Random: Spare A Thought For The Kid Whose Dad Returned Zelda: A Link To The Past

Interesting. I love TLOZ:ALTTP. It's my favorite, with Link's Awakening being my 2nd favorite.

I just recently discovered this YT channel a couple months ago, and it's really wholesome stuff. His family evidently taped everything growing up, he probably has hundreds of hours of VHS footage of opening games on Christmas/birthdays, etc. I've never heard a single curse word either.

He's spoken candidly about losing his father as a teenager and the games that helped him cope through a difficult time. His video on Super Mario Galaxy honestly made me cry, as it was one of the first games that released after his dad passed away. Rosalina's storybook emotionally destroyed him, as one can imagine, and in ways he felt it restored his faith in God because it seemed almost like a sign that everything was going to be okay. It's a great watch, but bring tissues. I wish this dude nothing but positivity. His channel is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly nihilistic and apathetic world.

The My Retro Life channel is a blast to watch. The fact that his father had so much home video footage of Tyler's life and how much of it revolved around video games is so enjoyable from a nostalgic standpoint. I seemed to have quite a few similar experiences growing up...just no video proof.

@Not_Soos Couldn't have said it better myself!

I will check this channel out! And glad to hear it is curse-free!

The first Zelda I played and in my opinion then best, played it so many times.
Didnt even know about the invisibility cloak until a few years ago

When I was a kid I rented Majora's Mask. It showed the moon, said I had a time limit - I Nope'd out of it and returned it so fast. Haha. I do wonder how much that childhood Majora's Mask rejection plays into me not liking Zelda games. To this day NES Zelda is the only Zelda game I've played and beaten, though I do want to play Hyrule Warriors one day.

Eh. I get it. I got the SNES bundle for my 9th birthday. Hated LttP. Ended up liking it later.

I would never have returned it, as I honestly would never return any game I feel had at least some worth, but my experience with LTTP was. . .just ok. Yeah, I know, "you shouldve been there when it came out" and everything, but knowing what the franchise has become capable of, especially the very next year with Links Awakening, and seeing how good its mechanics, dungeons, and story actually are, so far LTTP is currently my least favorite Zelda that I've played, and I bought Echoes of Wisdom day one. This is %100 going to change, as I am currently looking at my backlogged copy of Tri Force Heroes, but for now. . .eh.

The bosses were really good, though. I'll give you that.

@Ryu_Niiyama Thank for sharing 🙏🏼.

I'm quite fond of LttP, it was one of the first games I bought back when I had 12, I think. But the game cartridge died a sudden death and never managed to finish it until 2 years ago on the NSO service.

One of my favourite channels 👍 Tyler has so many great stories. 😊

@HarmanSmith oh wow that is awesome! Nothing like beating it for the first time. I used to replay the last battle every year on my birthday to see the death count. 😂 might do that this year as I am off on my bday.

I really like how modern gaming has made games so much more financially accessible to people. I remember my street fighter cartridge cracked (still not sure how) and it wasn’t till super street fighter 2 came out years later that I could get a SF game again.

When I had my snes I pretty much just played platformers (DKC 1-3 and Super Mario World). I think I would have gotten lost/stuck quite easily in Link to the Past. I only just now played it on NSO in my 30s. I fight quite underwhelmed. My favourite Zelda’s have been link between worlds and links awakening remake. So I think I’m just missing everything that was built onto the original LTTP formula.

@Not_Soos great synopsis for the channel, couldn't agree more. There are some great retro gaming channels and this is one of the best. Mort's Garage is pretty cool too very wholesome and beyond the usual going to garage sales and collecting explores the nature of collecting and why people collect etc

ALttP is one of my like top 5 Zeldas.

That said, people are allowed to dislike things, including critically-acclaimed Zelda titles.

I spared a thought

dunno why but I did

I didn’t have an snes, I had a genesis, but I remember spending the summer at my cousins house and him playing lttp and I hated it . It was so boring an to obtuse for 10 year old me. It wasn’t until my mid 20s in rehab that I fell in love with Nintendo and a link to the past specifically. When it first came out I was obsessed with street fighter 2 championship edition, Sonic 2 and EA haunting staring polterguy.

@Ryu_Niiyama
That is quite a story! Thanks for sharing. How scary that must have been with your eyesights going through all that too, especially as a child.

Do you like visual novel games? Like you, I LOVE reading, but this genre as a game doesn't interest me, even though I also see games as being interactive stories, but I like a little more input on my part! Would rather just read a book.

