jeremy1456's Full Review: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past for Game B...
Back in the early 90s was the best time to be a gamer; some of the best games of all time came from this so called "golden era" of gaming, games like Super Mario World and Final Fantasy II come to mind, but neither of these games are as highly regarded by the masses as the third installment in the Zelda series known as The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, This game went on to generate millions and millions in sales. Now, a decade later Nintendo is hardly in the position they used to be in, and they have become somewhat lazy as of late; they have been taking the easy way out with their 32-bit handheld, the Gameboy Advance more times than I would like to remember by releasing older games again and again, and even though I played them and beat them years ago, they still somehow sucker me into wasting my money on the newer versions. Well, Nintendo's latest act of laziness has now been released for almost a whole month, this game is the very game that I was talking about earlier; Zelda: A Link To The Past.
To tell you the truth, I think that the re-release of this game on the Gameboy Advance is a petty attempt to avoid creating an original Zelda title for the GBA, but I am a glad that they did indeed bring it over, but I would have much preferred an original title over this older game that I have played through hundreds of times. One thing about Nintendo's re-releases on the Gameboy Advance is that they always try to slightly enhance it; in Mario Advance they updated the graphics, audio, and even added in voice overs, and in Super Mario World they simply added in a couple of these voice overs from Mario Advance, and so naturally everyone was wondering how exactly Nintendo was going to enhance Zelda, if at all that is. I'm probably not going to be the first to tell you when I say this, but Nintendo has gone out of their way to add in a multiplayer side quest, along with, you guessed it, voice overs.
Zelda Storyline
4 words can best be used to describe the story in Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past; great story, below average execution, ok so maybe that was five words, but you get the point. You see, it's not like I particularly hate the storyline, I mean the whole idea sounds great, but it just isn't put into play as much as I'm accustomed to in RPGs like Final Fantasy. For starters, the fact that Link has absolutely no dialogue in the game hinders the story, and the fact that there are very few plot twists doesn't exactly help it either. At heart, most Zelda games have the same storyline, it's either save Zelda or save the world, sometimes even a combination of the 2, and this is starting to become tiring.
In every Zelda game to date players play as a young elf boy named Link, but who he is exactly usually changes from game to game. In Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past Link is still the same old green tunic wearing elf boy, but he lives with his uncle in Hyrule. As the game begins the events start to unfold at a fast pace, but the story picks up in to a very fast rate in some places, but in others it moves too slow to keep one's interest. The game begins with rain pouring outside and Link dreaming, through his dream the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda is sending him pleas for help through his mind. Link awakens just in time to spot his uncle stepping out the door with the family's sword; he informs Link that he is not to leave the house until morning. Of course the story wouldn't reveal very much if Link simply stayed inside, so naturally Link follows his uncle, while at the same time listening to the voice inside his head telling him about a secret entrance into Hyrule Castle, Link complies, falls through a hole in the ground, and ends up in the same room as his uncle who hands him his sword and shield and tells him to save Zelda, and so with his uncle's blessing he sets off through the castle in hopes of completing the task at hand.
What puzzled me about the whole storyline is the fact that you don't see Link's uncle at all after this point (well technically). After saving Zelda Link is a wanted man er... boy, and has to deal with a whole lot more than just fulfilling the ancient prophecy of the Master Sword and the three pendants; everyone is under the impression that Link actually kidnapped the princess, and while he technically did, it was more of a rescue.
Gameplay
So now that we got the story out of the way, I should probably explain to you how this game plays.
The action in Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past (man I'm getting tired of typing that, I'll just call it Link to the Past from here-on out) is viewed from overhead at a 120-degree angle, commonly referred to as a 3/4 overhead view. Gameplay consists almost entirely of battling monsters and solving simple puzzles, so there isn't actually a whole lot of diversity inside this game. This may make the game sound incredibly boring, but I assure you that it's not. When in control of Link you can swipe your sword, run, jump over holes, and use special items that you have acquired on your quest (more on that later).
As Link you basically travel from dungeon to dungeon hacking away at monsters and collecting special items, and in the end of each dungeon awaits a boss character. In the beginning of the game the goal is simple; obtain the 3 pendants so that you can claim the legendary master sword; the only weapon powerful enough to defeat the tri-force bearing wizard Agahnim. Of course this is only considered the beginning of the game, as the quest gets a whole lot more epic and actually requires Link to travel to a world that was long sealed away, only to rescue the 7 maidens that will gain you entry into Ganon's castle.
Puzzles are pretty simple in nature; they usually don't require much to solve, but sometimes they are a little too obvious. Some of these puzzles require next to no thought; lighting all the lamps in a room, killing all the enemies, moving a block, but much later into the game they become very complicated, sometimes almost to the point of frustration. Sometimes I wish that Nintendo had put more thought into some of the earlier puzzles, because even back when I was 9 (when the game was released) I had little to no trouble figuring out these puzzles, but when they get more difficult in a hurry; the most difficult part of this game is trying not to get lost in some of the dungeons.
While A Link To The Past basically used the same Zelda formula found in the original Zelda game, there is one major addition; the light and dark worlds. In this game Link starts out in the normal world, or the light world if you will, but some time into the game Link discovers portals that transport him into the dark world, or the land of golden power as the characters in the game refer to it. The dark world is shaped very closely to the light world; almost every significant location in the light world is present in the dark world, only it may serve a completely different purpose.
The contrasting Nintendo did between the 2 worlds is awesome, the light world is bright and colorful with the Zelda theme playing, while the dark world is very... well... dark and glum with some of the most deformed mutant monsters, all of this paired with the dark world theme playing really sets the atmosphere.
Traveling between both the Light and Dark worlds is sometimes a requirement to progress in the game; tasks done in the light world will often be reflected in the dark world. For example, in one point of the game Link has the option of draining a small body of water in the light world, and after doing this the body of water will have also been drained in the dark world. This is an interesting gameplay concept, and really what sets this game apart from all of the other Zelda titles.
Transporting between the worlds is as easy as finding a warp and stepping through it; the warps are spread throughout Hyrule but Link is only capable of revealing the different warps at certain points of the game. After stepping through one of these warps, Link is transported to the respective place from which he warped from in the dark world. This makes it so that the only way you can get to particular locations in the dark world would be to go to that respective location in the light world and go through a warp. Warping back to the light world is very simple, as it only requires you to gaze into the magical mirror that you receive early in the game.
Items and... Stuff
There's more to Zelda than running killing enemies, well there's at least more ways to do it. First off you have items that fall into the weapons category; these include such items as the boomerang and lamp. These items are usually found in the various dungeons of the game, there is one item per dungeon, but every once in a while you'll get another type of item inside a dungeon. The equipment items can be used by Link whenever you choose, you just simply go to the item menu and equip one of the items, then you can use this item whenever you want simply by pressing the B button. Nintendo set up the world map in such a manner that some places are inaccessible without the use of certain items, and so by beating dungeons and gaining items you will sometimes gain access to new sections of the world. One downfall is that some items require you to use magic power from your magic meter, this wouldn't be a bad thing except for the fact that it is very easy to run out of magic sometimes.
There are different types of weapons though, and the next type that I'm going to describe to you is the equipment. These are items that Link will always use, and you are not required to set these items. The equipment includes your sword, shield, and your tunic. All of these items are upgradeable in the game, but after you upgrade one of these it is impossible to use the old one.
Then there are the common items which include bombs, rupees (the game’s money currency), arrows, magic jars, and hearts. These items are often times left behind by an enemy after you kill them, and they are integral to gameplay.
I'm not exactly sure what the final group of items is called, but for now I'll just rfer to them as "special items". You, as the player have no control over equipping these items, the game automatically does it for you. The special items are usually used for accessing new areas and such, and they include the power gloves (used for lifting heavy objects), the flippers (pretty self explanatory there), and there are oddball items used for this space also (namely the moon pearl).
The Four Swords Multiplayer Game
With all of Nintendo's other GBA ports they included the original Mario Bros. multiplayer game, but they probably decided that the Mario Bros. game wouldn't fit very well with A Link to The Past, and so they had a completely new multiplayer game made up for it; this is known as The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords. It's not surprising that you would wonder exactly how a multiplayer Zelda would play, I mean I had no idea either, but after playing it I do have to say that it turned out excellent.
In the Four Swords game, you and 2 to 4 friends embark on a journey that will require massive amounts of teamwork through an original dungeon. The players basically run around killing enemies while solving puzzles that involve all of their co-operation, and my, what puzzles these are. Some puzzles will require a player to throw another player across a ledge, some will involve trading items, and other teamwork oriented stuff like that will ensue in this game. Each player can pick up exactly 1 item, these items vary, but the one I have found most common to be is the bow and arrow.
The Four Swords looks like an entirely new Zelda game, what with it's updated graphics and enhanced dungeons. The 2 games integrate a little, for example, the sword technique learned in a Link to The Past can be used in Four Swords (Once you acquire it, of course), and a brand new dungeon in A Link to The Past can be opened from the Four Swords game.
