The Legend of Zelda: Link\u2019s Awakening<\/em> has been a Nintendo classic for so long that it\u2019s easy to forget how weird it felt when it dropped for the Game Boy in 1993. Originally conceived as a straightforward port of the Super Nintendo\u2019s A Link to the Past<\/em> \u2014 which itself had been a return to the mean after 1987\u2019s divisive sidescroller Zelda II: The Adventure of Link<\/em> \u2014 Link\u2019s Awakening<\/em> could have been a safe, solid extension of a proven Nintendo brand, like the Game Boy versions of Mega Man<\/em>, Metroid<\/em>, or Castlevania<\/em> that preceded it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While its gameplay closely resembles A Link to the Past<\/em>, Link\u2019s Awakening <\/em>is something stranger. The journey is set not in the kingdom of Hyrule like the rest of the games, but on a mysterious island whose most prominent landmark is a mountain with a giant spotted egg on it. Apart from Link, no major characters \u2014 including series villain Ganon and the eponymous Princess Zelda \u2014 appear in this Zelda<\/em> game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n They\u2019ve been replaced by, well, a bunch of weirdos: there\u2019s an old man who is too socially awkward for an in-person conversation but endlessly chatty whenever you call him on the phone, a friendly shopkeeper who turns homicidal if you steal anything, and a whole family of fourth-wall breakers \u2014 including a dad who warns you he\u2019ll get lost in the mountains later in the game (he does) and a gaggle of identical kids who give straightforward gameplay tips and then admit they have no idea what they\u2019ve just said. Also there\u2019s a guy who calls himself Tarin but is clearly just a barely disguised riff on Mario; by the end of the game, you\u2019ve helped him track down a mushroom and seen him turn into a raccoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a 2010 interview, Link\u2019s Awakening<\/em> director Takashi Tezuka revealed the inspiration for this memorably bizarre cast of characters. \u201cAt the time, Twin Peaks<\/em> was rather popular. The drama was all about a small number of characters in a small town,\u201d Tezuka said<\/a>. \u201cSo I wanted to make something like that, while it would be small enough in scope to easily understand, it would have deep and distinctive characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Developed at a time when Twin Peaks<\/em> was so popular in Japan that The New York Times<\/em> ran a lengthy story about it<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to imagine how that legendary TV drama, co-created by Mark Frost and David Lynch \u2014 which begins as a mystery about the murder of a high school girl before spiraling into a surreal drama packed with eccentric characters and detours into the supernatural \u2014 might have bled into the Zelda<\/em> franchise as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And that was the end of the story until a couple of months ago, when Mark Frost logged onto X and casually dropped a bombshell that lit up two totally different but equally passionate fandoms. \u201cAnybody ever play this?\u201d he tweeted in response to a story about how Nintendo\u2019s Game Boy classic The Legend of Zelda: Link\u2019s Awakening<\/em> was inspired by Twin Peaks<\/em>. <\/em>\u201cI met with them about it and gave them some ideas, never tried it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Until that tweet, the Link\u2019s Awakening <\/em>\/ Twin Peaks<\/em> connection has been understood as one of indirect influence. Now, Frost reveals in an interview with The Verge<\/em>, he actually spoke with Nintendo about the Zelda <\/em>franchise. \u201cI don\u2019t want to overstate it. It was a single conversation. But it was fun,\u201d he tells me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That conversation took place between Twin Peaks<\/em>\u2019 first and second seasons, when Twin Peaks<\/em> fever was arguably at its hottest. \u201cI remember meeting someone who was kind of their resident engineering genius,\u201d Frost says. \u201cHe had hyperhidrosis, so his hands were really sweaty, and he was continually wiping his palms all through the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The team at Nintendo were clearly big fans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey were talking to me about a Twin Peaks<\/em> game, and they mentioned Zelda<\/em> at the time,\u201d says Frost. \u201cThey said, \u2018One of the things we love about your show is how there\u2019s all sorts of sideways associations that can drive the story forward.\u2019 They asked me about that as they were thinking about expanding the Zelda<\/em> universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though he\u2019d never played a Zelda<\/em> game, Frost had enough experience with fantasy storytelling that he had some suggestions. \u201cI\u2019d played lots of Dungeons & Dragons<\/em> when I was young, so I was familiar with the kind of story they were thinking about,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I said, \u2018Don\u2019t be afraid to use dreamlike, Jungian symbolism. Things can connect thematically without having to connect concretely.\u2019 It was things like that that I was urging them [to consider].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nintendo veteran Yoshiaki Koizumi has previously taken credit<\/a> for Link\u2019s Awakening<\/em>\u2019s story, including the climactic revelation \u2014 30-year-old spoiler alert \u2014 that the entire game has been a dream. But it\u2019s not hard to draw connections between the murder mystery and the then-weirdest Zelda<\/em> game, with its bizarre characters, dreams full of hidden messages, and an owl that\u2019s not what he seems<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As for the Twin Peaks<\/em> game Frost mentioned \u2014 despite write-ups in several video game magazines at the time<\/a>, it never materialized, though what little information came out sounded awfully ambitious for an NES game. A blurb in Nintendo Power<\/em><\/a> said it would be \u201crole playing in style\u201d with a plot based on the show\u2019s second season, complete with multiple playable characters and endings. Last year, Time Extension<\/em>\u2019s Jack Yarwood tracked down a former producer at license holder Hi Tech Expressions, who confirmed that an ambitious-sounding Twin Peaks<\/em> game inspired by Maniac Mansion<\/em> was discussed but never went into production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But even if a Twin Peaks<\/em> game never happened, its influence spread far beyond Zelda<\/em> to games like Alan Wake<\/em> and Life is Strange<\/em>. Most notorious is Deadly Premonition<\/em>, originally announced as Rainy Woods<\/em> with a trailer so obviously inspired by Frost and Lynch\u2019s show that it feels closer to remake than homage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When I ask Frost if he\u2019s ever seen the Rainy Woods<\/em> trailer, he pulled it up on the spot. \u201cFeaturing grisly murders, skull-shaped gas masks, and strange little men sitting in vibrating chairs,\u201d he reads, clearly bemused. But the trailer itself didn\u2019t bother him. \u201cI\u2019ve never complained about that sort of homage. You can\u2019t copyright a mood, after all,\u201d Frost says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve thought a lot about the \u201cTwin Peaks <\/em>mood\u201d since that conversation. Much has been made, correctly, of Twin Peaks<\/em>\u2019 outsized impact on television. You can see echoes of it in everything from Tony Soprano\u2019s cryptic, revelatory dreams to blatant knockoffs like AMC\u2019s The Killing<\/em>, with its ubiquitous \u201cWho Killed Rosie Larsen?\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But if Deadly Premonition<\/em> is basically the video game equivalent of a Twin Peaks<\/em> cover band, Zelda<\/em>, over the years, has evolved into the video game franchise that channels an essential quality Twin Peaks<\/em> has at its core. The best Zelda<\/em> games, including Link\u2019s Awakening<\/em>, Majora\u2019s Mask<\/em>, and Breath of the Wild<\/em>, balance their offbeat humor and characters with something darker. There\u2019s an undercurrent of menace under those colorful fantasy trappings, and a sense that even the most courageous and determined hero can only hope, at best, to hold back the darkness for a little while.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n