Break out the triforce, it's time to celebrate!

I am happy to announce that today is the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, which became available for purchase for the first time in Japan on February 21, 1986. Who would have guessed that a simple boy, named Link, would spend the next 25 years defeating many a foe, saving variations of the princess Zelda from a horrible fate, through books, graphic novels, television shows, and of course many video game sequels. With the upcoming Wii release of Skyward Sword, along with an ever-growing fan community which includes yours truly, there is no doubt that this series will continue to flourish for a while yet.

With 25 years having passed, Nintendo has yet to release a mere hint, letalone an actual time-line, for the series. Many have wondered what it could be, and plenty have attempted to produce a plausible answer. One of the theories which I feel explains it best is from gametrailers.com. While it is now dated, as it was posted in 2006 and does not include any Zelda releases since then, their reasoning for the time-line up to that point is explained and presented fairly well. Not only do they present their theory for the sequence of the games themselves, this video is part 6 of their 6-part Legend of Zelda Retrospective series, all of which are worth a watch in celebration of this momentous day for all the Zelda fans out there.

Naturally the CDI games are not mentioned in the time-line as we Zelda folk refuse to acknowledge their existence. If you do wish to submit yourself to they-which-must-not-be-named, the Angry Video Game Nerd discusses them in a three-part CDI series with his usual finesse.