The hero of dreams
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most groundbreaking and influential video games of all time, and the franchise and the characters it spawned have been referred to many times in popular culture.
Examples:
- The Kedabory Verse:
- In the first chapter of Super Game Pretty Cure
, Hinata plays The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild while Nodoka watches. - According to What Your Favourite Cure Says About You, Cure Scarlet is the closest that Pretty Cure will get to having a Cure version of Princess Zelda.
- In the first chapter of Super Game Pretty Cure
- Pony POV Series: There is a video game called The Legend of Cadence which uses Cadence and Shining Armor's likenesses for expies of Zelda and Link. During the Finale arc, Sweetie Belle and Button Mash are forced into those roles as they fight King Sombra as an expy of Ganon.
- Ralph Breaks the Internet: The Triforce is one of the items being sold on eBay.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
- One of the streets seen on the map in the Mario Brothers' plumbing commercial is "Link Street", referring to the main character of The Legend of Zelda.
- Mario's father looks a lot like Talon, the Mario lookalike from Ocarina of Time, while Uncle Arthur looks like Ingo, a Luigi lookalike.
Films — Live-Action
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The first song heard in the film is the intro theme from A Link to the Past, and a rendition the fairy fountain is used by Scott passes by Ramona at school.
- The Wizard: Jimmy's father plays Zelda II: The Adventure of Link at one point.
- Jamie from Queens of Geek has a Legend of Zelda T-shirt that he takes care not to get food on.
- Miles from The Evolution of Emily listens to the soundtrack of the latest Zelda game during lunch. It's hard to properly appreciate the music while playing, but while eating he can give it his full attention.
- Tristan from Post-High School Reality Quest has the "opening chest" noise as his cell phone ringtone.
- Joel Suzuki: In Mystery of the Moonfire, Taylor dresses as Zelda for Halloween.
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: In the August 13, 2017 episode, during segment featuring to a clip of President Trump ignoring press questions regarding the chaotic "white nationalist" rally in Charlottesville, VA that past weekend.John Oliver: Here is the problem with that: A non-answer in a moment like this is an answer. I-If you would ask me "Have you ever been aroused by the fairies in Zelda: The Ocarina of Time?" and I responded by slowly and silently walking away from you, you would know exactly what I was saying.
Music
- "Power of the Triforce" by DragonForce is inspired by the series. The lyrics include references to Twilight Princess and A Link to the Past.
- ANNO: Mutationem: At Luhrs' item shop in Harbor Town, one of the swords shown on display is the Master Sword.
- Anodyne:
- An Inspiration for the Work is The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and has Shout-Out-s
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: A reference to Navi's "HEY!! LISTEN!!": One of the first lines is:"Hello? ... Young? HEY! Listen, you are about to wake up…"
- The Boxxy Quest series: Throughout the series:
- The Kokiri Tunic is a unique piece of equippable gear in each game:
- BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires: The Flavor Text is:A green tunic worn by a legendary hero long ago. How it ended up in the Sphere is anyone's guess.
- In BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: It's a unique piece of gear.
- BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires: The Flavor Text is:
- In BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires, trying to leave the first town without a companion after being told of said requirement, has a reference to the first game in this franchise, with:Town Guard: Listen, I already told you that it's dangerous to go alone! Take a friend!
- In BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm, bottled fairies are a type of revival item.
- The Kokiri Tunic is a unique piece of equippable gear in each game:
- Donkey Kong Country:
- At the end of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, if Diddy collects less than 19 DK Coins hidden throughout the game, Link appears in the third place section of the podium for Cranky's Video Game Heroes.
- In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Bazaar will tell you about a kid wearing green who tried to buy something from his store. The kid didn't have any bear coins, but Bazaar liked him and let him pay in Rupees instead.
- Enter the Gungeon:
- One of the NPCs you may encounter in a given run is The Lost Adventurer, who looks virtually identical to Link. He tasks the player with completing the floor map of the current chamber, in reference to the similarity to the layout of the classic dungeon structures of his original game.
- The backstory of The Bullet is essentially that of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The Bullet's default weapon is a sword, and he seeks to kill his past in order to prevent Agunim's resurrection of the Gundead Lord Cannon.
