“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” was originally released for the Super Nintendo in 1992, and made available for the Wii Virtual Console on Jan. 22, 2007. The game is the third Legend of Zelda game made in the franchise and can be considered as one of the best.
The story starts out with the hero, Link, receiving a message in his dream from the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda. Zelda was imprisoned by the Agahnim, evil wizard and asks Link to free her from the castle.
After Link frees the Princess, he has to get three pendants from different dungeons to obtain the blade of evil’s bane, the master sword. Once Link confronts Agahnim, Link is sent to the Dark World to save the seven maidens who are descendants of the seven sages that saved land of Hyrule in the past.
Like all Zelda games the player has to go dungeon crawling and fight bosses. The game’s map was larger than the one from the previous two titles before due to the Dark world being a parallel version of the light world making the map twice as big.
What makes this game unique from all the other Zelda games is that it has the most dungeons out of all the Zelda games made which allows for more hours of gameplay. At the time the game was made, the 2-D graphics were the best of its time. It was one of the few Super Nintendo action-adventure games to use an overhead perspective similar to Final Fantasy.
There are many unique items that are not found in other Zelda games. Items are the main key in the Zelda franchise for solving puzzles, beating bosses, and finding new places in the game. Many unique items found in the game include the magic mirror, the cane of somaria, the ice rod, the fire rod, and more.
The Wii version of the game is the exact same as the original Super Nintendo version. Although the Gameboy Advance version differs from both; it includes Links’ vocal grunts from “Ocarina of Time” and “Majora’s Mask.” The Gameboy advance version also contains an extra dungeon called the Palace of the Four Sword which can only be unlocked after beating the extra multiplayer game added to the Gameboy advance port.
“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” was very well-received by Zelda fans and critics. It sold over four million copies worldwide. Nintendo Power rated it a 4.9 out of 5, IGN rated it a 9.7 out of 10, and Gamespot rated it a 9.2 out of 10. The game is considered one of the best Zelda games ever made in the franchise due to it being a mass improvement on the previous title before it, “Legend of Zelda II: Link’s Adventure.”
Even today with new game systems, fans of the franchise still enjoy this classic Zelda title as it gives them a feeling of nostalgia. Out of all the Legend of Zelda games made this game easily makes the top three and is a must-play for any fan of the franchise, or anyone that wants to enjoy a good 2D action adventure game.