Hello! We are working very hard on translating the Melee website. We decided to ramp up our translation focus on the character introduction pages in order to give everyone a better picture of Melee, and its character. Special thanks to soma for providing assistance with this translation.
All comments were originally written by Sakurai himself. You can see Sakurai’s individual picture comments by hovering your mouse over the image. Originally pictures were given their own page, but for the sake of brevity I combined them. The original page can be accessed here.
Young Link:
Updated: January 1st, 2002
For clone characters, it’s better if their body shape is different.
That way, it’s easier to make them distinct.
As Link’s creator said, Adult Link’s tale is more of a side story, and Young Link’s tale is the more correct path. 
There are only two (or three) games where Link appears as an adult.
And learning from that, I decided to create Young Link.
In the previous game, Link was good in battle, but people would say he had negatives, such as “he’s slow” and “he can’t jump very far.”
(He’s got a lot of good points too, though, so having some negatives is obvious)
…so, if I made a Link that was faster, but made his attacks weaker, which Link would you prefer? I chose to develop and balance Young Link from this perspective.
For Young Link’s “Break The Targets!” level, you must first use wall jumps to beat it.
When you jump towards the wall, flick the stick in the opposite horizontal direction right as you make contact with the wall.
If you jump towards the wall first, just flick the stick left, right, left, right in rhythm (don’t rush) and you should be okay.
Unlock criteria:
Clear Classic Mode with more than 10 characters.
Alternatively, play 500 VS. matches.
(Images taken during development)
1. Seven years. Young Link makes his appearance.
2.His sword and shield are light, so he’s nimble on his feet.
3.His Bow shoots Fire Arrows. Even without charging them, they’re pretty strong.
4.Striking a pose with adult Link.
5.His boomerang has more control now.
6.Drink your Lon Lon Milk! It won’t recover any of your percentage, though.
| Special Moves | |
| Neutral Special: | Fire Bow |
| Side Special: | Boomerang |
| Up Special: | Spin Attack |
| Down Special: | Bomb |
- Smash Ultimate Development Timeline - May 16, 2020
- Straight from the Source: Koji Igarashi on Castlevania in Smash, Bloodstained - October 16, 2018
- Sakurai Discusses Isabelle, Echoes, and Newcomers - September 26, 2018
So cool to go back and see these old articles, but question, for his up-special, isn’t Super Jump Punch either Luigi or Dr.Mario’s up-special?
Blah I forgot to change it. I copy and paste the format from an older post, and then change the pieces.
Ahh. That takes me back. Young Link was my jam back in Melee.