It was back in ’96-’97 that I got my start on the Internet, right when it was first starting to get big. I’d actually accessed the Internet for the very first time the year before when I accompanied my dad to the university library. The Internet was quite the different place back then, but that’s only tangential to today’s story.

Being a dumb kid, I thought I could actually submit suggestions to Nintendo for game ideas. For any of you who’ve ever tried this, you’ve probably seen their standard line about not accepting any unsolicited game ideas. Remember that this was back in the ’96-’97 range and think about these two I sent the Big N’s way.

One idea was to have a fighting game with all the major Nintendo characters. Sound familiar? Admittedly, there wasn’t much to the idea, so it’d be silly for me to make any more of it than it is.

More interesting is this next one. I’d read an article on the Metroid Database about the similarities between the Metroid and Alien series. (They admittedly took a rather facile out for comparing Super Metroid and Alien 3, but we can just gloss over that.) I pointed this out in my e-mail to Nintendo and, taking Alien Resurrection into consideration, posited that it might be interesting if Samus was hybridized with Metroid DNA. Besides the standard line, the person who responded claimed that comparisons between Metroid and Alien were quite a stretch. Well, what would grace us in ’02 but the fourth entry into the Metroid series, Metroid Fusion. And guess what happens in it? That’s right. Samus being hybridized with Metroid DNA is a major plot point. Also, the failed military experiment to use the Metroids as bioweapons also dovetails nicely with the premise of Alien Resurrection. Quite a stretch, huh? Yeah, right.

No, I’m not claiming Nintendo took my ideas and ran with them. It’s just a funny coincidence that makes for an amusing anecdote.

Now, here’s one that I simply thought of and almost came to pass. In the Zelda series, you have a string of Links and Zeldas that emerge over the course of history, but only one Ganon. Well, I thought of an idea that might shake things up and play with the themes of fate and such in the series. More or less, Ganon is evil because his lust for power consumes him. Corrupted as he is, he’s nevertheless the exemplar for the Triforce of Power and it’s no doubt his connection to the Triforce of Power that keeps him coming back over and over again. While Link and Zelda represent the Triforce of Courage and Wisdom respectively, they still die and that affinity manifests itself in a new Link and Zelda when the time is ripe. Whether these successive Links and Zeldas are reincarnations or simply manifestations tailored to possess this affinity is uncertain. (If any of this is clarified in the Hyrule Historia, I wouldn’t know as I haven’t read it.) Anyway, my idea was this: What if we had a new incarnation of Ganon, born of different circumstances but still bound by the destiny of the Triforce? Would he still necessarily turn evil?

Our premise begins with Link being accepted into knight training alongside his longtime friend/rival Dorf. Now, the knights are of course dedicated to the defense of the realm but the most elite become the Royal Guard. Enter Princess Zelda. Link and Dorf are both smitten with her and their already competitive natures are kicked into hyperdrive. Zelda isn’t an entirely detached party either. She finds herself developing a strange affinity for these two young recruits, both attractive to her in their own way. On the surface, this looks like simple biology at work, but on a deeper level, it’s their affinity to the Triforce that’s drawing them together.

From there, I could see Link and Dorf’s competition getting increasingly brutal. Dorf is arguably the superior of the two, but Link’s dogged tenacity keeps him right at Dorf’s heels. That sort of tenacity, coupled with his more humble bearing, wins Link Zelda’s favor. When Link and Dorf graduate and join the Guard, Zelda offers herself to Link, but bound to his duty, Link rebuffs her advances. Dorf sees his opportunity to sweep up the crestfallen Zelda, but even with his clumsy attempts to show that he can dial down his aggressive nature, he gets rejected. This is the last straw. If Zelda won’t give herself to him, he’ll take her.

My concept actually goes on to have four different branches for the storyline, two “light side” and two “dark side” paths, but I won’t get into that here. Now, if the gears in your head are turning a bit and if you stretch it a bit, some of those ideas might seem a little familiar.

In Skyward Sword, you have Link in knight training. There’s a love triangle involving Zelda and the proto-Gerudo-looking Groose. Now, Groose was all hot air and wound up turning things around and becoming a genuine friend to Link and the love triangle thing never went anywhere (and for that matter, most of what made the initial sequence interesting was left to wither on the vine). Did Nintendo use its mind readers to absorb my idea and then executive meddling hacked it to ribbons? Not bloody likely. Again, just a funny coincidence and an amusing anecdote.

1 Comment

• 

  By zelda music, Wed 11 Sep 2013 @ GMT+0000 06:16:51

  Can you tell us more about this? I’d want to find out more details.

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment