To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, we're running a series of features looking at a specific aspect — a theme, character, mechanic, location, memory or something else entirely — from each of the mainline Zelda games. Today, Kate talks about one of the franchises' most iconic instalments...
I first played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in 2003, on the Game Boy Advance. Not the original, I know – but given that I hadn't figured out fine motor control when it first came out in '91, I doubt I would have been able to finish it on the SNES. Then again, I never finished it on the GBA, either. Technically, I never even finished the first temple.
Hold on! Put the pitchforks away! It gets better, I promise.
I spent roughly fifty-something hours on my little Game Boy Advance SP (with the eyesight-saving screen light) exploring A Link to the Past's world. From its atmospheric, rainy beginnings, to discovering (and quickly forgetting) my dying uncle in the bowels of the castle, the game grabbed me by the heartstrings and pulled. But I never became the Link of legend. Instead, I roleplayed as some chap with a sword and no clue, accidentally bumbling his way through Hyrule but never actually saving it.
You see, there was a bit in the Eastern Palace that I couldn't get past. It involved the darkness, and those horrible speedy cyclops-things, and my goopy, developing child-brain just couldn't figure it out. I wasn't a huge fan of the dark to begin with, and my clumsy, tiny hands found it far too difficult to evade these beasts before eventually succumbing.
Back then, I was bad at games, but I loved them. I would spend hours running around the world of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time, or exploring Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64. I preferred to play Mario Kart as a driving-adventure, rather than a race, spending my time following the tracks of Kalimari Desert and getting repeatedly told off for going the "wrong way". I wasn't as interested in meeting the games' goals as I was in adventuring, discovering, and plundering every nook and cranny of their universes. I had time back then, and racing to the end wasn't my priority.
As a result, I spent hours traversing the Light World before I even knew there was a Dark World. I could have drawn you a map of A Link To The Past's Hyrule with my eyes closed, but I couldn't tell you what it all meant. There wasn't a section of that overworld that I didn't know by heart – at least, the bits that I could access with the limited tools I had – but whole swathes of it remained a mystery, like the book on the shelf in the library, or the sword in the Lost Woods that I couldn't pull out. None of the characters would help me, not even the Fortune Teller, who would just tell me over and over to complete the Eastern Palace. But back then, that was enough. It might seem frustrating to be stuck at the very first temple, but I didn't mind. The adventure, for me, was in my own imagination.
Looking back on my experience with A Link to the Past as a kid, I realise how accidentally, quintessentially Zelda it was. Like the very first incarnation of Link's quest, I was exploring a world that was indifferent to me, that existed without me, and that jealously guarded its secrets like a dragon, refusing to give them up until I had figured out the exact puzzle answer that it wanted. I may have been the Link of legend – or, actually, the Lonk of legend, since the game let you name him – but I was a failure, and Hyrule remained closed to me as a result, a monolith of mystery that I couldn't get past.
In 2021, at the pestering of my partner, I downloaded the Nintendo Switch Online service that gives you access to a bunch of forgettable old NES and SNES games, and a handful of brilliant ones. A Link to the Past was nestled in amongst that clutch of eggs like a nugget of gold – and that meant it was time. Surely, in the intervening decades, I had learned enough about games to be able to finally beat it?
I was expecting A Link to the Past to have aged poorly, or to compare unfavourably with its descendants. How could anything stack up to the glory of Breath of the Wild, or the free rein of Wind Waker? Could it even rival Phantom Hourglass, the first Zelda game I ever completed completely solo?
You will probably not be surprised to hear that the answer is "obviously, you dingus", but I was. Despite being only the third game in the Zelda series, A Link to the Past sets the tone and the mythos for many of the games that followed it, but the most important thing it established was the duality of the lowercase-L legend of Zelda.
Some of the best games in Zelda's 35-year history deal with this before-and-after, good-vs-evil dichotomy. The most famous, perhaps, is Ocarina of Time's two worlds: the world of child Link, and the world of Adult Link. As a representation of the horrors of a world corrupted by evil, but also the horrors of ageing, Hyrule's two forms are starkly different and unsettling.
Likewise, Skyward Sword has the world above, and the world below; A Link Between Worlds has Hyrule and Lorule; Breath of the Wild takes place after the calamity, but has windows into the before-times through Link's memories; and Wind Waker has the flooded world and the palace beneath the waves, saved by stasis. Zelda's story, time and time again, is about showing Link not only what could go wrong if he fails, but what already did go wrong.
A Link to the Past's Dark World comes to you, at first, as a strange, Link's Awakening-style dreamlike accident. There's no way of knowing that the weird portal near the Tower of Hera will take you to another land entirely, nor that the game's pink-haired Link will be transformed into the Duracell bunny. The game up to this point has been pretty standard Zelda fare: killing monsters, exploring dungeons, evading all the soldiers who try to kill you on sight, and grabbing important jewellery out of conveniently-placed chests. There are loads of old men who give you cryptic quests without offering anything in the way of aid, and a princess whose defining traits include standing around, getting kidnapped, and saying "help me, Link".
Slowly, deliberately, the mystery of the Dark World unfolds, revealing it as the once-golden Sacred Realm, transformed into a place of nightmares by Ganon's evil influence. The Light World, despite seeming like the entire game at first, is revealed to be a prelude for the true story. It's a fakeout that can only be achieved following the relative normality of the first two games, a twist that relies on subverting the existing expectations of players.
Perhaps later Zelda games would have made it a much bigger reveal, like Ocarina of Time's reliance on expository cutscenes. But A Link to the Past, like most retro games, keeps its mouth largely shut – except for Sahasrahla's occasional nagging help. Link is largely left to his own devices and expected to just figure it out himself, which is one of the big reasons that I struggled with it as a kid.
I had grown up on Ocarina of Time, where Navi tells you everything you need to know whether you want her to or not. I was more used to the hand-holding of subsequent Zeldas, and the tutorialisation that came along with the "new" 3D games, which were forced to teach their players how to move the camera in this bewildering dimension.
Entirely by accident, though, my time with A Link to the Past is a perfect echo of its own story. When I played as a child, I was naive, inexperienced, and weak, and A Link to the Past became a story about a peaceful(ish) world where nothing had gone completely wrong (yet). Zelda was still within the safety of the Sanctuary; the Light World was full of people just going about their lives. The mysteries of Hyrule were still mysteries, and remained just out of my reach.
As an adult – with not only decades of gaming experience under my belt, but as an actual games critic – A Link to the Past is, more simply, a game – and games can be beaten. A Link To The Past has a mostly linear path, and its dungeons rely on tropes that are easy to solve once you know how they work. My childhood experience was akin to finding a huge, tightly-locked door and speculating about what it hid; my adulthood experience is correctly guessing that the key is under the doormat.
There is, like with Ocarina of Time, some misfortune in my own dichotomy with A Link to the Past. Nothing is as sacred as the imagination of a child. The wonder with which I experienced Hyrule back then is pure magic; playing the same game as a jaded, game-worn grown-up is a series of doors to unlock. I consider myself lucky nonetheless: A Link to the Past is a colourful, tightly-woven tapestry of legends and adventure, a formative blueprint for the Zelda series, and a masterwork of design and self-directed discovery that remains unrivalled by any other Zelda game, barring perhaps Breath of the Wild.
There is a part of me that wishes I had played A Link to the Past upon its release, so that I could experience it untainted by a lifetime of untangling video game logic. But, just like Link discovered for himself time and time again, there are always consequences to rewriting the past. A Link to the Past is a legend, a near-untouchable part of my childhood, and revisiting those memories by blasting through it as an adult is an almost sacrilegious experience, familiarly unfamiliar each time I open the door to something new. But to finally solve the game's mysteries after nearly 20 years, and to discover its true depths, is a strangely perfect end that (magic) mirrors its own tale.
Comments (75)
I was recently trying to play LttP on my GBA...it is tough with only 2 buttons! I pretty much went back to playing it on my 3DS and Wii..
I did play it upon its original release. In those days, pre-internet, I traded my lunch snacks away at school for tips on how to dig up the flute boy's flute, because we didn't know what we were doing yet. And it was awesome
Great story. I needed that, first thing in the morning.
It’s amazing how a change in perspective can change ones enjoyment of a game.
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The NES Zelda games have aged like milk, and I'll stand by that judgment, but A Link to the Past is as fun today as it was in the 90s. It also established the gameplay formula the series is known for, almost wholesale.
I still like ALBW more, but, for its time, it was a masterpiece.
Thank you for article!
This is a really good story Kate and I am glad you eventually completed Link to the Past. I played it on the SuperNES back in the day and still play through it every few years.
Your story made my heart soar with the eagle’s 🦅 nest. 🥲
Unpopular opinion, but this is my least favourite of the Zeldas I’ve played. I guess my main problem with it is the dungeons- none really stand out for me, and the grid makes combat feel stiff. The overworld is fantastic though, and playing ALBW made me appreciate it more than ever.
@Munchlax while the link to the past is one of my favorite Zelda hames I can objectively say it is a little clunky as far as design goes but I think that's just part of its age at the end of the day.
Awesome Read 💯
This is my favorite video game of all time!!!
Your childhood experience with ALttP sounds very similar to my own with TLoZ (I never beat that one until adulthood). Now I replay them both every single year.
Your experience sounds very close to my own, regarding Zelda and it really is about time I played through ALTTP fully on the switch online service... The mii in the screenshots looks like an eldritch salad fingers nightmare.
Until Breath of the Wild came out, this was my favorite Zelda game. I revisited it after playing BOTW and while I still liked it, there was a certain amount of restriction, clunkiness and grinding that just made the experience less enjoyable than I initially remembered. Still a fun game, but it was honestly hard for me to go back to after playing the (in my opinion) masterpiece that is Breath of the Wild.
ALttP, OoT and ALBW are all my joint favourite Zelda games. Every time I replay any of them I’m reminded of how amazing they are. Hopefully one day we’ll get another Zelda game as good as them.
@Nameless_Shame I hope you appreciate that I made sure every version of the title here was the proper one
When I exited the Dark World I had become a 78 year old Korean woman
Great article again. I remember reading the review of this in a mag back in 91 or 92. Never tookthe plunge tho, rpgs or whatever as this was labelled back then wasn’t on my radar. Now it’s Xmas 1998 I’m having my mind injected with that magic ocarina of time! No Zelda will beat that. I finally played this in 2016 on my 3ds after wanting in the last few years and yeah it’s superb! Took a while to get used to the difficulty! I wish the damage taken was about half but I did complete and am gonna play again soon. A 10 xxxx
A good read! Reminds me of how I'd play games as a kid, mostly exploring the in-game world and making my own objectives rather than completing the main goals.
@KateGray The bunny is the mascot of Energizer batteries. Never occurred to me that Link had that resemblance and now I probably won't ever not think of it...
Holds up real good.
Looked fantastic on the Snes. Great map and music.
The first game I finished on my Snes mini.
@KateGray Haha, fantastic! You’ve made this ol’ man proud 🤗 Really enjoyed the article.
While my brain was a goopy, barely developing wet shell for the likes of the first two Zelda titles, it had formed into a close-enough-to-competent Krang of a problem solving organ by the time I got a SNES in 1992, and while I had enough road bumps along the way causing me to call my older cousin for help more times than I care to admit, it was still the first grand adventure game I actually beat!
If Daft Punk were still together, I’m sure they would approve and be proud of the name drop.
@Munchlax I'm with you on this one, I too have never completely clicked with this game and I don't know why!
I know I got stuck at the hookshot eye boss when I was a kid on my GBA, but even years later I just can't bring myself to complete it...and so I never did!
It's a bit of a stain on my Zelda megafan CV ahahahah
What's weird is I really really liked ALBW when I didn't expect to, since I'm not a fan of ALTTP and I wasn't sold on the wall merging thingy initially (spoiler: it would absolutely captivate me once I started playing).
I guess I'll have a lot of time in the future to try again!
I was the same way as a kid, though I was able to get past the Eastern Palace (just never the next one). I would explore for hours, sort of playing pretend in Hyrule. I would also play on my brother's finished account, exploring the dark world as well. I did it for several games, being too little to progress, but having a big brother with full files. Link to the Past, Majora's Mask, (mainly as a zora in the great bay) Link's Awakening. I may have been able ti figure out the first dungeon, but after that I just explored. I still will mess with MajorasyMask on occasion, going to the beaver's race and just swimming freely, but it's definitely a part of being a child, and it was great
Another classic that deserves a remake. And this game would greatly benefit from a second quest or some kind of hard mode.
@Valdney Try beating the game without collecting the sword! It's a nightmare!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go03qZCWDsw&ab_channel=GrandPOOBear
@Munchlax If you said that about ALTTP back in the 90s you would've been crucified.
As a matter of fact, back when Ocarina of Time was still in development there was a ton of hate towards OoT primarily because it wasn't going to be a 2D over-head game like the previous games had been.
I remember reading letters to the editor on several magazines from that era. From Zelda fans that were salty af that OoT was going to be a 3D game.
Zelda fans can often be disconnected like that
For instance, when BOTW came out and it was an OPEN WORLD game, Zelda fans were upset and claimed that Nintendo had forgotten the franchise's roots.
When in reality, BOTW went back to the original NES Zelda roots. Because that game was the original OPEN WORLD game. It had no handholding. No overhead arrow pointing at where you had to go. You can pretty much go out and explore anywhere from the very start.
That first picture is how I long for a new Zelda game to look, but in full 3D.
I had this game at the very top of my favourite games list for so long. It is nigh on perfect in my eyes.
I don't think it has aged a day and other imitators have tried and failed to capture the magic.
For me A Link to the Past showed me what I imagined Hyrule to be like when playing the first game and while I already had a soft spot for the games this was where I fell in love.
@GC-161 Tons of people in my social circle hated Link to the Past when I was in middle school, “just another sword game.” Nobody was crucifying anyone for disliking it! In fact out of all my friends, only me and my besty actually liked it, so if anything we got bashed FOR liking it!
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@Ralizah Gross.
This is such a wonderful read. I had a pretty similar experience with A Link to the Past when I first played it. I had no idea how to progress once I got to the Dark World - I was stumped on how to beat the Palace of Darkness, so instead I just explored every other area that I could. Even if I didn't make a lot of progress in the campaign itself, I still had such a blast!
My first experience with A Link to the Past was also through the GBA. I likewise hadn't developed fine motor skills yet when the game first released in the West; I was born late in the year it came out in Japan! An excellent, excellent game, one of the best Zelda games IMO!
I have 100%ed the original ALttP via the SNES Classic.
I cut my teeth on Ocarina Of Time, then a few times over the subsequent decades I tried to play LTTP on emulators etc and I just couldn't go back to 2D; it turned me right off from the get go.
Personally I think the Indie Apocalypse saved the day for me - by the time I gave it another shot on the Switch, I'd learned to love retro 2D. Perhaps it was Cadence of Hyrule specifically which did it. But once I started LTTP on the switch, I joyously 100%ed it over a few weeks with a smile on my face until the final credit rolled.
@Nameless_Shame Thanks!! I'm really glad you approved
@AJDarkstar The built-in screen light is what Kate is talking about here.
@BloodNinja
Psh! The "ton of people" in your middle school weren't representative of the crowd that I'm talking about here, duderino.
I'm talking about the ones that actively wrote letters to gaming magazines or that went online using Dial Up to rant about how OoT looked ugly, empty and barren compared to sprite based Zelda games. And that to this day still produce long winded videos on YouTube arguing that ALttP is still better than OoT. Because they can't get over the fact that 3D Zelda games are here to stay (unlike they claimed back then, calling it a FAD).
GC-161 CERTIFIED AND APPROVED FOR MASS CONSUMPTION
@BloodNinja LMAO @ ALttP is "just another sword game"... I can only imagine how they felt about the countless platformers that ruled the 90's.
I am curious though, what were the more popular games of your childhood circle? They remind me of the "elitist group" of RPG-Only kids in my grade school, when I was younger.
@the4seer When I was a kid, Ninja Gaiden was ALWAYS on everyone’s mind. Mega Man X, many, many action games. My best friend and I were the only people that appreciated stuff like Final Fantasy/Zelda. Mainly, we were surrounded by action game fanatics. I love both, but it was always weird when people would make fun of us for playing. I’ll never forget I was showing someone FF3 (SNES) and he said “but you don’t even move the characters!” LOL
NINJA APPROVED (ah, memories)
@GC-161 But OOT is ugly, and LTTP is worlds better. I am objectively right, with no flaw in reasoning. 🥳 (Please see the joke)
Jokes aside, I’m still not impressed with Nintendo’s translation of Link to 3D, I feel they did a much better job with Mario, in that regard. (As a franchise I mean.)
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@BloodNinja I knew that you were one of them!
GC-161 CERTIFIED BY THE FDA AND APPROVED FOR MASS CONSUMPTION BY NASA AND THE FBI (AND OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES EXCEPT FOR THE ONES IN RUSSIA OR NORTH KOREA)
@GC-161 GET THAT CRAWLY THING OFF MY SCREEN BEFORE I THROW A SHURIKEN AT IT
😂
@BloodNinja Not a chance. I work at a company that fixes PCs and smartphones and I make sure to install that crawling bug on all devices that allowed it.
And it's been good for business! Lots of broken screens!
THIS POST WAS APPROVED FOR YOUR EYEBALLS - AND EARS - IF SOMEONE READS IT TO YOU RIGHT INTO YOUR EAR CANAL. ITS ALSO COPYRIGHTED SO DON'T STEAL IT.
I like the original Artworks from the 90s more, they seem somehow more adult:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/zelda/images/7/70/Secret_Passage.png
The newer ones that came with the GBA Port are friendlier in Tone.
Also with Kid Links Voice in the Game they clearly wanted it to aim it to even younger Kids.
I'm not a big Zelda fan, but this game even I consider to be a masterpiece. One of the finest action games ever crafted.
The Dark World theme in this game is also up there as one of my favorite video game music tracks of all time, and it's sorta weird, despite getting tons of remixes between all kind of media none of the versions I've heard have come even close to matching the SNES original.
What a great read! 😊
Those games that come along during our wonder years always hold a special place in our hearts. I think I was lucky that the games on the Atari and Colecovision like Mr. Do, Venture, and Smurfs were so primitive, I didn’t completely go down the rabbit hole and I could focus somewhat on elementary school.
I think I was 13 when the original LOZ came out. It was unlike anything I’d ever played and really proved the potential of home video games to me. That’s the Zelda I imprinted on, for better or worse. 😅
LTTP arrived late in my high school years, when games were more frequent, life was more hectic, and some of the magic dimmed. But even so, it was a powerful experience - a complete power-up of the original, just as Super Mario World and Super Metroid were. Great quality games, and great challenges to beat! Timeless masterpieces, in hindsight. And had I been the same age as you, Kate, I’d have been utterly, happily lost in them, too. 😄
The GBA version of this game is inferior to the SNES version, which is terribly flawed to begin with. The game wasn't made for such a small screen, and the screen crunch they implemented to compensate for it is pretty bad. Anyway, I consider this game to be the lowest point of the series apart from the weird DS titles and their awful stylus controls. A Link To The Past disappointed me greatly in that I beat the game in three or four days, a far cry from the entire month it took me to beat Zelda I and Zelda II each. It's sad that videogame executives during the late eighties and early nineties were caught between their belief that Americans weren't smart enough to beat their games and the fear that videogame rentals would make buying their games a thing of the past. So we got either ridiculously easy games such as A Link To The Past and Final Fantasy VI or ultra-hard games like Double Dragon III and Ninja Gaiden III. Luckily, some of these games have been hacked to make them better to play today.
I’ve always felt like an idiot for not taking to A Link To The Past. I love Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Kirby Super Star and honestly most of the classics from that time period but for whatever reason, ALTTP never ever gelled. I really disliked ALBW as well so I thought perhaps I just didn’t like 2D Zelda but then I really quite liked Link’s Awakening, The Minish Cap and the DS games (let’s be fair, they’re basically 2D too). Perhaps I should give ALTTP one last go before writing it off.
@GC-161 HAHHA, I needed that laugh, excellent.
@TheWingedAvenger Wait... Didn't videogame exec's from the late 80s and early 90s bring over Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (a.k.a. Dragon Warrior) to America where said IPs made it big and begun their rise to fame and whatnot?
I also hear that the Ultima games were pretty popular back then. Maybe more on PC tho.
I love that feeling of inhabiting a game's world. Not really focusing on the game itself but just living in it. You imagine the world has a depth that goes beyond what's actually in the game. And of course the Dark World and the lore behind it sparks so much of the imagination.
That feeling has been elusive since being an adult, but BotW actually brought it back for me. That's why I appreciate that game so much. That childlike wonder is still attainable. Age and experience don't condemn us to cynicism.
Man, I DO love this game. It's so well made and fun that you can enjoy it even if you suck at it. Like I do. Recently, I've played it again after a long while and beaten it and was all happy 'till it underlined I had died 45 times along the way. Oh well. It was great fun anyway.
Seriously, this game fully deserves to be in the hall of fame of the best videogames ever created and when it came out, soon became so emblematic that for a long time, whenever the word "Zelda" was heard, ALttP first came to everyone's minds.
It wasn't easy for a game with so many RPG elements to succeed in a time when arcades ruled the scene, but this one did it brilliantly.
@GC-161
The first four Dragon Quest games were huge failures in America, so the SNES games (V and VI) were never translated for the American SNES. Final Fantasy (NES) was a decent success in America but the second and third games weren't translated for the American NES. I don't know what the Japanese version of Final Fantasy IV (SNES) was like, but the American version was far too easy. It's almost as easy as Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for the SNES.
Awesome read, thank you @kategray. The wait for the 3rd Zelda was an agonising period after the advent of me beating Zelda II:AoL (a tale for another time), so Christmas of '92 was a gift from above alongside Super Mario World. I had no idea what to expect, but I was happy to see the series return to its overhead roots. I just remember it being so stunning (the rain with lightning), somber (your uncle's death), anxiety inducing (first trip to the Dark World), scary (I jumped when I saw the boss of the Dark Temple), surprising (when the girl turned out to be the boss Blind)-- It was so deep for a Zelda and a prelude of what gaming had in store for me from the 16 bit age and forward. It was definitely, imo, the keystone Zelda that didn't just walk, but strutted out the Zelda blueprint with aplomb.
I just hope we continue to get 2D Zeldas.
Great read!
When I played this game in 94/95 in Grade 5, I loved this game soooooo much! It became my favourite game to that point. We had actually borrowed it from a friend because my family was poor and even though we had an SNES (and an NES before that), my parents could only ever afford a few games for us (-like, 1 game per year over the entire life of our console).
So, thinking I would never get to ever play this game I loved so much ever again after giving it back, I legit copied down EVERY word from this game by hand into a notebook. Like, EVERY single word from EVERY single NPC. 25 years later, I still have this.
@TheWingedAvenger To be fair, Dragon Quest never took off in the UK and Europe as well. So its definitely not an 'American' thing why it failed to catch on.
Mystic Quest pretty much bombed in America despite being "easy". So I don't think being easy made the game more palatable in the West.
Also, Final Fantasy currently sells a bit better in America than in Europe right?
And then there's plenty of examples of slow methodical games being successful primarily in America.
Heck, even Sony moved away from catering the Japanese market and is mostly focused on America.
A Link to the Past is pure magic. I know OoT set the standards of 3D adventure games and so, but ALttP also made 2D adventures became huge. A masterclass of gameplay and design, back in the day. And it's still a masterpiece, no matter if you play it now.
Because BotW is just too good, and it brings the series to its roots brilliantly, otherwise ALttP would still be my favourite.
I have been playing Metroid Prime Echoes and that utilizes the dark world in a totally different way than Alttp. Though, alttp probably gave some inspiration; it’s an amazing game and probably my favorite Zelda game. The 2d is just so classic and fun to play. I agree that there is definitely no “hand holding” going on. It requires a lot of exploration, which is part of its charm.
My favorite zelda game, so fun.
My favorite Zelda title. 6/10.
@Munchlax YOU ARE WRONG GET OF THE INTERNET!!! MY OPINION OF THE GAME IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH! I HOPE YOU STUB YOUR TINY TOE !!!
But yea I disagree with you A link to the past is a special game for me personally, a lot of 16 bit era games are special to me.
It's ok if people dislike it that doesn't change it's significance to me.
But the combat is simplistic compared to later game and the entire concept has been perfected in it's many sequels.
I played bits of it with a friend on SNES when we were 8-10 but I played thru and beat it on GBA when I was 12 or 13. I replayed it on Wii but should really give some time to it on Switch. It's very top notch.
To me it is the best the series offers. Puzzles, dungeon design, overworld, music... It was the template for "traditional" zelda games for 2 decades and arguably was never bested. I look forward to Zelda continuing with the new template Breath of the Wild setup.
This article makes me want to play A Link Between Worlds... I missed it upon initial release so hoping it gets the HD treatment some time in the future.
I have now gone back to A Link To The Past. I hope you’re happy.
You can always regain that part of yourself that had that sense of wonder and curiosity that tends to get lost in adulthood! Takes a bit of exploring your own psyche and mindfulness, though. I have been playing Ghost of a Tale recently and enjoying it much like I used to with games such as Sonic, Link to the Past and Mario World. I never could complete the games 100% back when I was young, often getting stuck at the later portions or even last bosses, but I enjoyed it all so much. Apply the logic of games to life: We play our avatars for experience... Doing this makes it all much easier to face the next challenge and everything becomes a little more brighter. Much love to all who read this!
I really like this game but there is something about it that actually nauseates me when I play it. I’m actually getting a little queasy just thinking about it now. I’ll still play it start to finish, enraptured, I’ll just feel like I’m going to throw up the whole time. I beat this one on SNES but not until ‘97 or ‘98.
@Deady weird. There were certain games from that era where the music literally hurts my ears. Also, played Rygar when I was home sick as a kid, to this day the thought of the game makes me queasy.
Have you tried the randomized ALttP?
I loved how it gives a greater advanced puzzle feel.
Great article! This reminds me a lot of the way played games as a kid. I rarely beat any games and played a lot that I couldn’t get into because I didn’t understand the genre (ALttP and Ocarina among them).
Before you understand about how games work there is this magic that exists in the virtual worlds. I remember thinking I could fly from Chicago across Lake Michigan to my home state in MS Flight Simulator 95 because I had no concept that the game didn’t just have an entire model of the globe inside of it.
On the flip side of that (at least a few years before the flight simulator thing) I remember the sense of wonder I felt as a kid when in Super Mario World when we (probably mostly my dad) finished the first castle and the map moved on to the second world. I think playing old Atari 2600 games must have made me expect games to be a single screen type of thing.
I definitely remember following the train tracks in that Mario Kart 64 level (Kalahari Desert?).
Replaying games I played as and kid for me is especially fun in a couple of ways:
I really do miss the days of n64 where my brother and I would spend hours making our own games inside of games using our imaginations to fill out where the gameworld ends and create adventures and sometimes trying to break the game... For some reason can't do it in modern games but back then exploring every corner and wall was joyful enough
Lonk the Duracell bunny has a pivotal role in the course of world events.
That's a beautiful story! I had a similar experience with the original NES game-Got it on the GBA as a seven-year-old expecting it to be like any other zelda game-I was surprised to see how barebones its visuals and gameplay were, but I was ready for adventure. I bumbled around until I had made loads of progress and Hyrule started to become like an elementary school-intimidating at first but second nature after a few years of experience-I didn't look anything up, I simply waited for the important information to come to me through various youtube videos and websites like this. Sure, it took ten years for me to finish the game, but when I did it felt as if the game had grown up alongside me-those secrets slowly started to unravel, doors unlocked until I was nearing the end of high school and it was time to take on Ganon. This is one of the few moments I noticed I had matured, as it is a perfect parallel to my life- Once naive and unfamiliar with everything, now I was starting to branch out and become more confident in myself. Confident enough to take down this beast I had only heard about and seen in videos, never in person. Finally, I wasn't afraid to let something great come to an end.
Lonk! That's the same joke name I used for my last playthrough on NSO. I got a nice laugh every time a character said it during dramatic moments. I'm easily amused!
Excellent article. One of my favourites I’ve read on this site. Thank you.
@AJDarkstar That's not how I read it.
@AJDarkstar Yet you're the only person in 70+ comments who has mentioned it
@GC-161
I agree: the Japanese higher-ups who decided that Westerners were too stupid or unwilling to beat their games were definitely wrong.
Wow that was a really good article. It kinda made me start crying. It was just very moving. The hole thing about being a kid and your since of adventure, and imagination and now being an adull kind of takes that away "the key under the doormat" that's pretty much what it is... Except BTOW of course.
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