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Released on April 1, 1992 for the Super Nintendo by Nintendo, and
developed by Nintendo EAD,
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past returns the action-RPG
series to a top-down view for Link's first and only 16-bit
adventure
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I bought an SNES because I wanted to play Street Fighter II at my house. Kick
stupid Guile in the face with Ryu from the comfort of my den? What could be
better? In January of 1995, Blockbuster had a used copy of
Super Street Fighter II for $5. That's like the same price as a rental!
Add to that, Wal-Mart was selling an SNES for $100! I'd just pooled my
Christmas cash (some from returning gifts), and I had $120, enough to get both,
pay the taxes, AND get this sweet book about how to draw boats that I saw at the
art store.
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There's a great diagram for a shrimp boat in here
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I had an okay time with
Super Street Fighter II. It's a good game.
However, after a few days playing it, I felt strangely empty. My cousin,
Adrian, came over one day, and seemed to notice I was getting tired of it.
"You should try the game that came with the Super Nintendo," he said. "That
Zelda one."
"Zelda games are lame," I said, having never played a Zelda game in my
life.
I had just turned 13 at the time, and was at the tail end of a period of
personal funk--that time in life where I was tired of being treated like a
kid, and only having access to things I'd felt I'd outgrown years before. My
NES had started to grow extremely stale, but for some reason until then,
upgrading to the SNES never occurred to me. Everything just felt old and
boring, and to top it off, I was late blooming, still with my little kid voice
and hairless armpits. Everything sucked! My grandfather died on Friday the
13th, January of 1995, and considering, out of 13 grandchildren, I was his
only namesake, I just felt done. Life was a giant suck sandwich.
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Just warp me to the Dark World already
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However, something about the SNES made me hopeful. Finally, something
new...but my close-minded nature was stopping it from actually providing a new
experience. I just wanted to play a game I'd already spent hours upon hours
with in the arcade. Or did I? Obviously,
SFII was already played out
for me. After wrestling with Adrian's words for days (new stuff, amIrite,
INFJ's?!), I finally pulled
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past out
of the Super Nintendo box, ejected
Super Street Fighter II from my SNES
for what I assumed would be a short while, and put
A Link to the Past in its place. The rest is history.
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Game Over to my pre-Zelda life
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My little brother just happened to be in the room when the immersive opening
screen and cinema of
A Link to the Past started to roll, as by that
point he'd forgiven me for drawing a (phenomenal) picture of his future shrimp
boat getting attacked by a giant squid. Both of us sat transfixed through the
title screen, the opening cinematic, and the incredible opening sequence,
where young Link (or whatever you end up calling him--it's your choice when
the game beings) is visited by the titular Princess Zelda in a dream. She
asks for Link's help, before Link is suddenly awakened by his Uncle, who's
headed off into a rainstorm to rescue the very Princess Zelda from Link's
dream. At this point, you take control of Link, and run out of the house into
the glorious weather effects of a 16-bit storm, find a path to the castle, and
discover your uncle has been incapacitated. The old man gives you his sword
and his mission, and your adventure begins.
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| Any 16-bit game that's lets you climb a high precipice and view the land below is great in my book |
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past immediately sucks the player in
with its production values and atmosphere, but keeps them transfixed with its
incredible gameplay. I immediately connected on a tactile level with the ease
and way I could move Link around in the spaces of the game's overhead
perspective. The controls felt more spot on than anything since the first
Super Mario Bros. game I'd played years before. And now, as I play through
this game again 25 years later, the controls still feel so spot on. The
session for this review is the fourth time I've completely played through
A Link to the Past. Every time has felt revelatory.
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*Sigh* This view...
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Link's movement is controlled with the D-Pad. There's a button assigned to his
sword, one for using an item (whichever one the player has selected, i.e. the
bow and arrow or lamp), one to perform a dash (once that move is acquired),
and one to access the map. The start button brings up Link's vast inventory.
The select button brings up save and quit options. It's a perfect scheme,
perfectly executed. Good luck playing through this game, and then not
expecting the buttons to map the same in whatever subsequent 1top-down
action-RPG you play. They should all be like this.
