Played on: Nintendo Switch Online [Super NES]
After revisiting The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening's original Game Boy build on a whim last year, I decided to fill some of my spare time replaying the canonical Super Nintendo predecessor to that game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. As of this January, I finally managed to complete A Link to the Past for probably the seventh or eighth time in my life, and true to form, this game still hasn't aged a day since its original North American release in 1992.
Of course, I wasn't able to play the original Super Nintendo version of A Link to the Past as a child, beyond some tantalizing glimpses at the game during visits to my cousins' house. I wouldn't actually be able to play through it properly until Christmas 2003, in fact, when I received a copy of the updated Game Boy Advance edition of A Link to the Past from my parents. Even then, that was a tweaked portable build that made the game easier, and came with the The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords bonus multiplayer game.
It wouldn't be until I was a 19-year-old adult that I actually managed to play through and beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's original Super Nintendo build for the first time, via the Wii Virtual Console catalogue, and I wouldn't complete the game AND its extra content 100% for the first time until playing the Wii U Virtual Console build just a few years ago. To this day, the original Super Nintendo cartridge of A Link to the Past is also the only OG Legend of Zelda game cartridge that I don't own as well, as a bit of frustrating trivia, which I one day hope to rectify.
In any case, those who aren't familiar with A Link to the Past are truly missing out. Now that the game is available for free to all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers as well, it's never been more accessible!
I'm so sad that my childhood never properly included this game. It's arguably one of the most timeless, universally appealing games in the Legend of Zelda series. A Link to the Past was also a massive technical and gameplay milestone for the Super Nintendo to boot, blowing up the scale of its two NES predecessors with a truly massive adventure, one that spanned two entire world maps, a ton of items and secrets to discover, and, even today, one of the largest helpings of dedicated dungeons that the series has ever challenged players to conquer!
The story behind A Link to the Past is also one of the Legend of Zelda series' most ambitious plotlines, particularly by the standards of 1992! It serves as the earliest point in the series' 'theoretical timeline', a non-canon selection of Legend of Zelda games, mostly consisting of older titles, that take place in an alternate universe wherein Link failed to destroy his archenemy, Ganon during the events of the series' most pivotal Nintendo 64 title, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and is killed during their battle. As a result, the Seven Sages, a key plot faction from Ocarina of TIme, had to exhaust their power imprisoning Ganon within the 'Sacred Realm' (known in A Link to the Past as the 'Golden Land') of the series' main wish-granting macguffin, The Triforce, an event that comes to be known as The Imprisoning War, thus kickstarting the events of the Legend of Zelda series' 'theoretical timeline'. For the time, there was almost no other video game that packed in a story that felt so immediately sprawling and exciting!
Subsequent lore established by Nintendo would also go on to confirm that A Link to the Past takes place at least 200 years before the events of the series' original 1987 Legend of Zelda game for NES, another game set in the 'theoretical timeline'. As the series' periodically-reincarnating hero, Link, players would have to set off on a quest across the familiar kingdom of Hyrule to reclaim three Sacred Pendants from three dangerous dungeons, which would allow Link to take up the hidden Master Sword, after Ganon begins to work toward invading Hyrule from his prison in the Triforce's Golden Land, now twisted by Ganon's evil wishes into the 'Dark World'. Even after successfully claiming the Master Sword however, subsequent events end up pulling Link into the Dark World, whereupon you are then tasked with rescuing seven maidens, descendants of the Seven Sages that originally imprisoned Ganon, from a new batch of seven dungeons spread around Ganon's home turf. Yes, even after supposedly accomplishing the main quest, players go on to discover that they're not even halfway through the game, and A Link to the Past's most treacherous and exciting challenges are still ahead of them!
If you're thinking that this game sounds enormous, it truly is! That unparalleled sense of scope was a massive deal for the game's 10-12-year-old target audience from 1992 as well, which is why it's unfortunate that I was in junior kindergarten when this game first released, arguably making it just a bit before my time. Even if I had to discover A Link to the Past properly much later in life however, and not even on its original platform when I did, the fact that so much of its scope and ambition can still be appreciated so easily in 2024 is a huge testament to how timeless this game feels. From the second you get that unremarkable first sword and shield from your fallen uncle in the game's opening section, A Link to the Past is instantly engrossing. Returning to the series' original top-down view, after the previous Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for NES experimented with converting the series into a side-scrolling action game (that obviously didn't stick), A Link to the Past is one of the most impressive upgraded sequels in gaming, absolutely dwarfing its canonical 1987 predecessor in every way!
