Most commonly seen in the games of The
Legend of Zelda series, a “
Zelda Dungeon” is generally a
complex of rooms that has an astonishing variety of
puzzles and
traps all protecting some wondrous
magic item that some important person, usually a
hero, would like to have. Zelda dungeons are famous for having lots of
evil tricks, but
always having a way through to the end. There is always a way to disarm the Device of Certain Death, bypass the Sphere of Utter Destruction, lull to sleep the Horrendous Beast of Embiggened Incisor and open the Locked Door of Actually Quite Good Workmanship. In short, despite the dungeon's extreme deviousness, the object of the
quest is never blocked off and
impossible to reach, a state which would seem to be against the interests of the evil entities that hid said item in the first place.
Every Zelda game ever made has had several Zelda dungeons, and they are common in a lot of other games besides, most especially the Tomb Raider series. They are not limited to videogames either: every Indiana Jones movie has had at least once scene that takes place in an area with many attributes of Zelda dungeons.