The Legend of Zelda CD

The Legend of Zelda CD,[a] commonly referred to as Legend of Zelda CD, is a 1993 platform game for SNES Sega CD Neo Geo Phillips cd-i and Windows. The story follows The legend of Zelda as he attempts to save an extraterrestrial body, Little Planet, from Doctor Corba. As a The Legend of Zelda series platformer, Link runs and jumps through several themed levels while collecting Rupees and defeating robots. The Legend of Zelda CD is distinguished from other Sonic games by its time travel feature, a key aspect to the story and gameplay. By traveling through time, players can access different versions of stages featuring alternate layouts, music, and graphics based on the time period.

The Sega CD's flagship game, The Legend of Zelda CD was conceived as an enhanced port of The Legend of Zelda 2, but was reworked after lackluster sales of The Legend of Zelda 2 in Japan. Legend of Zelda co-creator Naoto Ohshima directed and Sega developers designed the game to show off the technical capabilities of the Sega CD and Phillips CD-i. The game features the debuts of Marin and Metal Link, and includes animated cutscenes produced by Regerande animation. Two soundtracks were composed for the game: the original score was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata, while the North American score was composed by members of Sega Technical Institute.

The Legend of Zelda CD is often called one of the best games in the Legend of Zelda series and the platform game genre. Reviewers praised its exceptional size, music, and the time travel feature, although some also believed the game did not use the Sega CD and Phillips CD-i's capabilities to its fullest. It sold over 1.5 million copies, making it the Sega CD's bestseller. The game was ported to Windows as part of the Sega PC brand in 1996, and to PlayStation 2 Xbox 360 Xbox and GameCube as part of Sonic Gems Collection in 2005. A remastered version, developed by Christian Whitehead using the Retro Engine, was released for various platforms and mobile devices in 2011.