The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) review "Zelda is one of the two focal points of Nintendo's fame, along with Super Mario Bros. Zelda: Link to the Past is at near the top of the series, only rivaled by Ocarina of Time. There is good reason why Link to the Past is at the top, for all the Zelda elements you loved in later game, is truly implement to it's finist in this game. This is what really put Zelda on the map, and made it into a legacy. "

Zelda is one of the two focal points of Nintendo's fame, along with Super Mario Bros. Zelda: Link to the Past is at near the top of the series, only rivaled by Ocarina of Time. There is good reason why Link to the Past is at the top, for all the Zelda elements you loved in later game, is truly implement to it's finist in this game. This is what really put Zelda on the map, and made it into a legacy.

STORY (8/10): Zelda is not known for great stories, but this game has one present. While not any type of an epic, Link's uncle goes out during a storm to the castle. Link goes after him, and over a bit of time with become the legendary hero with the Master sword. THe only weakness is there are few major characters, and in the middle of the game there is no story present at all.

GRAPHICS (13/15): The graphics are fitting. The main world is very colorful, and gives that nice living aspect. The Dark World, however, fits as the name says. It is dark and kinda creepy, not as welcoming as the light world. Color plays a crucial role in Link to the Past. The various colored tonics tell you what power defence you have. Too bad at times the color is tacking, as is how Link looks. The bad guys look fairly interesting, some colorful and not to scary, others like Wizrobes have the true feel.

SOUND (7/10): This really is the weakest music in the Zelda series. It is very good, don't get me wrong, it's got all the classic Zelda medleys, but the dungeon music and so forth is kinda bland. It does the job, and it is not a complete disgrace to the Zelda series, but the other games put this category much farther ahead.

GAMEPLAY (50/50): This game really gives you the Zelda feel. Based closely on the first Zelda game, you have one button assigned to your sword, the other to the weapon of your choice. These other weapons you will either have to search for on the world map, or earn during a dungeon. Near the end of the game all of these weapons will be needed but one. They are very important to retrieve. This game also takes a bit of magic, and will play a major role in battles and puzzles.

The battling of Zelda is fairly easy. Most enemies can be beaten with a sword. A few you'll need the magic powder to do or the hookshot. The items are more needed for puzzles, such as the bombs to blow open whole. All your favorite types of puzzles are present, like the crystal switches or invisible floors. The boss battles are fairly simple, once you figure out how to weaken them. The hardest battle is Trinexx until you realize the weakness, and it is made a cinch.

In Link to the Past you will have to keep yourself healed. Either capture faeries to do this, or buy magic potions from the witch. This is simple and will come in handy even more so than the faeries. There is a fairly useless overworld map where you can get the general idea, and a much more useful dungeon map, to let you be able to see how big of a dungeon you have gotten yourself into. The maps aren't really that helpful, but they aren't supposed to be.

The whole Zelda experience is fun and memorable. It takes the original ideas from The Legend of Zelda and puts them on a grand stage, making the game so much more enjoyable. The whole gaming experience is memorable, and you will regret when the game ends and you can't do so anymore.

REPLAYABILITY (8/10): After you beat it once, the thrill of Zelda: Link to the Past is gone. It is still a collectors item, because it still is a great game, but not one that you can just keep playing over and over again. It is a fairly long experience, with 11 total dungeons scattered throughout the game, and various heart pieces to find. You will probably play this game again, as it is an instant classic, but it's not one you can play everyday over and over.

DIFFICULTY (5/5): This Zelda game is probably the easiest in the series, but that doesn't make it easy. The fights are fairly beatable, and the puzzles are not too complex that you should get that stuck. The only problem is at time it is very hard to find the next dungeon your supposed to go to. Not to difficult to figure out if you keep searching though.

OVERALL (91/100): This is the second best game in the Zelda series in my mind, only to the legendary Ocarina of Time. All the aspects that I loved in OOT was originated in this game however. This game really gave Zelda that feel that will never leave it. If it wasn't for Link to the Past we wouldn't have any other Zelda games, as they are all based on this game. Link to the Past took the best parts of The Legend of Zelda and created any epic game, deserving to be part of any collection.

Community review by ratking (December 27, 2002) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.