- The Chicken Flute is an item the player can pick up in a given run, which is shaped an awful lot like an ocarina. With it, a chicken companion will follow the player, and, much like the Cuccos throughout the Legend of Zelda franchise, after absorbing enough enemy fire, waves of other chickens will mob any enemies in the room.
- Everybody Edits Flash:
- The campaign level "The Glitch" has a segment based off The Legend of Zelda, among many other video games.
- The Flavor Text for the Elder NPC description was "It's dangerous to go alone...", a quote from an elderly NPC in The Legend of Zelda.
- F-1 Race: Among other Nintendo characters, Link appears to congratulate the player if they win the Grand Prix in the Game Boy version.
- Final Fantasy: In the elf city, a tombstone reads "Here lies Link".
- In Infinite Craft, "Princess Zelda" is a possible crafting recipe.
- Kirby:
- Starting in Kirby Super Star, Sword Kirby wears a long green hat with a yellow brim, greatly resembling Link's. This was originally done to reciprocate Kirby's own cameo appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and has reappeared in nearly every Kirby game since.
- Kirby Super Star: The Triforce is one of the treasures that Kirby can find during the Great Cave Offensive.
- Luxaren Allure: When the Three Angels are depicted in Parvian, The Angel of Power is at the top, the Angel of Wisdom is to the left, and the Angel of Courage is to the right, just like the Triforces of Power, Wisdom, and Courage.
- Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: Early in the game, Andre throws a fairy out of his way and says "Buzz off, fairy! Zelda needs you!"
- Sonic Lost World: The Zelda DLC zone, which features almost all of Hyrule Field combined with various aspects from several titles.
- South Park: The Stick of Truth: If you fart in the overworld, a Non-Player Character will sometimes say "Ha, wind-waker!".
- Splatoon:
- Splatoon: Stickers depicting an 8-bit Octorok sprite can be found on the walls in certain stages, alongside a Blooper from Super Mario Bros. and a Gunion from Super Mario Land. All three can also be found in various places around Octo Valley and the sequel's Octo Canyon.
- Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion: What appear to be various old Nintendo consoles and games can be seen in the background of certain Deepsea Metro stations. One of them is a Nintendo 64 cartridge that greatly resembles The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, complete with a squid-shaped Triforce◊.
- Splatoon 3: To celebrate the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a special Splatfest was held in May 2023 themed around the series' three virtues of Power, Wisdom, and Courage. It even introduced a unique three-sided version of the Scorch Gorge map in the shape of the Triforce.
- Episode 5 of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People sees Homestar turned into an Exposition Fairy once the world gets taken over by video games, and he naturally blurts out "Hey! Listen!" at one point.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Bros. 3: The flute's theme from the original game plays whenever you use a warp whistle.
- Super Mario RPG: Link can be found sleeping in the Rose Town inn after beating Bowyer in the Forest Maze.
- Super Mario 3D Land: World 5-2 plays like a 2D Zelda dungeon, with a top-down camera view. At one point, there's even a puzzle that requires you to light up all four torches in a room to unlock a door; upon doing so, the Zelda series' iconic "puzzle solved" jingle plays.
- Super Mario 3D World: In the level "Rainbow Run", there is a bonus room where the player must light up all the floor tiles to get a green star. Doing so reveals Link's 8-bit sprite from his first game and plays a rendition of the series' main theme.
- Paper Mario: The Origami King: One chapter is an extended homage to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker with Mario going out to sea and exploring islands, searching for sunken treasure, etc. The thing that confirms that all the aspects in common with Wind Waker are intentional and not just coincidence is that part of the chapter involves Mario undertaking Trials of Courage, Wisdom, and Power; three virtues central to the Zelda series. The trials are even color-coded the same way the virtues generally are in Zelda (green, blue, and red respectively).
- Tetris: On completing a level of the "B-Type" game in the NES version, Link may join other Nintendo characters in playing music for the player.
- There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension: One of the alternate games you're sent to is Legend of the Secret, a homage to A Link to the Past. You actually have to go through it twice; as when you're about to leave the villain traps you there and turns it into a Microtransaction-laden Allegedly Free Game. A few other Zelda games are referenced as well; the hero's "alarm clock" at one point is a fairy shouting "Hey!" and "Listen!" incessantly; and when the player alters the environment the hero marvels at the power over the seasons, to which the narrator replies that he's not an oracle.
