Fused's Random Articles: Birthdays

Published on 4/22/2012 9:02:52 AM by Rial Johnson

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There's a specific reason I decided to delay this article to this Sunday, rather than the usual Thursday. (Even though Poco and Nick have been bugging me to get it done). I would like to dedicate this article to a good friend of mine. You may know her as Skalla, a staff member at Zelda Eternity. It's her 18th birthday today, and what better way to celebrate than to write an article about birthdays. Birthdays are celebrated throughout Nintendo franchises and games, but what do they really mean to the inhabitants of their respective Nintendo worlds? Click the jump to find out! First off, let's look at Nintendo's go-to-guy, Mario. We can see in one game in particular how birthdays are treated. In New Super Mario Bros Wii, the back story involves Princess Peach's birthday. When her cake is brought out, turns out that Bowser's minions were hiding in it, and they snatch Princess Peach away and set up the back story for the entire game. We can observe the massive amounts of presents in the background, and given that Princess Peach is royalty, we can infer that birthdays in the Mushroom Kingdom are handled in the same way as birthdays in the real world, with presents, cake, and fun. Unfortunately, Princess Peach's birthday was ruined by Bowser. However, birthdays in Mario aren't nearly as important as birthdays in another one of my favorite series, The Legend of Zelda. Specifically, the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. In the Legend of Zelda, at least in the adult timeline, birthdays are given quite a bit of importance, especially the age of the hero of legend in Ocarina of Time In the Wind Waker, you begin as Link, asleep, in his pajamas. Aryll, your sister, wakes you up and informs you that it is indeed your birthday. Link's face echoes the phrase “Wait, what?” and his appearance and preferred area for sleeping only confirm the fact that Link didn't even remember his birthday. Either this means that Link and the other children don't give it much importance, or it gives Link a little bit of humorous character development. Either way, you are quickly given much information about birthdays on the island during the slow beginning of this game. People around you wish you happy birthday, spirits are high, and all is right in the world. As you get to our grandma's house, the excuse for having Link wear the hero's clothes is presented to you. It is, apparently, tradition on Outset Island to have boys wear the hero's clothes on the day they become the age of the hero of legend. Of course, we know as the players that the hero of legend is most likely Young Link from Ocarina of Time. It is hotly debated among Zelda fans what age the hero of legend actually is. I, personally, believe Link from Ocarina of Time was 12 at the start of his journey and 19 at the end, but it is mostly up to your opinion as to what age he was. You are given the hero's clothes and Link looks upon them with reluctance, allowing for a very hilarious cutscene. You leave with the hero's clothes and keep exploring the area. Your next goal on the island should be the tower where you started out your magnificent quest. Aryll gives you the greatest gift ever, a telescope. From this we can infer two things. 1. Link and Aryll's relationship is extremely close. And 2. birthdays are given quite a bit of importance even among the younger generations of Outset residents. There is one last thing worth noting here before Link's birthday turns into the adventure that is the Wind Waker. When you enter the home of Orca, the swordsman, he lets you practice with his sword. He doesn't actually give you his sword until later, but the mere fact that he lets you practice with it points to the fact that coming of age in the past may have meant boys get their first sword training. This is all speculation, of course, but what is an article without speculation? Birthdays are usually mentioned in other Nintendo games as if they are nothing, or to make you feel sympathy for someone if they are in a tight position, but very rarely are they given the importance in the Wind Waker. Although similar events occur in Spirit Tracks with Link's graduation to the rank of engineer, it is not explicity stated that it is his birthday. Maybe more similar to a college graduation, althought not entirely different. Birthdays as a whole are very important in both video games and in real life as a whole, so it's no wonder that birthdays are given such emphasis in Nintendo games. So now to conclude this rather short article... Good bye everyone!

About the Author: Rial Johnson

Rial Johnson founded Nintendo Castle in 2011 with hopes to build the largest collection of Nintendo walkthroughs, guides, and content on the web. He is an avid gamer with a special place in his heart for Nintendo, but often finds himself writing about games more than actually playing them. You'll likely see him around Nintendo Castle and on social media, mostly managing the front-end content of the site.