@Mana_Knight Howdy! While I try not to overshare too much on the internet there are certain topics that I feel I have to clarify if nothing else than to show the impact on a human being.

Anyhoo, yes I enjoy visual novels. I am very discerning about which ones I play because i focus very heavily on story so some stuff I am not gonna play because of the message or how it makes me feel (I firmly believe we should monitor what we consume and that includes books/games). Also gaming doesn’t always have the best writing (and I feel that like movies it gets a pass because of the extra sensory input turns down our focus on story.) I love the gyakuten saiban/ace attorney series very much though. I have a few other visual novels that I play but I play almost any genre except FPS games (they don’t work well with my vision and I don’t like guns anyway).

I prefer reading overall as well but because I spend a very large amount of time studying and because it is hard to find authors that I like, gaming is like “fun reading”. As opposed to reading for knowledge, representation or work.

@Ryu_Niiyama Interesting. I hear a lot of good things about Ace Attorney. Might be one that I try one day. With you on FPS. Never really enjoyed them or been much good at them either. I like seeing my character on screen!

@Mana_Knight I highly recommend and at this point the entire series (minus one game) is on switch. That being said the story is wacky so don’t expect it to be literary theater lol.

I didn’t care too much about the character on screen until character creators got popular (and diverse) as I don’t fit most of the default protag boxes so they were just a blob of pixels to me. (And I would use my imagination a little for characters…I was and kinda still prefer no voice acting due to this)

@Ryu_Niiyama thanks for sharing that, you’re generally one of my favourite N’Lifers and for whatever reason, even more so after reading that. Quite inspiring and encouraging actually, again, thank you for sharing.

@AmplifyMJ Aww thanks! I sorta wrote it as a word block because I assumed/hoped no one would read all that text (but it was on topic!) but I guess I will fix the formatting. Haha. I don’t mind sharing as it’s simply stating perspective with context for this particular game but sometimes get worried if I unleashed the kraken on myself.

The Hookshot sites are my longest form of social media interaction (as in general I prefer to speak to others in person) and I am glad I have stumbled across this place more than a decade ago. In general people here are kind (or at least leave me alone if they are not) and for many that aren’t I throw block parties (or to preempt arguments) and I am grateful for those that have been cool over the years.

Always happy to meet cool internet strangers. Reminds me to have hope for humanity. Enjoy your day!

My parents were big fans of the original on NES... there's an old family video of my uncle repeatedly turning the camera back towards the tv while my mom plays with a baby (either me or my sister, hard to tell) in her lap. ALttP, however... I don't know why, but they didn't seem to like it. I don't think they actually bought it, just rented it, but they didn't get far in the game. Who knows why.

At that point, they were really into action games, and liked to show of by beating the first level of Contra 3 while running perfectly in sync, so that it looked like they were a single flashing purple many-armed character. Maybe ALttP was too slow or too cartoonie for them, or maybe they just wanted to play more multiplayer games now that their youngest was in preschool. I remember that when Mario 64 came out, they were disappointed and annoyed that it was a single-player game.

A Link to the Past absolutely blew my mind as a kid.

The technological leap between NES and SNES was just insane!

Playing the game for the first time is an experience I wish I could have again.

@GamingFan4Lyf I got that feeling from OoT. (LttP was my first Zelda and I had a small NES collection which I sold so for me it didn’t hit graphically…musically however it changed me forever). Same with Mario64. Probably why the N64 era still looks great when something like say PS2 looks dated to me.

"this" is the reason I refuse to pay to sub to these sites!

Hot take but I genuinely think LttP is the most overrated game of all time. No exaggeration. Such a boring game, even though I generally love the Zelda series.

And yes, I played it when it was new. And yes, I've beaten it multiple times over the years just to give it another chance. It's just never been fun for me, compared to the other 2D Zeldas like Link's Awakening, Oracles, and Adventure of Link.

@Ryu_Niiyama The Legend of Zelda was my first Zelda game. I don't remember if my dad got it for us the Christmas after it released, or shortly after it released.

@GamingFan4Lyf That tracks. The gen jumps back then always blew one away right? Like looking at your TV and just thinking “this is amazing”. I love that for many that feeling happened for several generations.

That isn’t to say gaming doesn’t improve impressively but there was that period where your jaw would drop.