- The Wonderful 101 involves an ancient civilization called Lowrule, as a pun on Zelda's own Hyrule. (And this was before Zelda made the pun themselves in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.)
- Homestar Runner makes quite a few Legend of Zelda references:
- In "Compy Catalog", the Poopsmith is dressed as the Postman from Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess, though with a picture of The Cheat instead of a rabbit.
- The characters have dressed up as Zelda characters in Halloween cartoons more than once:
- Homsar is dressed as Tingle in "Halloween Potion-ma-jig".
- Strong Bad is dressed as the Skull Kid and the Poopsmith is dressed as Darunia in "Doomy Tales of the Macabre".
- The Cheat is dressed as a Korok in "Mr. Poofers Must Die".
- Bubs dresses as Beedle in "Halloween Hijinks", and Homestar even compliments Bubs' costume while singing to the tune of the franchise's main theme.
- One of the Mary Sues brought into the Star Trek (2009) universe in Ensign Sue Must Die is a Sue for the Zelda universe, complete with Pimped-Out Dress and Triforce beauty mark.
- Girl Genius: One of Gil's filler paper doll outfits has a triforce symbol on the gauntlet.
- My Impossible Soulmate: Chiaki imagines herself as Link running away from a dragon in "Good Morning".
- The Nostalgia Critic:
- In his review of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, the Critic reviews the The Legend of Zelda (1989) cartoon that aired on Fridays.
- In his review of Captain N: The Game Master, the Critic brings up the episode, "Quest For the Potion of Power", which has appearances by Zelda, Link, and Ganon.
- In his review of A Troll in Central Park, the Critic refers to Gnorga as "Ganon's wife".
- In "Return of the Nostalgic Commercials", one of the commercials the Critic reviews is for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, wherein he questions why a mythical story about a faraway land gets a rap song.
- In his review of The Disney Afternoon, as a Call-Back to his review of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, the Critic jokes about how in the later years of the titular programming block, they would air The Legend of Zelda (1989) on Fridays, before correcting himself and saying The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show.
- In his review of Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, Critic calls the living monsters "rejected Zelda henchmen".
- Suburban Knights: The Nostalgia Critic dresses as Link.
- Amphibia:
- The Master Sword and Hylian Shield can be seen among the weapons at Tritonio's combat camp in "Combat Camp".
- In "All In", in the adventure simulation The Core creates for Marcy, the simulation of Anne wears Link's default outfit from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
- Drawn Together: Xander is a parody of video game characters like Link.
- Gravity Falls:
- Episodes 99 and 100 of Kaeloo, both parts of a Multi-Part Episode about Kaeloo playing Stumpy's VR game, has her and the other characters wear costumes that, with the exception of Stumpy's Mr. Coolskin costume, reference well-known video game series. Kaeloo in particular is dressed as Link from The Legend of Zelda.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In "Child Fearing", the Mayor is seen playing Ocarina of Time in his office and accidentally kills his own fairy.
- Rick and Morty: In "Total Rickall", Rick has a fake memory where he brags about getting a handful of limited edition Zelda Nintendo 3DS systems in a naked ploy to get Nintendo to send free stuff in exchange for the shill.
- Robot Chicken:
- A sketch from "Shoe" features Link rescuing Zelda and being dissatisfied with his reward.
- A sketch from "Fridge Smell" features Link and Zelda asleep in bed, only for Link to get awoken by Zelda's farts. Talk about a "wind-waker".
- A sketch from "Hopefully Salt" features Link trying to undo Zelda's bra while they have sex, with the "secret" jingle playing when he does.
- A sketch from "May Cause Season 11 to End" involves Zelda passing by two teenage boys in a school cafeteria. One of them tells the other that he heard that Zelda once took a two-foot shit, and the The Legend of Zelda logo is shown next to a golden toilet.
- South Park: Link is on the good side of Imaginationland, while Ganondorf is on the evil side.
- In the RPG Episode of Voltron: Legendary Defender, Hunk casts a levitation spell that summons cute chicken creatures to float the party down to the ground. Word of God confirms that the chickens are a reference to Zelda's Cuccos.
- Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda after the titular princess, as he was a fan of the games.
