Nintendo’s Zelda series roundup is up: no CD-i games

Nintendo of America posted a Zelda series roundup on its Bluesky account today. It covers 20 mainline games and, unsurprisingly, leaves out the three Philips CD-i entries: Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda’s Adventure.

Zelda Classic Download

That omission isn’t much of a shock. Still, for anyone who follows Zelda canon closely, it says something. Nintendo has been keeping the CD-i games out of its official timelines and anniversary retrospectives for years, even while making room for outside-developed releases like Capcom’s Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and The Minish Cap.

Those three licensed CD-i games trace back to the collapsed Super Nintendo CD-ROM agreement with Philips. Philips later got the rights to use Nintendo characters and put out Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon in 1993 through Animation Magic, then Zelda’s Adventure in 1996 through Viridis, with very little reported involvement from Nintendo.

If you remember the Philips CD-i Zelda games, it’s probably not for good reasons. People remember the awkward side-scrolling action, stiff controls, repetitive design, muddy visuals, weak audio, confusing progression, and those bizarre animated cutscenes and voice performances that later found a second life as meme material through YouTube Poop, retro deep dives, fan remakes, and preservation efforts.

You can view the roundup on Nintendo of America’s Bluesky account.