General theme? Swords, brown, or is it gold?, epic, fairytale

How's it changed? In no other logo evolution can you see, so clearly, the influence of the PhotoShop layer effects tool on a typeface. Drop shadow first, then a nice bevel, then a shiny bevel, then a pillow emboss and finally an astonishing combination of up to FOUR separate effects.

Is it better today than before? Only in that it now appears you can grasp the word Zelda and hold it like a fridge magnet. Or at least that's what the emboss effect cruelly tricks us into thinking.

How's it changed? The lozenge shape of the original is carried through til THPS4 in 2002 which is the official date from when the 'lozenge' became the uncoolest shape known to man.

Top designers were brought in to select the Stencil font, draw a box around it and adjust the angle to roughly 35 degrees. The most recent version had a lot of 'removing the box' work done to it.

Is it better today than before? Yes. The original was put together using a free fonts package downloaded in1995, when fonts were one of the few things small enough to get off the internet with a 28.8k modem.

Next up: Mario and Pro Evolution Soccer