Collection essentials #209: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

And here we have one of the first games I ever played and ever beat, one of my most significant childhood titles that formed my love for video games as an entertainment medium, the third Legend of Zelda game.

The first Zelda was a revolutionary title on a level that few other games were, one that paved the way for the action-adventure genre as we know it. The second game was a departure, an action RPG with side-scrolling combat and platforming. For the third game, Nintendo would go back to the roots of the original, but many changes would be made in the transition to this new and more powerful system. Fans of the original could argue that not all of these changes provided an improvement, but regardless, this game greatly shaped what The Legend of Zelda series would look like moving forward, and action-adventure games as a whole. 

The first Zelda game dropped you into a world to explore as you saw fit, with a series of dungeons scattered throughout, and the player didn’t have a strict order that they had to tackle them in. Probably the biggest striking difference with Link to the Past is that it has an actual story this time that unfolds as the game progresses, as the game begins with Link receiving a mysterious message from Zelda asking for help, after which he wakes up and sets out to rescue her, and then a series of events unfolds as the player progresses. Because of the storyline, Link to the Past had to sacrifice some of the player’s freedom from the original game. There still is plenty of world to explore, and some freedom at times as to what order dungeons are conquered, but to a lesser extent, as some parts of the game will be inaccessible or insurmountable either because of the story or because Link doesn’t have the proper gear yet. Some may not like this change, but as someone who’s not quite as much into the freedom of exploring a wide-open world, I’m fine with it.

What kind of new stuff does Link to the Past bring to the fray? For starters, a really big thing is the way Link swings his sword. In the original game, Link only sticks it out straight in front of him. This makes combat awkward in my opinion, because you have to line up with enemies in a limited number of directions to actually hit them. But in Link to the Past, Link swings his sword covering all the area in front of him, so now it’s easy to hit enemies positioned diagonally from you, and this makes combat much more enjoyable. 

The first game didn’t have many characters, mostly people you would find in caves who would tell or give you something. But Link to the Past has characters all over its world, many of which live in actual houses, and there is an actual village too. And of course many of them are crucial to progressing through the game and finding cool stuff.

Dungeons are, I would argue, much better. They tend to be more complex, can have many floors, they have better puzzles, better and cooler bosses, and a wide variety of visual designs to reflect what kind of environment they’re in. And there are a lot of dungeons, more than in the original game. You can no longer take keys from one dungeon and use them in another, and I think that’s a good thing because being able to cheese the dungeons with excess keys would spoil a lot of the fun.

The first Zelda game had special items and weapons, and some of these return for Link to the Past, like the bomb and the bow. Link to the Past has a LOT of items, some of which are optional, and they’re a delightful part of the experience, providing ways to solve puzzles, deal with enemies, or both. Just about all the dungeons have some kind of cool item or upgrade to find which is always something really cool to look forward to, and gradually acquiring stuff will open up more of the world and its secrets.

Perhaps the coolest and most significant thing that Link to the Past introduced was the “Dark World”. After progressing a little ways, Link will be able to access a twisted alternate world that mirrors the regular world he lives in. Human characters are instead some kind of creature or monster, enemies themselves are more ferocious and stronger, and it almost feels like one big Halloween world. Sometimes you need to switch between the two worlds to progress, which is some really cool game design. They could have perhaps done more with the concept of the two worlds affecting each other, but what we got is still awesome.

Is Link to the Past a perfect game? Well, no. There are certainly imperfections I can point out. For example, all the game’s Dark World dungeons have the same music, and not having unique tracks for them was a real missed opportunity to give each dungeon its own unique atmosphere. There are also some points of progression that may frustrate new players, as sometimes you need to do some exploring in the world to find some items that are required for progression. For example, the Ice Rod is required to defeat one of the game’s later bosses, and I imagine most people who play the game will find it as they explore as it’s not very hard to find, but the few who happen to miss it won’t be too happy. The game’s story and characters aren’t as memorable or charming as they could be, something made apparent as future games in the series would deliver on that front. 

As I stated before, this game is hugely significant to me for being one of my earliest games. If I remember right, my dad got it off of one of our neighbors along with the official guidebook. The copy shown in the photo is not my childhood copy, but said cartridge still lives at my parents’ house to this day. The guidebook for as long as I remember has not been in great shape, with the book’s binding completely undone so all the pages are separate. But, by some miracle, I as a young kid kept all the pages intact without losing or destroying them. And boy, did I love that guidebook. Not only were the maps and info extremely useful as little me wasn’t going to be figuring out all of a Zelda game’s puzzles, but the book was filled with amazing lore about Hyrule and wonderful illustrations depicting things from the game. My dad and I both played and adored Link to the Past, and the game and its guidebook help solidify my love for gaming as a hobby.

The title of “Best Zelda game” is one with many contenders and no clear consensus, but Link to the Past is one that is often in the conversation. It’s very well-paced and hits a sweet spot of great exploration without being too confusing that a lot of players like me appreciate. I hesitate to use the word “best”, but I certainly call it my favorite in the series, and one of my favorite games, period. During the pandemic I streamed on Twitch a “minimalist” run of the game getting the fewest items and upgrades possible, which was a really cool challenge that was satisfying to complete. 

I should probably have come up with some kind of title for games that are top-tier essentials, games that I not only intend to keep but can hardly even imagine being without. Link to the Past is, as I hope I’ve made clear, one of the most special video games as far as I’m concerned, the type of classic that should be played by every generation of gamers that walk the planet Earth.