Satellaview games from The Legend of Zelda series

Lore & Background

The BS Zelda games were broadcast via the Satellaview subsystem, a Japan-only add-on for the Super Famicom. With the exception of Kamigami no Triforce, all Zelda titles broadcast to the Satellaview were Satellaview-exclusive. Because the Satellaview was only released in Japan, these games were also all Japan-only releases. To date none of these titles have been released in any other form and due to the download limitations imposed on the broadcasts and the termination of support for the system these games are no longer available on the commercial market.

BS Zelda no Densetsu is an action-adventure game first broadcast in August 1995. It is the fifth game developed by Nintendo belonging to The Legend of Zelda series, but it does not feature Link, the protagonist of the prior four games. Instead it features the same main character that the player selects in the Satellaview game, BS-X, and indeed the games are linked functionally and roughly through plot. As such BS Zelda no Densetsu, together with BS Zelda no Densetsu: MAP2 and BS Zelda no Densetsu: Inishie no Sekiban, is generally considered to be a spin-off title from the main Zelda series. Stylistically similar to the original top-down The Legend of Zelda for the NES, but utilizing the 16-bit graphical capabilities of the SNES, BS Zelda no Densetsu is also occasionally regarded as an enhanced remake of the original game.

The game's title derives the 'BS' portion of its name from the Broadcast Satellite system through which the game was transmitted by the distributor, St.GIGA, to Satellaview owners between the date of the first broadcast (in August 1995) and the last broadcast (in January 1997). As the Satellaview's first SoundLink Game, broadcasts for BS Zelda no Densetsu were composed of both a discretely quantifiable portion of game code and a continually streaming vocal track. Employing the voices of voice actors, BS Zelda no Densetsu became the world's first integrated radio-game and it marks the first time that a Zelda title released by Nintendo would utilize spoken dialog.

Reader's Guide

The BS Zelda games are notable for being the first Nintendo-sponsored Zelda titles to use voice-actors, with SoundLink narration providing spoken dialog. BS Zelda no Densetsu was identified by Nintendo as the world's first integrated radio-game. The games were broadcast only in Japan via the Satellaview subsystem and have never been re-released commercially. There has been much fan debate about whether or not the Zelda titles for the Satellaview should be considered enhanced remakes or spin-off titles, whether or not their plots should be regarded as canonical or not, and if so where they should fit into the timeline of Zelda events. Subsequent to the announcement at E3 2010 regarding the rerelease of BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia Senki (the first Satellaview-exclusive title to be re-released commercially) 10 years after the last Satellaview broadcast, there has been renewed speculation regarding the possibility of Nintendo's rerelease of the BS Zelda titles, but to date there has been no official announcement on the matter from Nintendo. The games are no longer available on the commercial market due to download limitations and termination of support for the system.

Did You Know?

• BS Zelda no Densetsu does not feature Link; the player controls the same character from the BS-X game.
• The game's SoundLink narration featured voice actors Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Naomi Fujisawa, and Seizō Katō.