A Link To The Past is the best 2D game ever made.
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past is a 2D Action/Adventure game developed by Nintendo for The Super NES, and is the third instalment in the Zelda series. A Link To The Past is one of the most important videogames ever created. It's at the top of its genre, and has been cited by many videogame companies as a source of inspiration. It's widely regarded (along side Ocarina Of Time) as one of the greatest adventure games ever made and it's success is universal. It was voted third in a list of the 200 greatest Nintendo games of all time and the gaming website GameSpot included it in their list of the greatest videogames of all time, as did IGN alongside its counterpart Ocarina Of Time. A Link To The Past is the pinnacle of all 2D games and is regarded by most as the greatest videogame of the 2D generation.
A Link To The Past follows in the footsteps of the first Zelda game, The Legend Of Zelda, and scraps the side-scrolling perspective used in Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link in return to the more traditional top-down perspective. The world of Hyrule is in danger and it is up to Link to save the day. An evil wizard called Agahnim has taken over the kingdom and sealed the seven Maidens of Hyrule in an attempt to revive the King of Evil, Ganon. Sealing the seven maidens will lift the spell put on Ganon. Agahnim also takes over Hyrule Castle and kills the King before imprisoning his daughter Princess Zelda. Unaware of the ongoing events, Link sleeps in his bed at home, until him and his Uncle hear a distress message from Zelda in their sleeps. Link awakens unaware of whether he has just had a dream or not and follows his Uncle to Hyrule Castle and rescues Zelda himself after his Uncle's own failed attempt. And so Link's adventure begins.
If you've played any of the later Zelda games, A Link To The Past will feel very familiar to you. The games set-up is familiar to the likes of Ocarina Of Time and Twilight Princess, with the game in two clear parts. The opening of the game sees Link trying to find the Master Sword, and the second part sees Link trying to rescue the seven Maidens of Hyrule in order to face Agahnim. But the biggest difference between A Link To The Past and most other games in the Zelda series is that A Link To The Past is played in two different worlds, the Light World and Dark World. While the beginning part of the game is entirely set in the Light World, after Link confronts Agahnim, the Dark World becomes the main world in the game. But once you enter the Dark World, you're not limited to it. You get an item called the Magic Mirror, which makes you be able to go from the Dark World to the Light World at your own free will, and sometimes jumping between worlds is necessary to reach certain dungeons. But when you first enter the Dark World Link turns into a rabbit, and you have to find the Moon's Pearl before you can remain in your Human form in the Dark World.
The layout of the Light and Dark Worlds are brilliant, and while the layout is similar, there are some subtle differences. For instance, grass is green, water is blue and there is a desert in the Light World, but in the Dark World grass is brown, water is green and the desert is a swamp.
The gameplay of A Link To The Past is fantastic, and I now know why there was so much scepticism when Nintendo said they were scrapping the series top-down perspective for Ocarina Of Time. If any of you have played any of the other older Zelda games or any of the Game Boy Advance versions you'll know how 2D Zelda games play. The controls are fluid and simple to pick up, and A Link To The Past was the first game in which Link could move diagonally and swing his sword instead of stabbing with it, so the combat was very easy to get used to.
Visually, A Link To The Past is one of the best, visually impressive games of the 16-bit era. While 2D graphics are simple looking, the colours and textures used in A Link To The Past are impressive and make the game look beautiful. Nintendo really did a good job bringing the game to life and really made it feel like you actually are Link when you play it.
And the music in A Link To The Past is amongst the best music scores in the series… oh and players of Ocarina Of Time who never played this game will realise that some of the music in Ocarina, mainly the Kakariko Village theme, actually originated in this game. And as with most Zelda games it was Koji Kondo that scored the game, and the music in A Link To The Past is amongst his best works, it even rivals Ocarina Of Time… and A Link To The Past lacked an orchestral soundtrack, it's all Midi.
A Link To The Past is a fantastic game. It's the pinnacle of 16-bit gaming and a game everybody should, nay, must play. It's just such a wonderful game to play; it's a true piece of art and prime example of how games of the 16-bit era should all have been made. In my opinion, you are not a true Zelda fan until you have played, experienced and completed A Link To The Past.
Review by: James Widdowson
Achievements: A Link To The Past was critically acclaimed upon release for its graphics and gameplay, and has since been recognized by critics as one of the greatest video games of all time. It is one of the best-selling Super NES games, with 4.61 million units sold worldwide, and has had an exceptionally long stay on Nintendo Power's top games list: when the SNES list was finally retired, A Link To The Past had more than five consecutive years in the number one spot. It was re-released as a Player's Choice title in North America, indicating that it has sold a minimum of one million copies there. It won the 1992 'Game Of The Year' and Entertainment Weekly named it their greatest videogame of all time,The game also came second in Screw Attack's list, eighth in Official Nintendo Magazines list and fourth in GameFaq's list.
