“a fantastic retro game that truly shows the incredible innovation and skill of the Nintendo development team in the 1990's"
HOW I PLAYED: I played on Nintendo Switch via Nintendo Switch Online SNES Emulator. I also played with a Pro Controller. I never owned this game on SNES but I have had ROMS of it over the years that I have touched but never finished.
STORY — 16/20
INTRO
This was a typical early 90's game trope that I both LOVE and genuinely miss in modern games. The game starts RIGHT AWAY. It's dark, and there is trouble in the castle. Your uncle gets up to help Princess Zelda and says he will be back soon. You go follow him in the middle of the night and it's raining, and you find your way into the castle through a secret entrance. Almost immediately you find your uncle defeated who then passes on his shield and sword to YOU Link, to go save Zelda and the castle. No fluff no bs, no 20-minute cutscene, and no spending over an hour chopping down your dead wife's tree.
This is a HUGE technical and graphical leap! The 16-bit pixel art still holds up today as pixel art games are still popular amongst indie titles. Nintendo really pushed the limits of the SNES hardware and put in a ton of character and emotion in each sprite and background.
CUTSCENES
SNES cutscenes are great because they are basically just text dumps of what's happening in the story. And every cutscene is just meant to pump you up as the ultimate hero. Every NPC refers to you as THE ULTIMATE HERO and the LAST OF THE BLOODLINE OF THE TRUE HERO or the ONLY ONE WHO CAN DEFEAT EVIL! It was really effective and I can totally see how this would have a grip on any adolescent gamer growing up.
WORLD BUILDING
Most of the tried and true's are here! It is crazy that this is where most of them came from! Death Mountain, Zora's Domain, Kakoriko Village! All have their signature and they all have NPC's which divulge their impact on Hyrule and how the events of the story have affected them.
OVERALL STORY
I was genuinely shocked at how good the story was in A Link to The Past! On the surface, you think you just need to overcome a few dungeons and get the Master Sword to defeat Ganon... WRONG! There is a huge twist and the story goes WILD and you end up in the DARK WORLD! The first chunk is probably only 30% of the total game which I thought was insane for a title from 1992. After playing through the story of ALTtP I found myself LESS impressed with my favorite OG Zelda game, Ocarina of Time as the stories hit very similar beats.
GRAPHICS — 18/20
CHARACTER MODELS
I know it is very difficult to give a rating to a game that is over 30 years old, but just take a look at the graphics from the previous Zelda game (Zelda 2 on NES) vs A Link To The Past.
ENVIRONMENTS
I was genuinely stunned by how many unique and detailed environments are in this game! YES, the Dark World is just the light world map with some subtle differences, but I am still impressed with how far they could take the artwork in the game.
SPECIAL FX
It's really great here! All the weapons and abilities have their own special fx, and there is A LOT in this game! I didn't know this was where the hookshot originated from. Amongst other abilities. Games that released later in the SNES lifetime really amped up special FX but A Link To The Past is no slouch.
ANIMATIONS
I thought all the animations looked great, each NPC showed lots of emotions with the limited technology they had at the time.
AUDIO — 14/20
AMBIENCE
At first, I thought I was listening to one of those YouTube playlists "Zelda Hits 16bit LoFi" or something like that. But NOPE It was just how the OST sounded back then, It was a real throwback to hear all those memorable Zelda tracks in a 16-bit format. The SNES Sound processor is truly memorable like a really desired instrument from the 60's or 70's. There was no contest between the SNES sound processor and other consoles or platforms for the time.
BOSS MUSIC
The boss music in this game is the same track used for every boss battle, it works but it does get a bit repetitive. But I guess that was probably due to limited storage space, not the SNES cartridges for the time. So as much as I got tired of the same track repeating, I still hold respect for how much they were able to store in this game.
SOUND DESIGN
Is excellent! Especially for the time, your sword makes different impact sounds depending on what you hit. The amount of variety in sounds from the different effects in the game. Truly impressive and a major reason why Nintendo is the GOATS of gaming.
VARIETY
If I didn't have the nostalgia for a lot of these tracks, I could easily see how limited the game's sound variety is for OST. You better grow to love the Hyrule theme, because that is what you are going to be hearing for hours on end. I don't think that particular track is going to leave my mind for a few days...
GAMEPLAY — 35/40
CONTROLS
I love the simplicity of these older games, you see how functional they are out of necessity. They didn't have the complicated controller schemes that we have today. 6 buttons and a START and SELECT and a Dpad, nothing fancy. The controls are excellent for this game and have a really simplistic and effective way of handling all the intricate mechanics in this game. From dashing to charge attacks to switching weapons it all just felt super intuitive.
MECHANICS
I was SHOCKED to see how much they put in this game! Throwing weapons in a ferry fountain to get an upgrade, dashing into trees for apples to fall that heal you, the list goes on! This is a super innovative title not just for the SNES but for gaming as a whole, I totally understand now why this was regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. There are a ton of in-game mechanics to take advantage of and really make Link the MASTER CHAMPION OF HYRULE!
PACING
The pacing is excellent in this game but that was the case for most games in the 90's. You COULD say that the entire game is a fetch quest, but you didn't care because it was all very satisfying. You go to a dungeon, get a new item/weapon and you defeat the boss... NEXT. But I love this style of gameplay where you aren't drowned in dialogue and big exposition dumps, just pure gameplay.
UI/UE
If you look at the UI of this game you can clearly see the inspiration it gave to the current games of today. It was simplistic but it worked! Also, all of the menu-ing was simple and intuitive.
BOSS QUALITY
All of the bosses were unique and had their own "Schtick". It made it refreshing as you never felt you were taking on the same boss on repeat. It really shows how there is NO EXCUSE for making someone fight the same troll 12 times... *cough cough*
ENEMY VARIETY
The enemy variety was surprisingly large in A Link To The Past. I never felt like I was just defeating the same mobs over and over. Each area in the game had its own unique enemies or unique re-colours of previous enemies so they fit the environment.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY
These classic games didn't have to incorporate a ton of different in-game mechanics to keep players engaged with an inflated playtime. Games like A Link To The Past just have one story purpose and they want you to play it out from start to finish. But there are some mini-games that are available for extra or secret items. None of them are necessary but are available if you want to do them.
REPLAYABILITY
This is definitely a "One And Done" game for me. I can see the appeal to booting this game up from time to time and doing a casual playthrough. But because I don't have the nostalgia for it like I do for Ocarina Of Time I don't know if I will ever play through this game again, but I am glad I did this time.
OVERALL — 84/100
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past is a fantastic retro game that truly shows the incredible innovation and skill of the Nintendo development team in the 1990's. I was blown away by all of the creative gameplay mechanics and bosses and had a fantastic time with my playthrough of this Nintendo OG classic.
TLDR: 84/100 (GREAT) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a fantastic retro game that showcases the innovation and skill of Nintendo's 1990s development team. Played on the Nintendo Switch via the SNES emulator, it features a compelling story, impressive graphics, and excellent gameplay mechanics. The game starts immediately, immersing players in an adventure to save Princess Zelda, and includes twists leading to the Dark World. Despite its age, the 16-bit pixel art and detailed environments hold up, while the intuitive controls and varied gameplay mechanics offer a refreshing experience. The soundtrack adds to the nostalgia, making it a great trip down memory lane, though perhaps not for frequent replays. This classic rightly deserves its high praise for innovation and enduring appeal.
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