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Few games command an instant respect at the mere mention of their series name. Of the handful of series that have that level of reverence placed upon them, The Legend of Zelda ranks up there as perhaps the most iconic name of them all. The release of a new Zelda game isn’t just a moment where fans of the series sit-up and take notice; it’s an event that the entire gaming population is at least acutely aware of, and more often than not, a driving factor in the sales of the Nintendo platform it was published on.

After five long years of waiting, we’re on the verge of reaching the peak of anticipation and excitement levels for the latest instalment in the Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. In a busy quarter which features a head-to-head battle of the FPSes, a new Elder Scrolls game and Batman: Arkham City, most games would struggle to stake out a definitive place in the line-up and draw sufficient media attention. Skyward Sword though has that elusive quality that few games have – the big name. So why is it then that the Zelda series commands such a huge amount of respect that it can be absent on home consoles for almost five years, and still stand toe-to-toe with the current industry heavyweights?

Once in a Generation

Despite the huge lengths of time between entries in the main console Zelda series, fans can rely on one thing – at least once in a generation, there will be a new Zelda game. It’s a rite of passage for a console to get a new Zelda game, and it never really feels complete until it has one. The Wii started off strongly with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but Skyward Sword, as the first bespoke Wii Zelda, will be the console’s rite of passage, even if it is at the end of the console’s lifespan.

But it is this waiting, and this certainty that the game is coming, that will forever keep the Zelda franchise relevant to today’s audiences. Series like Call of Duty and FIFA iterate yearly, offering little more than they did 12 months ago. We’ve seen first-hand with the Guitar Hero franchise that this model leads to gamer burnout, and the series goes comatose while it waits to become relevant again. The illusive, almost surreal lengths of time between Zelda games are in fact once of its strongest appealing factors. While the rest of the gaming world is playing the same thing again, the Zelda series lies in wait, and becomes a landmark moment like no other when it finally sees the light of day.

The Delays

We all complain about it, but the continual delays to a Zelda game do add to the charm of the eventual release. In recent times, it’s become a bit of a game that Nintendo play with the fans, proposing an entirely unrealistic release date, only to push it back. Twilight Princess got pushed back to the Wii’s launch, and after a playable debut at E3 2010, Skyward Sword will be releasing over a year later to help celebrate the 25^th Anniversary of the series. But the tantalising glimpses of the game only add to the level of anticipation for it. With the media informed about the up-coming release, hype begins to build and thanks to the love of the series every fan inherently has, the hype manages to sustain itself right up until launch.

The Scale of the Game

Nintendo aren’t known typically for creating games with a grand scale. The Mario series as a platformer doesn’t lend itself to sprawling, explorable worlds, and series like Smash Bros and Kirby similarly suffer the same fate thanks to their inherent nature. The Zelda and Metroid series stand alone as the Nintendo series with the biggest scale, and thanks to its iconic landscapes, the Zelda series takes the lead as the Nintendo property with the greatest scope.

It’s not just the extreme explore-able expanse that the game provides though that gives the game a grand scale. While it is true that no other Nintendo series lets you travel huge distances across a beautifully realised world, the Zelda series also has the very un-Nintendo feature of a plot. And a very deep one at that. If you want to take it at face value then some of the plots may not be that deep, but delve deeper into the individual games and you will find that there is a big story to tell. Is the Hero’s Shade in Twilight Princess the Link from Majora’s Mask? Are the Rito descendants of the Zora race, now living on the Great Sea? And is it the same Ganon running amok in every adventure, or just a spirit passed down through the generations? We may never get these answers, but no matter what anyone says, there is an over-arching plot to the series, and for the first time, it looks like Nintendo are going out of their way to make sure it is reinforced in Skyward Sword, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Nintendo Promotion

Typically, Nintendo are very coy when it comes to promoting their games. Outside of press conferences of major media events, we get very little in the way of trailers or batches of new screenshots, with Nintendo taking the mantra of letting the game speak for itself. With Zelda though, the approach is different. You just need to compare how the 25^th anniversaries of Mario and Zelda were celebrated to see that Nintendo have a different philosophy behind each series. Mario got a lazy re-release of a SNES compilation, whereas Zelda got an updated version of Four Swords, a full orchestra concert series, a re-release of Ocarina of Time and arguably to cap it off, Skyward Sword.

But even if this had not been the anniversary year of the series, the promotion would still have been much stronger than anything else Nintendo released this year. We’ve had numerous trailers, an insane amount of screenshots, and more tours of the demo than you can shake a Deku Stick at. And still, despite all this coverage, we still haven’t had any major spoilers. It is testament to Nintendo that they have kept the game under wraps for so long, but also so out in the open all this time. And it’s this air of mystery that is one of the defining factors that creates such hype around the game.

Continuity and Change

If the promotion alone builds hype, then the potential for change in the series surely sends that hype sky-high. The Zelda series is one that is often criticised for sticking with its traditional values in terms of gameplay and progression, despite numerous changes and revisions to the formula throughout the series’ lifespan. Skyward Sword is claimed to be the game that changes everything, and completely reinvents how we all consider progress in a Zelda game. The potential, given that this is Nintendo, is frightening, as realistically we could end up with anything, but at the same time, it is incredibly exciting. To go into a Zelda game without even the slightest idea of how it will progress will be refreshing, and coupled with new items and a brand new control scheme, the game is going to be a true adventure.

There’s also the issue of the graphics to consider. Naturally there are haters and detractors, but the dawn of a new Zelda game always brings with it the classic ‘realism vs cartoon’ debate that has plagued the Zelda series since that fateful Space World demo in 2001. But it is also exciting. The graphical style in Skyward Sword is so unique and so vibrant that it is hard to be anything other than impressed by it, and I can’t wait to see what they do with it. It’s new, yet it’s similar, and it is classic Zelda.

The Fans

Of course, the biggest and best reason why a Zelda game has so much hype around it are the fans. Thanks to its rich and historic legacy, the Zelda series has grown something of a cult following. It was pointed out to me recently that Zelda fans have adopted an odd tradition that isn’t seen anywhere else in the industry. Tell someone you’re a big Call of Duty fan and you’ll probably not discuss much about the game. Tell someone you’re a Zelda fan and a bond is formed between you instantly. Straight away a friendship is formed and is followed by the question “which one do you think is best?”. What makes this moment even more special is that Zelda fans have such a reverence for the series that no matter what the reply is from the other person, you won’t be angry. That is the strength and depth of the series and how profoundly it has impacted people’s lives. Everyone has an opinion, but there is a mutual respect between Zelda players that we as fans, should be proud of.

To reinforce the camaraderie of Zelda fans, you only need to look back a few weeks ago to the debut of the Zelda Symphony Orchestra. No other game series could attest to such a loyal fanbase; a fanbase that were willing to pay a significant amount of money to watch an orchestra play songs from their favourite series. To see that many people there is a testament to how important the series is to people on a level more than just a game, with Zelda Williams close to tears on stage at the beauty of the event itself. Zelda fans truly are the best fans in the world, and that is why the series can always beat out anything that is thrown at it.

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In two weeks the cycle begins again. Skyward Sword will be here, and the wave of relief will be followed by a smile that will stretch across the world as gamers are united again by the Zelda series. It’s a magical moment, and one that will define the Wii’s existence and for some, vindicate the move to motion control. But when that is over, the wait begins again. But it will be a different wait. A wait which has another piece of the puzzle put into place, as fans spend the next few years dissecting the ramifications of the new game both in terms of plot and gameplay. Only Nintendo know what the future holds for the Zelda series, but one thing is for sure; the fans will always be here waiting for the next chapter in this incredible and stunning series.