Linking To The Past... and other Game Boy Advances
Written: Dec 08 '02
Product Rating:
Pros: Direct port of the SNES original, well-designed Four Swords multiplayer game
Cons: Awkward button placements, Four Swords is only for four players, Link's annoying voice-over
The Bottom Line: Nintendo has done it again, successfully releasing a flawless port of a title that sculped future models of expected perfection and integrated gameplay elements in it's finest
NMD85's Full Review: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past for Game B...
Ever since Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance and announced it's capablity to surpass the Super Nintendo's standards, followers of Nintendo soon dreamt of the possibilities in store for the systems future. With games so far emulating the perfection of what is now considered a classic game from ten years plus ago, the Game Boy Advance has surprised and exceeded those expectations of what many were skeptical about before seeing such dead-on ports of amazing titles like Super Mario World on a smaller, more modular enhancement of a timeless classic from Nintendo. With many prospects to come, Nintendo has finally done what seemed impossible years ago, and that being that they've finally released The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past on the Game Boy Advance for a perfect portable experience. Although being on a somewhat problematic system as the GBA has proved to be, the gameplay experience is somewhat disrupted, but not completely spoiled. What really matters is that one of Nintendo's finest achievements is finally in on-the-go form and many hardcore Zelda fans are loving it.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past is what is considered by many Miyamoto's finest Zelda in the entire saga. Although Ocarina of Time has proven to surpass those standards, it would be a crime not to follow what is Ocarina to it's inspirational roots. Although the title, A Link To The Past, gives somewhat of a misleading proceeding about the game's story, there is actually no time-travel involved in Link To The Past. After Link finds out the evil wizard, Aganhim has kidnapped Princess Zelda, he then rescues her only to be captured again after Link obtains the three pendants of power from the Light World. Agahnim then banishes all seven protectors of the elusive Triforce only to allow Ganon to gain access. With the Triforce's power to create, Ganon wishes for an alternate world built on his evil indulgences called the Dark World, a dilapidated and run-down Hyrule where evil and disorder lurks around every corner. Link must follow into Ganon's Dark World, rescue all the imprisoned maidens, defeat Ganon, and restore the once peaceful Hyrule from Ganon's evil rule. Although the story seems a bit confused, the entire premise still clouds the true idea of Link To The Past, but doesn't detour from an otherwise brilliantly playing adventure.
As far as the port process goes, the Game Boy Advance emulation of the once Super Nintendo title is near perfect. Why near and not exactly perfect? Although the Game Boy Advance can suprass the Super Nintendo's standard, it still falls short in some areas that Nintendo's portable machine cannot accomplish. As far as the graphical standpoint goes, the game moves as fluid or better than it's SNES brethren. Although a few things have been altered, especially the on-screen interface where some icons were arranged differently, it's only been altered to fit the standard of the Game Boy Advance's rather size-conflicting miniscule screen. Since many of my mainstream complaints come from the Game Boy Advance unit itself, this port is otherwise a dead-on accurate perfection-based port that absolutely does not fail to give players what it did over ten years ago. Being compared to the much graphically enhanced Four Swords, it almost reminds Link To The Past of how old it is and how much it would of been nice to see what the game could of looked like with a substantial upgrade. Aside from being a nitpicker, Link To The Past is best looking as it originally did, especially for those who enjoy going down memory lane like myself when playing an unforgettable title such as this.
As far as the game's audio goes, the brilliant Koji Kondo composed soundtrack is unmistakably perfect in most every way, capturing all it did on the bulkier Super Nintendo cartridge. Nintendo has done a rather amazing job as far as the compression goes in the soundtrack. However, the game seems to port other portions of the audio a little different, especially when it comes to some sound effects. Since most of them are sublime parallels of the original sound effects, it's often like some to nitpick it's minor imperfections. One of the most surprising and predictable additions to the audio in Link To The Past being an enhanced version of an older game is to make gamers know that Link has always been young. Knowing this, Nintendo added the same sound bites used in Ocarina of Time, so whenever Link swings his sword, jumps from a ledge, or what have you, he'll exclaim the rather annoying childish voice as he did in Ocarina of Time during his younger more feeble ages. Although it may seem annoying, it's not too over the edge, but if you want to play the game with the masterful and memorable audio presentation, you'll have to suffer through every yelp of Link's prepubescent voice. It would also be spiteful leaving this topic without, highly recommending that you pack yourself some headphones along for the ride since Link To The Past has some of the finest music in any Zelda adventure.
Finally going over some already explored ground just for the recourse, Link To The Past has some of the best balance of weapons that are rooted from the original on NES adventure. Having the best sets of weapons, Link has his typical felicitous companion-worthy items such as his Boomerang, Bow & Arrows, Bombs, Hookshots, and plenty other strange weapons only found in Zelda's medievil and primitive-style atmosphere. Even though the game is based on an unnamed archaic age in the Zelda adventure, the weapons never get too boring or uninteresting as they all seem to serve their own purpose for different parts in the game when you acquire them. One of the most important and welcoming items in the game is by far Link's Boomerang, which will aid you early on in the game as it's infinite, with a welcomed enhancement not to far later in the game. As the Boomerang, you'll also be able to find enhancements for Link's fundamentals such as his sword, shield, tunics (or mails), and even his arrows. Against every Zelda in the saga, Link To The Past proves to have the most worthy arsenal of useful and unforgettable things to play with.
One of my rather unimportant but bothersome element of Link To The Past Advance is the control scheme. Since many of the problems are sculpted from the Game Boy Advance itself, it's only fair to say that the game is often cumbersome to an extent. While all the controls are otherwise fluid and flawless, they suffer from being awkwardly placed from a personal standpoint. Getting back to it all being the unit's fault, the buttons cannot be altered or customized, which would of been welcoming concerning the already odd placement of the default commands. I often found myself firing an arrow instead of sword swinging which I stumbled upon more than once, but numerous times. I'd even search for a custom control option, but with none to be found, it leaves the player to put up with it. Overall, it's tolerable, but it wouldn't of hurt to include a customizable control scheme.
Moving on, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past is also paired with a new quest exclusively packed onto this little cartridge as addition and a treat for owners of this game. Named Four Swords, the game is extremely impartial to it's rather ironic name, meaning the game will only play if four system-linked humans are actively involved in the quest at the same time. The idea of the game is to work with your opponents whilst trying to compete at the same time. It comes highly replayable in a typical Nintendo formula that seems to work time and time again. But not having four friends with four GBA's and a copy of the title are pitted a major disadvantage since this game is not playable with any less than four. Sadly, those who don't have friends interested in Game Boy Advance, personally this being a problem for yours truly, will unfortunately be unable to experience this sorely multiplayer-based experience. Thinking on a brighter side, Four Swords is a four-player quest, and would otherwise feel drone, and lifeless not to mention meaningless without the four-player prerequisite. So if you don't happen to be one who uses Game Boy's link function, you'll have to stick to the prime reason for owning the game and playing Link To The Past until your persausaions broaden with your friends.
Paired with Four Swords, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past is a stand alone time-consuming quest that will last a substantial amount of time filled with plenty of puzzles, and challenging dungeons for Link to explore and defeat. Against finding all of the heart-pieces, weapon and item enhancements, and challenging bosses and dungeon strategies, this game proves to probe even the most seasoned gamer as it is entertaining and worthy of your time. Even as you go on into the game it becomes more rewarding, alternating between the parallel worlds become a fun and interesting quest as you'll have not only one, but two very different worlds to discover. Without spoiling too much, both Light and Dark Worlds hold plenty of exploration, some quests and challenges you'll need to use one world to get to areas in the other. For the most part, this game caters to those who've been engulfed in it over ten years ago, even if it's all memorized and predictable, it still offers the worthwhile memory-filled adventure as it was when you originally played as it premiered on the Super Nintendo.
FINAL COMMENTS The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past is surely an unforgettable title and it's even better now that I can play it away from my SNES. With a rather lengthy, immersively depthful and satisfying quest on your hands (pardon the pun), this game bearing all my memories of the original are revived once again in a quest that easily makes this the best thing that graces the Game Boy Advance. What can we see next? Possibilities hold no limits anymore when Nintendo is involved, especially imagining some of the ideas that could come in the future such as Super Mario RPG, and even other chapters in the Zelda or Mario sagas. That's only stratching the surface to say that Nintendo must support it's fans with games that we played in our more golden ages. All I can say is keep them coming, especially if they're as perfect as they've already come. Without a doubt, buy a Game Boy Advance for this alone.
FINAL DECISION
(on a basis of Epinions' stars ratings)
Based on a link to the past on the super nes, the legend of zeldagba spruces up the 1992 fan-favorite by introducing the firstever multiplayer mode fo...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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