Outrage! So I’m, to say the least, excited about the Wii, and there’s little chance I won’t be playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as soon as I can. However, I read something today that upset me verily.
Quick quiz: in the Legend of Zelda games, is Link left-handed or right-handed?
That’s correct, Link is one of the few characters in video games who’s left-handed. I of course noticed this at a very young age playing the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES.
Some screenshot proof:
The Wikipedia entry on Link presently (2006-09-20) contains the following passage regarding Link’s handedness:
Link is left-handed, although this detail is never particularly stressed in any of the games, save for a Nintendo Gallery figurine description in The Wind Waker, which states that Link favors his left hand, and the Adventure of Link instruction booklet, which describes Link setting off “with a magical sword in his left hand and a magical shield in his right.” He wields his blade accordingly in the 3D games. In the original NES and Super NES Legend of Zelda titles, Link can be seen alternately holding his weapon in the right or the left hand, depending on his orientation, due to sprite mirroring (Nintendo’s originally joking explanation for this is that he always keeps his shield pointed at Death Mountain, which in the 2D games that featured it was always North, towards the top of the screen). Starting with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, however, the sprites are no longer mirrored and have been updated to reflect that Link holds his sword in his left hand and his shield in his right, no matter what direction he is facing. This occurs in the left and right-looking sprites. In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, however, Link returns to alternately holding his weapon in the right or the left hand, depending on his orientation. At the beginning of the Four Swords Plus (Four Swords Adventures) manga, Link is referred to as the “left-handed hero” after defeating pirates that were raiding a Hylian town. However, in the animated TV series, Link is right-handed.
So there you have it. Aside from ocasional discrepancies and technical issues, Link has always been a left-handed character.
Today I read this article about the Wii, which contained some disturbing news:
In New York, Nintendo showed only an E3 level of Twilight Princess, refit with updated Wii controls. Shaking the remote-shaped controller in the right hand causes hero Link to swing the sword he holds in his right hand. Shaking the nunchuck controller in the player’s left caused Link to attack with the shield in his left. Those details might hasten the heartbeat of true “Zelda” fans who remember Link being a lefty ever since his 1987 original outing on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Link’s switched sword hands for this Wii version, though Nintendo Head of Localization Bill Trinen pointed out to GameFile that even the original Link sometimes held his sword in his right: When he ran to the right, since the primitive NES simply flipped the drawing it used for Link running to the left, a southpaw grip of his sword mirrored as a clutch in his right.
Here’ a photo from the upcoming game:
So it seems that in the upcoming Twilight Princess for the Wii, Link will be right-handed. Players will be able to wave the Wii controller around and have Link mirror their movements. Apparently so that all you weak righties don’t have to hold the controller in your off-hands, Nintendo has decided to change this important aspect of Link’s character, and destroy one of the few great icons in the left-handed world.
Lefties have to live every single day dealing with things that are designed for right hands, and now we’re losing Link. I am outraged.