It's literally my least favorite Zelda game of all time after Breath of the Wild which is horrible because you literally have no sense of direction in that game and have to avoid starving to death.

ALTTP is one of those games I could play several times and never be bored of. When A Link Between Worlds was being released, and I read about the return to ALTTP’s Hyrule, I was excited to jump back into that world. Easily my favourite 1-2 punch as far as the series goes. A top of the hat to Oracle of Ages and Seasons, hope we get the Link’s Awakening remake treatment for those one of these days.

My retro life is an amazing nostalgia filled ride of a channel. I'm sure many can relate to alot of how he grew up. To some extent anyways. Growing up in the 90s was the best era to grow up in. Without social media and every question answered and databases chalk full of news and recent information wasn't at your fingertips like today
You had to work for it. Libraries, magazines, ads, word of mouf. Man those were the days. Nintendo power and tips and tricks magazine was my jam. But back to the topic at hand.

I can respect Zelda as a whole for what it is. I see the joy and life to it. I understand why it's so loved. But keeping it on me and my very own opinion. I stand behind Tyler's dad with his decision to return the game. Growing up I never played/liked any rpgs or games that was too text heavy. I was mainly all for platformers and that's about it. Megaman being my number one. Still is today. Capcom what are you doing? Where's a new entry? I loved the fact that Tyler's dad was so involved with him and his gaming and that they even had the '''hook up ''' on super famicom and import titles. He used to get the best of both worlds with his father. The only import I ever had growing up was
Dragonball Z Ultimate Battle 22 for PS1 and I remember you used to have to put a spring in the opening trey of the PS1 to even play it. Later finding out that you can play any import with this trick.

I've never really been able to get into ALttP for the same reason I could never get into Mario 64: both games were good for their time, but in retrospect are hampered by design issues that were quickly fixed with their respective sequels. So Mario 64 is the only 3D Mario platformer with those slippery, floaty movement mechanics, and ALttP is the only top-down Zelda game where Link's basic sword attack is an arc <90° (which isn't even centered).

Neither is a big deal if you've got nostalgia and fond memories to compensate, but without that crutch? Just hard to enjoy either game when the most fundamental play action feels wrong. Like every subsequent Zelda game gives Link a (properly centered) arc of 140° or more.

A YouTuber I watched during my teens (also called Tyler) had a similar story for Super Mario 64. His father got him an N64 with SM64, but Tyler couldn't figure lut how to beat King Bob-omb. He just kept trying to throw him off the mountain and King Bob-omb would just come back up. Tyler's father couldn't figure it out either, so he returned the game.

My bond with Nintendo started when I got a SNES for Xmas with Super Mario All Stars and A Link to the Past from my parents back in 1993. It was the best Xmas ever and I still vividly remember unpacking the gifts and playing the games during the holidays. Before that I owned a SEGA Master System and had completely missed out on the NES at home. That's why I have fonder memories of the SNES. But it truly breaks my heart to see someone would return ALTTP! It's definitely one of the greatest games of all time. I value it MUCH higher than Ocarina of Time, which I still think is a very vanilla attempt at creating a 3D version of Zelda. But I guess that's also because I skipped the N64, because PC was where it was at for me at that time when it came to gaming.

@Ryu_Niiyama Thank you for sharing. Quite courageous. I hope yuo will be able to enjoy your favourite pastimes for a long time to come.

It almost feels like people are supposed to feel guilty for not liking Link to the Past, haha. It's not for everyone. Personally, I strangely never owned it, but I did play and finish it. I loved it, but even when I have a MASSIVE amount of nostalgia for it, it doesn't hold a candle to Zelda II for me. That's the definitive Zelda experience for me.

I do not view these games as being in the same universe. They are different stories to me. Zelda II is a direct sequel to I, which I didn't play on release but which has also shown enough age to not be something I feel the need to finish. Zelda II was an epic story for me though.

Zelda III is a far more contained vibe. The world is smaller. The princess is more approachable. The entire vibe is a village compared to Zelda II's country.

That doesn't make it a worse game, mind you, it's just that the vibe is more SHUDDER... cozy?

No... Scratch that. Homely.

Zelda III had a more homely vibe, and one that I resonate STRONGLY with, but is in such a stark contrast to the epicness of Zelda II, that it honestly feels like something entirely different. I guess you could compare it to playing Breath of the Wild versus Link's Awakening, which coincidentally I view as a direct sequel to III, but I guess that is pretty much canon.

I actually feel like BotW has taken a lot of inspiration from Zelda II, actually. But that's a different story altogether.

Anyhoo, enough ranting, I need to get back to work.

I suppose it was one of the earlier games released that wasn't very immediate. Speaking from a UK perspective, sure, we'd had some adventure games on the Spectrum and Atari, but it's easy to forget how much the Sega Megadrive made games massively more popular. Even then, a lot of RPGs weren't brought over. The SNES followed soon after, and A Link to the Past was one of the first huge games where you couldn't just turn it on, bash the buttons and get into it that way. I do remember loving it straight away, though, and so did my school friends who had a copy.

I was already a big Zelda fan because of the NES games, so my hype levels for A Link to the Past were off the charts. It absolutely lived up to my expectations, too. I don’t have any idea how many times I’ve played through ALttP at this point. Dozens, surely.

Never got around to play lttp until the gba, and not sure if Ocarina ruined it for me or that minish cap was so pretty that i never really cared for a lttp .. i like the idea of it but the dark world depresses me and i never got around to finishing it, I'll take 3d zeldas over the 2d ones any day

@Daniel36 Hi thanks but please don’t say that. There are folks with serious debilitating conditions or terminal illnesses and I am merely a childhood amputee with complications. I am nobody special. In fact I would argue the devs are special as they were able to make a game that I could latch onto. I know you mean well but I am starting to feel self conscious and that wasn’t really why I posted what I did. It was really a “ I hated LttP until I didn’t” just so happened there was extra stuff that happened to make that transition work lmao. Anyway thank you but it’s not deserved. I’m just doing the best I can just like you. Always happy to talk to cool folks though.

I think people have every right to not like sacred cow games so long as they aren’t aholes about it. (Like the folks that claim Aonuma/Miyamoto are ruining things while conveniently forgetting that they likely had a major hand in most of the games they do like) When it slips into meanness then that is just contrarian and imo jealousy (at their success, at the happiness people feel from their work, list goes on). But people are different and gaming has a gender (as in biological) split which also means that things that resonate with one may alienate the other. Franchises with DID roles I tend to bounce off of for instance while most guys don’t care (but many of those same men get mad at a female protagonists not designed for their gaze) . I prefer MM to OoT for instance (I cried during the opening of OoT and the ending so I am not being contrarian. I like OoT but simply prefer MM over it)

I do think one thing that people have to be careful of is turning games into “traditional” media though. LOZ (or mario) for instance isn’t really designed as a bunch of sequels. It isn’t trying to tell a decades long story. It just is set in a franchise world because it would be a pain to have to create a entire new IP every time they wanted to make an adventure game. The game is also made by a ton of people with new ideas so I am always baffled by the Zelda cycle. Again I understand not liking something but (again I hated LttP in the beginning) some folks act like it is offensive. Like Nintendo beat up a family member or something. Or that they are owed something beyond a working product. Fanatics are never good no matter the thing as humans have a tendency to fall easily into extremism and cult/hive mind thinking.

I am of the camp of don’t knock it till you try it in video games. Most of the games (except obvious stuff that isn’t my cup of tea) I don’t like…I own or have rented. I have most of the god of war franchise but have accepted that it isn’t for me. Sometimes you get a game that flips you (such as LttP did for me) and sometimes it just isn’t for you. So long as you aren’t running to be the town crier of why the game sucks every time you see someone happy about it, that’s ok I think. Also people out grow games. Some stuff I enjoyed when I was young I am more critical of now. Just part of gaining life experience I think.

My parents got me Monopoly for the SNES one year for Christmas. I mean, it's an okay port (though I want to at some check out the very different independent Japanese port) that gets the job done (but oh boy is the, going back to the USA port, CPU characters lore in the manual perhaps not the greatest to reread). But not the most exciting game for a child to get.

Luckily I got a ALttP guidebook from my uncle for some reason, so it inspired my parents to buy the game for me like the next week.

Funny enough, I started playing this, this week. Been a long time. Game is harder than I remember, got to make sure I got the faires. I find the sword combat more clunky than I remember. Miss swinging on enemies, don't remember having this issue before lol.

Returning video games is trash af, period, especially in that day and age. We had Blockbuster. If you're really that cheap or wishy-washy, there were plenty of try before buying options.

Boo this man.

I'm just gonna stop all of you here and in the YouTube channel in question, but Zelda isn't an RPG and somebody in this story indirectly implied it is.