Many of the Legend of Zelda series' familiar tropes began here, including having multiple world maps, collecting Pieces of Heart to gradually increase your health, minigames, hidden secrets to increase your inventory with optional items and carrying capacity, and several iconic songs like the Fairy's Fountain theme, Ganon's theme, Zelda's theme, and the Master Sword jingle, among other examples. It's tough to put into words how exciting it is to rediscover the origins of so many Legend of Zelda staples, especially when A Link to the Past is also refined to perfection in pretty much every way. It's not the most complicated Legend of Zelda game in terms of gameplay, but its staggering amount of enemies, dungeons and hazards definitely make it one of the series' most exciting entries, especially for the time!
There is so much to discover across Hyrule (a.k.a. the 'Light World') and the Dark World, and all of it is held up by play control and progression that remains perfectly tight and satisfying, even over thirty years later. The difficulty curve is finely balanced, the puzzles are mostly simple, but still satisfying to solve, the hidden goodies are just hidden enough to make them rewarding to discover, and the sheer amount of optional distractions would eventually go on to pave the way for the Legend of Zelda series' reputation for featuring some of the best optional side content in video games. Even though this game preceded the series' eventual leap to 3D design with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998, I found that rediscovering A Link to the Past on my Switch was almost even more satisfying; It didn't have the overly obtuse design of the first two NES games, and nor did it have some of the awkward growing pains from the series' first leap to 3D on the Nintendo 64.
I found myself enjoying the gameplay of A Link to the Past so effortlessly while replaying it on my Switch in fact that I yet again completed it 100%, with all collectibles and secrets attained, just like I did when I played on the Wii U Virtual Console, and later the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, which was my first attempt to get access to A Link to the Past's original Super Nintendo build on the go. Fortunately, it's now even easier to play A Link to the Past on demand via Nintendo Switch Online, like I said, even if you don't get the Four Swords expansion that its later Game Boy Advance port featured. Even so, the undisturbed design of this Super Nintendo gem still feels like the best way to enjoy it, with my playtime clocking in around 15 hours or so, seeing as I know most of the solutions to the game's puzzles and combat scenarios, after several replays of A Link to the Past on Wii Virtual Console and Game Boy Advance in particular.
In terms of flaws, I'd be hard pressed to name any. A Link to the Past tops many lists of the best Super Nintendo games ever made for a reason; Because it really is that good. It was the only Legend of Zelda game made for Super Nintendo in the end, but it was also the only Legend of Zelda game that the Super Nintendo truly needed. There was just no topping it, and absolutely none of the game's magic has been lost in 2024!
I suppose the closest thing I can list as a shortcoming in the game, which is packed to the gills with excellent gameplay, music, graphics, storytelling et al, is that it's almost TOO huge in some places. In particular, A Link to the Past contains some redundant items and collectibles that don't really need to be in the game for it to function. The Cane of Byrna and the Magic Cape, for example, both optional items that you can find through exploring, are both invincibility-granting items that ultimately do the exact same thing. Likewise, there are three separate Medallion items that similarly consume some of your magic meter to severely damage and/or destroy all minor enemies on the screen, and are occasionally used to unlock certain dungeons. Once again though, all three of these Medallions ultimately do the same thing, so why does there have to be three of them? Oh, and on the note of items, the Super Nintendo controller loading the game with functions, to the point where secondary items all have to fight over the Y Button, can also be annoying at times, since it requires a bunch of pausing and unpausing the game, so you can keep rearranging which item you want equipped to your Y Button at any given moment.
Even so, those are ultimately very minor nitpicks within an adventure that feels grand, challenging, and aged perfectly. I could go on for such a long time about all of the things I love about A Link to the Past, but I can definitely sum it up by saying that this game remains a particular favourite of mine, as well as one of my all-time favourite Super Nintendo games. Rediscovering the game after playing its own direct canonical sequel, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for Nintendo 3DS (yeah, I was almost a decade late to finally playing through that gem, rather embarrassingly!), was also an especially rewarding experience, continuing to prove that the original design of A Link to the Past feels untouchable, and its myriad contributions to the Legend of Zelda series remain special to a degree that mere words have a hard time articulating.
Alan Rickman once said before his death that he would continue to read Harry Potter even at the end of his life, "Always." My equivalent would definitely be playing and replaying many of the Legend of Zelda series' classic entries, which never seem to lose their charm or quality, even several decades after their initial release. A Link to the Past is one of the series' most ambitious and impressive games, even today, and despite having played through it many times now, it is absolutely a game that I will continue to play and enjoy, even when I'm old and grey. They may not make 'em like they used to (at least, not outside of the indie game scene!), but A Link to the Past nonetheless remains one of the best games ever made, let alone one of the best Legend of Zelda games, and it will be just as fantastic a game even after I'm gone.
Like Alan Rickman said, "Always."
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 10/10
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