The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

SNES - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Published 1991-11-21 Platforms SNES Genres Action-adventure, Exploration, Metroidvania Themes Adventure, Fantasy Series The Legend of Zelda Distribution Commercial

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo on the SNES on 1991-11-21. It is the third release in the Zelda series. It uses the same top-down perspective from the first game and greatly increases the player's abilities and collectible items.

In the game, you play an elfin boy named Link who is called forth to stop the evil wizard Agahnim from kidnapping the Princess Zelda, but rescuing her is only the beginning as you're swept off into a world of darkness which mirrors the normal world. You must explore two worlds and conquer several dungeons to finally save the land of Hyrule from evil.

Personal

Own?	Yes. I own two loose cartridges.
Won?	Yes. Several time with 100% completion.
Finished	2006-12-27.

I first played this game after my brother stole it from his friend in 1992 and deleted his nearly complete save game. Both of us loved the original NES game and found this new one to be superior in every way, so we played the game heavily. We hooked up my SNES to my bother's stereo system and played the game with extra bass which let you feel the sword swing! Eventually, my brother's friend found out we had his stolen cart and demanded it back before we got too far into the game. Having completely fallen in love with the game, I played the copies of friends who had already finished the game, played with their full inventories, and beat Ganon. Later, I bought a used copy for my own and continued to love the game's wonderful graphics and music, and I had fun finding all the items I had seen with previous copies. I made it to dungeon 7, but became so frustrated with the boss, I gave up. Shortly there after, I sold my SNES and all my games, and didn't play the game for some time. I played the game off-and-on through emulators, but only halfheartedly. Many years later in 2006, I decided to finally beat the game properly from beginning to end. This is one of my favorite video games of all time, and I view it as a near-perfect masterpiece.

Review

10	10	10	10	10

Best Version: SNES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game's art style is fantastic. The sprites look wonderful, the well-animated, and the backgrounds are beautiful. Everything is stunning.
• Koji Kondo's music and sound effects are especially good and make great use of the SNES's stereo capabilities.
• The game engine is solid and functions like a well-oiled machine.
• The story is a big jump up from previous games, and the frequent interactions with NPCs to keep it flowing nicely. I'm certainly tired of saving princesses, but there is thankfully a lot more to it.
• The game play is both challenging and exciting throughout the entire game. Even as you acquire new weapons, armor, and items, you still have to work for victory.
• The large amount of items really keep the game interesting, and several are used in novel ways. In addition to the classics like the boomerang, bombs, and bow, we now get the hookshot, pegasus boots, and bug-catching net which are fantastic additions.
• There are tons of hidden things in the game to keep it exciting, and most of them are hidden in a clever way and useful in the game. The pieces of heart scattered all over the map was a great addition. The bottles are also very useful and one is expertly hidden. The good bee is an especially whimsical find. The Chris Houlihan room is also interesting.
• The scene where you find out the boy with the ocarina has turned himself into a tree by going into the dark world, and then have to tell his old father that he's gone is really sad.
• The game manual is top-notch. Lots of beautiful art and a detailed explanation of the game.

Bad

• The game is pretty linear. In the first game, almost all of the over world and several underworlds can be explored from the get-go. But in this one, large sections of the game are off-limits until you get specific items. This is certainly helpful to keeping you on track the first time through, but it also guarantees every subsequent play-through will be identical. Part of the fun of the original was being able to play the levels out of order.
• Several of the items are unimportant, either by being entirely unnecessary to beat the game, being too awkward to be useful, or they exist only for a single lock-and-key use. The magic cape, the cane of Byrna, and the Bombos spell are the worst offenders.
• The difficulty of the dungeons isn't quite orderly. I find that 1 is harder than 3, 5 is harder than 6, etc. Though, this might be my play style.

Ugly

• Nothing. This game is a work of art.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original Japanese box uses a painting of the Master Sword in its altar with a cartoon link, poised to fight, in the foreground, and the golden title graphic above them. Each piece is great by itself, but the three different styles clash together.

• 

  The USA design is more subdued like the first two Zelda games before it. It's a gold field with a highly detailed sword and shield, and a great lettering. This is my favorite box.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

• 

  Manual - USA - Rev 3.

• 

  Manual - Japan - Digital.

• 

  Nintendo Player's Guide.

• 

  Nintendo Power manga.

Maps

• Additional Maps

• 

  Light World.

• 

  Eastern Palace.

• 

  Desert Palace.

• 

  Mountain Tower.

• 

  Dark World.

• 

  Dark Palace.

• 

  Swamp Palace.

• 

  Skull Woods.

• 

  Thieves Town.

• 

  Ice Tower.

• 

  Misery Mire.

• 

  Turtle Rock.

• 

  Ganon's Tower.

Graphics

• flickr.com/photos/historyofhyrule/albums/72157629221314979 - Official published art.

Fan Art

• 

  Stormy night comic by Zac Gorman.

• 

  Bug-catching net comic by Zac Gorman.

• 

  Chicken armor comic by Zac Gorman.

• 

  Fan art by Billy Saltzman.

• 

  Fan art by Lobo Borges.

• 

  Fan comic by Inky Rickshaw.

Videos

NESComplex.

Review - What's So Great About Gaming?

Making of.

Son of a Glitch.

Review - Why Does Everyone Love A Link to the Past?

Zelda is your...

Boss origins.

Longplay.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are a couple females, but none are important, and many are damsels in distress.
Bechdel test?	Fail	No women ever talk to each other.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Although the Hylians aren't human, they all appear to be whitish.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Japanese	ゼルダの伝説 神々のトライフォース	Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Toraifosu	Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods

Links

             

• zeldadungeon.net/Zelda03-a-link-to-the-past.php - Zelda Dungeon.