A spinoff of The Legend of Zelda made on the Satellaview, a satellite modem peripheral for the Super Famicom, which was broadcast for play on five occasions between 1995 and 1997. As with all Satellaview games, it is no longer playable on its original platform due to the broadcasting service being long inactive.
Although the game is structurally a Video Game Remake of the original The Legend of Zelda, it features a distinct story based on that of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Long in the past, the gods created a holy golden triangle called the Triforce, which could grant wishes to those who owned it. Ganondorf, the leader of a group of wicked thieves, seized it and was transformed into the monstrous Ganon, hid the fragments of the Triforce around Hyrule, and began to spread his influence over the land. The gods revealed that only a holy blade could defeat the villain, so the King of Hyrule had one forged; however, nobody in the land could wield such a weapon, so seven sages were tasked with sealing Ganon away until a suitable hero could be found. Despite this, Ganon was soon able to free himself and kidnap the King's daughter, Princess Zelda.
As it happened, shortly after this happened a youth from the faraway Town Whose Name Has Been Stolen was brought to Hyrule through a portal in a fortune-teller's tent, and encountered an old man who revealed to them the state that Hyrule found itself in. Resolving to save this new land, the youth set out to gather together the fragments of the Triforce, defeat Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda.
Due to the nature of the Satellaview, the game was only playable when actively broadcast, which was done during one-hour windows on Sundays. In-game, this was explained as being due to the portal's magic being unstable, and allowing the hero to stay in Hyrule for only an hour before whisking them back to the Town Whose Name Has Been Stolen and needing to spend a week recharging.
Mechanically, the game reuses the overworld, enemies and mechanics of the first game, but upgraded to 16-bit graphics. The dungeons are however significantly restructured, down to having entirely different maps, leading to it sometimes being called the "Third Quest" of the game.
Examples
- Ability Required to Proceed: It interestingly combines this with Broken Bridge. Certain obstacle-clearing items or events only appear or occur during certain broadcast weeks (for example, the Candle is needed in order to access the western portion of the map but is only sold after the first week). One could wait until a later week and try to sequence break, but this defeats the purpose anyways, and the player only having one hour a week, or certain items becoming unobtainable.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Aquamentus in its second fight manages to endure much more damage than it did in the second fight from the original game.
- Digdogger always splits into more than one smaller version of itself in both quests.
- Adaptation Dye-Job:
- Ganon is recolored from blue to a brownish-grey color.
- Aquamentus was entirely green. Here the upper part of its body is colored blue.
- The Dodongos are recolored from orange to salmon with light brown plating.
- Manhandla was completely blue in the original. Here, the lips are white, and the stems are green.
- Digdogger is recolored from orange to brown. Its eye is also blue instead of brown.
- Adapted Out: Gleeok is excluded from the game unlike the original.
- Adaptation Species Change: The individual who impedes Link in some dungeons unless fed meat is changed from a Goriya to a human.
- Ascended Extra: Patra goes from a miniboss in the last dungeon of both quests to a full-fledged dungeon boss.
- Book Ends: Ganon can be found at the same cave where the Old Man gives the player their first sword.
- Boss Rush: Most of the bosses are fought again in a gauntlet during the eighth dungeon of the game.
- Canon Discontinuity: Nintendo does not appear to regard this version as canon, as it is absent from the official Zelda timeline and is not acknowledged in Hyrule Historia nor The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia.
- Distressed Dude: Ganon kidnaps the old man who gives the player his first sword. The old man is shown alive and well after Zelda is saved.
- Where It All Began: The final fight with Ganon takes place in the first cave where you got the wooden sword.
