cel-shaded graphics, and think they remain beautiful to
this day. I got the GameLink cable for the GBA so I could take advantage of the
Tingle Tuner, and sunk many hours into the game (no pun intended – mostly).
I liked having the GBA connection for several reasons. Mostly, I liked getting just a little bit more game and a few more things to do because of it. But it also allowed me to let my son Avery be my "Tingle buddy" when he was old enough, as the controls were simple enough for a 2-year-old to use. My brother Matt was the first person to do this, though. On the day I bought the cable, he and his girlfriend (and soon to be fiancé) stayed a couple of nights with us, so he got to try out the Tingle Tuner first.
A few months later, I finally got around to buying the
remake of ALttP on the GBA. It was a great port, and added just a couple of new
features, but otherwise it stayed the same. But the biggest new thing was that
it had Four Swords, the first multiplayer Zelda game. Unfortunately, I didn’t
know anyone else with a GBA and a copy of the game, nor did I have a GameLink cable. So it
would be quite a while until I got to play the other side of it. It had some
cool connectivity between the 2 halves of the game, but I didn’t get to
experience it until we would buy multiple SPs and copies of the game.
About a year later, I bought The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Like FS and the
Oracle games, I played it on my GBA and used my Worm Light as needed. But I
began to be frustrated with the lack of light, and so we went out to get the Game
Boy Player to make it easier to play Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color games. This made it seem more like a console release instead of a handheld game release. It was around this time that my son Avery started to get old enough to kinda understand a little better what was going on with games, and he wanted to try this one.
I liked the fact that this game's overworld theme was not much different from ALttP's version, and that it took place in Hyrule. As I hadn't played much with either Four Swords or Four Swords Adventures, I wasn't as familiar with some of the backstory associated with this game. But I liked it for some of the story elements, like how Link got his hat. One thing I noted was that some of the elements of the game were very "Japanese," something I had became keenly aware of after living there for a couple of years. 
I had seen the next game in stores when it came out, but didn't get it because of tight money situation and because I didn't have anyone to play with. About a year and a half later, I bought The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures used from eBay (because it was no longer in stores). The listing said
it included a cable to connect the Game Boy Advance to the GameCube, but the package arrived with
no cable. I contacted the seller and it turns out she had just used the UPC to
get the pre-made, default description of the contents of the box. She offered
to refund and such, but it was too late to get a replacement for Christmas.
Also, the manual was missing its cover.
I ended up not playing the game very
much at this time because I had some incorrect assumptions about how it worked. Basically, I
assumed it was like Four Swords, and that the multiplayer was radically
different from the single player game. As it turns out, there are only some
very slight differences, and it’s pretty much the same game. But it would be a few years before I completed the game.
I was anticipating the next Zelda game to be on the
GameCube, called Twilight Princess. Based on the original release date, it was
supposed to be in stores sometime in early May. I didn’t hear much about it and
almost forgot about it. But on release day at Midnight, I made my way to
Wal-Mart and asked if it was out. Nobody in electronics knew what I was talking
about, so I went home and found out it had been postponed for about another 6
months.
At some point around this time, Avery and I got to play Four
Swords using my brother Brady’s copy of ALttP/FS and connecting the Game Boy Player to the Game Boy Advance.
We went through the game once, but I didn’t realize we were supposed to go
through it 3 times, and that I was supposed to unlock things from A Link to the Past back and
forth. But I unlocked the one thing that I had known about before I had to give the game back to Brady. Avery was old enough to decide to be Link for Halloween so we bought a large green polo shirt, a green beanie, and some other gear. I sewed some boot covers for him out of some brown felt, so he had a pretty good Ocarina of Time version Link costume. I also decorated a plastic sword and shield using some acrylic paint so it looked the part.
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