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Home sweet home...until this bird swoops me away
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Once Link rescues Zelda in the game's opening sequence, he's off to numerous
dungeons to collect magical amulets, to help fight against the evil wizard
who's kidnapping all of Hyrule's maidens--Hyrule of course being the
fantastical, medieval styled land of mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers in
which Link resides and traverses. Hyrule's dungeons, sprinkled liberally
throughout the land, are a pinnacle of 2D game design. They're tough, yet
their layouts are extremely logical, the work of game designers at the peak of
their powers. All dungeons follow the same basic blueprint: fight through
numerous, enemy-filled rooms, solve an extremely diverse assortment of
puzzles, and collect keys to pass through locked doors to progress.
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Hmm, I really want that treasure, but I also really don't want to
fall into a bottomless pit
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Each dungeon also contains a helpful map and compass, and a master key or "big
key," which must be obtained to progress through each respective dungeon's
final rooms, in order to access each's boss lair. Each dungeon also contains a
new item for Link's inventory (i.e. a hookshot or fire rod), many of which
Link needs to progress further through that dungeon, and which often give
access to previously inaccessible areas of Hyrule.
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Yay! Now I can access this belligerent fish creature!
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Yes, it's the timeless gaming concept Nintendo perfected on the Super
Nintendo, with games like this and
Super Metroid: explore at your
leisure, note spots that feel like places you could get to if you had the
right item; eventually collect that item through your adventures, then come
back to that spot with your new item. For example:
1. The other side of that broken bridge has a beam I think I could shoot a
hook shot into. 2. Woah, cool, this dungeon's treasure is a hookshot. 3.
Yes, when I shot my new hookshot into that beam, I got over that previously
uncrossable ravine.
Now I've got an entirely new area to explore! While the term "Metroidvania" would be coined after
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night began to incorporate this same type
of gameplay into the Castlevania franchise, in truth, Zelda games had also
been doing this right here in 1992 (of course the '86 original
The Legend of Zelda did something similar, but with far less
structure).
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Must. Go. Everywhere.
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The incredible sense of discovery lent by this style of gameplay is tough to
beat. During your 20+ hour journey, you'll want to get into every nook and
hollow of
A Link to the Past's world. You'll want to find every piece
of heart, not just to extend your life meter, but because you'll simply want
to find them. Just seeing what's beyond the next dungeon door is exciting.
With double-digit dungeons, a full adventure awaits. And with double-digit
dungeons come a huge variety of bosses, a veritable rogue's gallery of nasty
beasts who are just as fun to fight as they are to simply experience. Feelings
of invention and originality permeate every moment of
A Link to the Past, even though it's been aped by numerous games,
including Legend of Zelda ones, ever since.
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Vega? I thought I was done with Street Fighter II!
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Composer, Koji Kondo, is also at the top of his game here, producing some of
his most memorable, atmospheric, transportive musical compositions, all
appearing at the perfect times. The sound effects are also heavenly, with the
sound your sword makes when it hits a boss particularly satisfying. The
graphics, even going down to each dungeon's color schemes, are iconic and
beautiful. The production value is off the charts--check the game's ending,
which brings a satisfying and cathartic resolution to every character you've
met in Hyrule's story. Oh, yes, of course, the characters--Hyrule is full of
charming non-player characters, as well. Many of them have interesting stories
that Link can make himself a part of, as he solves people's problems all over
Hyrule. This game features so much goodness it's almost unbelievable.
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This ending didn't have to tell me what happened to Flute Boy, but
it is all the better for it!
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If you want to nitpick, yes, when a lot is happening onscreen, like in many
Super Nintendo games,
A Link to the Past has some graphical slowdown.
Does the slowdown affect gameplay? No. It's actually kind of charming.
Everything about this game is.
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Yes!!! This fight is so awesome.
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Maybe I'm a little biased, though.
A Link to the Past had a magical
impact on my life. It lifted me out of my preteen funk--immediately after
playing it, I experienced a seemingly endless wonderful wave of new things:
more Super Nintendo games, a rediscovery of the original Star Wars trilogy,
new friends, my dad bought us a Go Cart, we found a white kitten with mystical
powers in our yard who became the best pet I've ever had, I painted my room
blue, I got a TV in my room and a bigger bed and a sweet new aquarium, I grew
a hair in one of my armpits. Just on and on and on and on awesomeness. Most
importantly, though, from that moment in my life on, I opened myself to new
experiences. Hey, variety is the spice of life, right? But I try not to forget
any of the great old experiences I've had either. It helps that playing
through The
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past now is just as
invigorating as it was 25 years ago.
Graphics: 9.0/10.0
Sound:
10.0/10.0
Gameplay: 10.0/10.0
Lasting Value: 9.0/10.0
Overall: 10.0/10.0
