Twenty-five years ago today, an ambitious title was released in Japan that would, in time, become one of the biggest and most important franchises in video game history.

That game was The Legend of Zelda. While it may look crude now, it’s easy to forget that, at the time of the game’s release, it was the Oblivion of its day, its inter-connected worlds and dungeons being so huge relative to other titles that it would be the first NES game in the West to need its own internal battery so users could save their progress.

This scale and open-ended approach to game design – with players able to progress through the game in a non-linear fashion – made it a smash hit. By the time the original cartridges (or disks) were finally taken off store shelves, The Legend Of Zelda had sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

Via Kotaku