Hearts Are Health

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Having surgically implanted several redundant hearts within his chest, Link fears no cardiac arrest!

A common bit of widely understood symbolism in Video Games: a heart is used to represent someone's health or life. The Life Meter or lives counter may be made of hearts, and health-related pickups may be in the shape of hearts as well (see Heart Container).

The reason the heart specifically is used for this trope is because of the positive connotations the heart has picked up over the millennia: "lifeblood", love, as well as it being considered the most important organ by the medical community for the longest time (and it's still considered the second most important organ behind the brain, but brains are rather squicky and have different connotations entirely, mainly intellectual).

Compare Heart Container, Heart Symbol, Healing Potion.

Examples of Hearts Are Health include: