Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - It's a Blast from the Past

Author's Rating:

Pros: classic Zelda gameplay, awesome music, nice graphics, The Four Swords

Cons: The Four Swords is multi-player only

The Bottom Line: 
Nintendo ported a classic and created the first multi-player Zelda game. How could you not like this? I recommend it to everybody.

Author's Review
When Nintendo announced at the E3 Gaming Convention that they were going to release Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I was ecstatic and ever since have been anticipating the release of the game. This was going to be the greatest game released for the GameBoy Advance in its existence. The game was finally released on December 2, 2002 but the majority of the retailers had the game on their shelves on December 4th. This is when I picked up a copy of that game at my local Best Buy and have been busy playing it ever since. After two weeks of non-stop play, I present to you (drumroll) – my review of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past!!!

Yes, my friends, you can now play that classic Zelda game, on which you spent dozens of hours in 1993 with your trusty Super Nintendo Entertainment System, on the new-generation ultimate portable gaming system, the GameBoy Advance. But that is not all, because you also get the first ever Zelda multi-player game, The Four Swords. Is this too good to be true, did Nintendo take the cheap way out and is this worth my well-earned 30 bucks, you ask? Read on to find out the answer to all of those questions and more.

Gameplay: This is the aspect of the game that makes the Zelda series so prominent. As I have already said, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past consists of two games, a one player main game of A Link to the Past as well as the multi-player adventure The Four Swords.

A Link to the Past is a 100% port of the SNES game. Everything is exactly the same: the graphics, the sound, the enemies and weapons, everything. But do not be discouraged if you have already played this game because I’m sure you will want to relive this classic once more. The main storyline is that our elfish hero, Link, must save the princess Zelda from a castle dungeon, and after he does so, an evil wizard Agahnim has enchanted the land by casting a spell and it is up to link to save the worlds by finding the Master Sword. After he does so, he must journey to the Dark World to crush Ganon, and therefore reestablish reconciliation in the overworld of Hyrule. This is a typical Zelda plot, and it seems a little bit complicated at first, but once you start, you really get into it.

A Link to the Past is considered one of the best action/adventure games ever (some consider it the best of the Zelda series). Zelda games are regarded by some as RPG games, but I think that is not the case. In Zelda games, you are rewarded for your curiosity if you explore the world because you will almost always find something, from weapon upgrades to mini-games. Also, contrary to popular belief brought on by the title, A Link to the Past does not feature any time travel, like in the Oracle Series for the GameBoy Color, because it features switching between two different worlds, the Light World and the Dark World.

For those who have never experienced the joy of playing a Zelda game, I will briefly explain what you do. Link’s overworld (named Hyrule) mainly consists of more than a dozen huge dungeons, where you must destroy all of the enemies (many options, including throwing a bomb, slashing them with your sword, shooting an arrow right through their head, etc.) and solve all of the puzzles (shuffling boxes, finding secret switches). In the Oracle series, some of the puzzles were very hard and took lots of time to solve, and the same can be said about this game but to a lesser extent. After you’ve spent all of your energy and health (hopefully not), you will encounter a large, welcoming boss at the end of the dungeon who will attempt to cut you up into a thousand little pieces. After you exit a dungeon, you run around the world and earn a few rupees, go to some shops, kill some more enemies and then proceed to the next, more challenging dungeon.

Nintendo did a great job with this port. Everything is exactly like the SNES version and the only difference is that now you can save at any point in the game, unlike the SNES version where you could only save at specific checkpoints. This is a nice upgrade, but I expected that to be done since we are playing it on a portable system where many play on the go. I am sure that old-timers will love a Link to the Past and newbies will appreciate the experience but what everyone has been really anticipating is The Four Swords, the first pure multi-player Zelda game.

It is a shame if one cannot find a friend who owns a GBA and a separate copy of this game because this is where Zelda shines. This game has a completely different storyline and everything is completely new! According to Nintendo, it has the same time structure as the upcoming Zelda game for the GameCube, titled Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The story goes like this: the players must once again rescue princess Zelda (gets annoying, one might ask himself why Zelda keeps on getting captured) from yet another evil sorcerer, this time a creepy looking sorcerer named Vaati. But guess what, Link cannot rescue Zelda by himself, so the faeries decide to utilize the strength of the Four Swords to produce more Links! What an ingenious plan.

Each player controls a Link and all of the Links are a different color (green, red, purple or blue). The Four Swords in uncommon because it requires cooperation and contention at the same time. This is because the overall goal is to collect as many rupees as you can. The person, who has the most rupees in the end, wins. But the game requires a lot of teamwork. Some puzzles can only be solved if everyone cooperates. For example, the players must stand on the switches in a specific arrangement or if the to pull some boulders, everyone must push at the same time. Even defeating the enemies requires teamwork. Some of the bosses are color-coded, so if the right arm is red and the left arm is blue, the Blue and Red Links must kill the boss while the other players get to stand around and watch their teammates get injured or collect some rupees. Some creatures must be yanked by specific Links in order to kill it.

There are many cool items that you can use in The Four Swords. My favorite is the ‘Gnat Hat’, which makes a player minuscule (like a bug) and you can now go through tiny tunnels. You can even exchange items with the other players to help them out. There are of course the famous shoes that make Link go extremely fast. As you can see, the game designers did not skimp on the gameplay in The Four Swords.

Most of the time you will want to throw a player of a ledge just to make them mad, but this is what makes the game so much fun. But even if a player dies, he will be revived if everyone sacrifices a certain a mount of rupees. If you do not have enough, it’s game over, tough luck, adios.

One cool thing is that A Link to the Past and The Four Swords integrate a little. This is because if you complete The Four Swords, a huge new dungeon is unlocked as well as some mini-quests. This is the incentive to complete The Four Swords. Also, if you learn a sword technique in A Link to the Past, your character can utilize it in The Four Swords.

The Four Swords is a two- four player game but the level switch to accommodate the amount of people playing. This means if you only have one other player to link up with, then the game will throw away the puzzles that require three or four players, and substitute them with two player challenges. I think you will enjoy this game the most, if you play four player, but I am not fortunate to do so, so two player is good enough. But you’re really stuck if you can’t find anybody to play with you because this is multi-player only!

Graphics: A Link to the Past is an exact copy of the SNES game, pixel-by-pixel. These graphics might look a little old on the GBA and you sort of wish that the game designers updated the graphics and made them similar to The Four Swords. The frame rate is pretty high, so I did not experience any slowdown. The character and enemy sprites are still lovely to look at. But the real gem is The Four Swords. Nintendo made this from scratch, so all of the graphics are brand new. The character sprites, especially Link, are so much better, more vivid and life-like. The enhancements really make the game much better and it makes you wonder what A Link to the Past could have looked like if they changed some of the graphics. So, overall, Nintendo took the cheap and easy way out with A Link to the Past but The Four Swords has a new-generation, hip Zelda look to it.

Sound: A Link to the Past, is also a sound-by-sound copy of the SNES version. I am not sure how, but Nintendo recreated Koji Kondos’ soundtrack from the SNES. How did they cram so much wonderful orchestrated music onto such a tiny cartridge? I guess it will remain a mystery to main. The dungeon music is my favorite because it is very ghostly, and you expect a bunch of enemies in the room neraby. The in-game sounds are pretty cool in both games. They are basically the same as the SNES version; the only addition is Link’s different noises, which were taken from the N64 games. This is exactly what Nintendo did to Yoshi in Super Mario Advance 3, so I guess we can expect it in the future. The most realistic part is when rain is falling, I don’t think that sound can even be matched by the PS2 or X-BOX. The slashing swords and even the sound when an arrow splits someone’s skull sounds great on this little system. I recommend wearing earphones while playing this game because the music and sound effects are great. I have heard some complaints that the yelp made by Link whenever he swings his sword (yes, he makes a yelp after every swing) is extremely annoying to some, but it doesn’t bother me much and the music tends to drone it out a little.

Replay Value: Well, unless you are some kind of freak, I doubt that you will play A Link to the Past more than 2-3 times. I mean, did you play Ocarina of Time more than twice on your N64? If you did, I congratulate you. The Four Swords has some replay value, especially if you can find more than one friend to play with, but it will get a little boring after a while. As you can see, this game does not feature a ton of replay value, but this is Zelda, and in a Zelda game, I anticipate great gameplay instead of lots of replay value.

Overall, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a great game. The main game, A Link to the Past should take you atleast 25 hours of pure gameplay to complete, followed by about a dozen hours of action in The Four Swords, and then some more action in A Link to the Past because you will unlock a new dungeon. The only possible way for you to not like this game is if you are sick of A Link to the Past from your SNES experiences and don’t have anyone to play multi-player with. I think Nintendo did a great job with this port and I now clearly see that the GameBoy Advance can handle anything the SNES could, so any game has a chance of being ported. I recommend this game to every gamer, especially if you like action, adventure, puzzle or Zelda games. This game is a must-buy, and Christmas is a great time to add it to your collection.

Thanks for reading,
Vadimio
PS- Merry Christmas!!! (1 week left)