Every Legend of Zelda Game Represented With Smash Ultimate’s Fighters

One of the best represented series in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is The Legend of Zelda. Link is one of Smash‘s quintessential fighters, starting with the game’s first iteration on the Nintendo 64. Smash‘s roster has expanded through the game’s subsequent releases, and Ultimate now also includes Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf, and two additional versions of Link – Young Link and Toon Link. But exactly which Zelda games did all these fighters come from?

If spirits and music are included, literally every Zelda game is represented in Ultimate in some fashion. As an intriguing hint towards Age of Calamity’s importance to Breath of the Wild, there are even a couple pre-launch spirits from the spin-off. Since not all Zelda games have achieved the same cult status as Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild, certain games are more prominent in Ultimate than others. Which Zelda games are considered cornerstone entries by Nintendo is well reflected by fighters’ design choices.

Other aspects of Ultimate give room to celebrate older entries in the franchise, such as the Assist Trophy of Majora’s Mask‘s dreaded Moon, which attacks everyone on a stage in a fiery crash. But Nintendo wants to reflect the most recent iterations of its series in Smash, which is why the Twilight Princess-inspired design in Brawl was updated with Link’s popular Breath of the Wild design in mind. However, since Ganondorf is in Twilight Princess but not Breath of the Wild, Ultimate opted for a retro Ocarina of Time redesign. The love for the series’ long history reflected by Ganondorf’s and other Ultimate fighters’ design tweaks show how much Nintendo wants to celebrate all aspects of Zelda.

Which Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Represent Which Zelda Games

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is full of nods to other franchises, and the Zelda fighters are no exception to this trend. While most of the Zelda fighters represent a design from one particular game, their move sets are another story entirely. Zelda’s, for example, even references her ability in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks to possess a phantom. But based on design and character origins, here are the Zelda games Ultimate‘s fighters draw from.

• The Legend of Zelda – first appearance of Link, Zelda, and Beast Ganon
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – sole appearance of Sheik, first appearance of Young Link and Ganondorf, Ganondorf’s and Beast Ganon’s redesigns
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Zelda’s redesign
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker – first appearance of Toon Link
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds – Zelda’s redesign (draws from A Link to the Past as well, given the shared world of both games)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Link’s redesign, the Stealth armor set influences Sheik’s redesign

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate culled characters who previously appeared in Smash games, and it so happens that many of those were from The Legend of Zelda. Because Zelda keeps growing, there are many popular new characters who players hope could be included in the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC. Whether Nintendo would pull their last DLC character from a series already well represented remains to be seen.

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