Recently, I’ve been working my way through the SNES classics on the Nintendo Switch Online service. After finishing one childhood favorite in Super Mario World, I moved on to another—The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Despite being nearly thirty-four years old, the game continues to hold up well and stand the test of time. It’s immediately clear that the game is special upon its opening “tutorial” section. Link awakens in the middle of the night to a telepathic connection to Princess Zelda, who has been taken prisoner in the castle by the evil wizard Agahnim.
This opening tutorial shows off the revolutionary capabilities of the SNES (a huge leap in technology from the NES) while immediately hooking the player; The rain falls heavy as Link must sneak into the castle by falling down a secret hole in the ground and work his way to the basement where he finds the imprisoned Zelda. After rescuing her, Link leads Zelda up to the throne room where the pair take a secret passage through the sewers and out of the sanctuary far from the castle.
This opening displayed the ability of the SNES to incorporate depth into the gameplay and also the smooth programming of the items available to Link (such as the Lantern and Boomerang). While these abilities are simplistic and quaint by today’s standards, they are a breath of fresh air, and feel almost like an indie escape from the empty open-world AAA games of today.
In fact, the smaller overworld in A Link to the Past (giant by 1990s standards) is utilized well. Nintendo made the Light World (first overworld map) mostly linear, teaching players the game mechanics while granting some freedom of exploration. When the Dark World is revealed, players are very quickly given the ability to play the dungeons out of order and thereby explore the new overworld at their whim. It would honestly be nice if open-world games today learned from this.
Finally, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has one key element that’s sorely missing from many games today—outstanding music. Despite being limited by the technology of the era, the music from this game remains among the best from The Legend of Zelda franchise, with many of these melodies being infused into music for other games in the series.
Tell us what you think! Have you played A Link to the Past? Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.
Featured Image: Nintendo
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