Differences Between The GBA and SNES Versions
Besides the inclusion of the Four Swords, there are a couple less significant things that were added in the transfer. Do you remember that shout that Link made every time he swiped his sword in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time? Well I hope you enjoyed it, because you'll be hearing a lot of it in this game; every single time Link slashes with his sword we are treated to these little grunts and yells, and while this isn't too bad in the beginning, it quickly wears down on one's nerves later on. Another difference I noticed is the fact that on the GBA more scrolling is required when the screen shifts, this isn't all that noticeable and doesn't take away from the game in the least, but I mentioned it anyway. And Finally, some of the text has changed, you really notice this kinda stuff when you've played the game as much as I have.
My Ratings For: The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Graphics: 8.5/10
A Link To The Past has some of the best looking 2-D graphics around, and it transferred almost pixel by pixel to the Gameboy Advance. There is one thing I have noticed about this game; textures are a little on the bland side in certain areas of the game. Also, if too many enemies are on the screen at once the game will start to stutter a little bit, but there are very few occurrences of this slowdown and is therefore easy to forget about. A part of me kinda wishes that the graphics were updated, while another part of me reminds me of this could take the original feel for the game, I use the Resident Evil Remake on Gamecube as an example of this. Some may disagree with me when I say this, but I think the Four Swords looks very nice, and I would have liked to see A Link to The Pasts graphics updated to the point at which it would look like the Four Swords.
As I just mentioned, I just really didn't get a feel for many of the textures used in this game. I mean, some are great (like the tall grass), but the ordinary grass is often complemented with one simple shade of green. Some of the textures used in the dungeons are nice looking, but overall I would have to say that this is the only real area in the graphics department in which the graphics have aged, but they don't really take anything away from the unique gameplay experience.
Unlike the textures, the colors and other effects compliment each other really well, the dominant color in this game is green though. The worlds contrast to each other mainly by the use of the colors and art styles, and Nintendo was able to transfix your moods about the 2 worlds by simply by contrasting between the looks. While the character design isn't anything spectacular, you can understand why not much detail was put into most of the characters; they are so small that there really isn't much space to include details.
Story: 7.5/10
The story is great, I mean the whole thing about the Golden Power, the Master Sword, and the Seven Maidens sounds like a very compelling storyline; I just don't like the way that it is executed. The thing that kind of bugs me is the fact that Link has no dialogue, and despite the fact that Link has never (and probably will never) have dialogue, I still think it takes a little something away from the story. There aren't a whole lot of side quests in the game either, but Nintendo did include a scant few mini games that can be played when you are starting to get a little tired of the main game. Overall, while the story is a great concept, it just doesn't do it for me.
Control: 8/10
Control is one of the major concerns with all ports, especially when dealing with the Gameboy Advance's limited amount of buttons, but Nintendo pulled through with this one by making it easy to play from the get go. I have to admit though that it does feel a little awkward using the R button to talk to people and read signs, but it's fairly easy to get over. Like the controls, the interface is as easy as A B C even if it may overwhelm younger gamers a little when they first begin, but it takes almost no time at all to get used to it.
Sound: 9/10
One thing that I noticed right away about this game is that the music and effects don't sound quite as good as they did on the Super Nintendo, and I don't really know why. Some of my favorite game music ever comes from this title, but some of the game's music does get a little old after a while, especially the light world overworld theme. A couple of my favorite songs are the dungeon theme, the opening theme, and of course, the ending theme. Of course, the music in this game sets the mood perfectly, and is amongst the bets of music in any game that I have ever played, even if the transfer wasn't 100 percent perfect.
Ok here's what caused me to mark the sound section down a couple of points; some of the sound effects are incredibly annoying. Take Link's newly added yell for example, if it was only used every once in a while, like when he uses his spin attack this wouldn't be quite so bad, only he screams every single time he swipes his sword, and since this is a semi long game you'll be hearing from him a lot. The other sound effects aren't too bad, except the little chime that plays when Link acquires a new item gets on my nerves if I play it long enough.
Multiplayer: 8/10
The Four Swords is more of a competition than it is completely team oriented, but by throwing one of your teammates off the ledge you are hurting your chances of making it through the dungeon, so it really helps to just work together, but you compete at the same time. This works very well because as you are competing with the other players you must; at the same time help them out. I really enjoyed some of the puzzles in the Four Swords, but Four Swords doesn't exactly warrant a purchase by itself.
Fun Factor: 9/10
A Link to The Past has always been one of the most fun games ever created, but by no measure to I consider it the best, or even one of the top 3. Since it's a port from the Super Nintendo game it wouldn't be wise at all to purchase it if you hated it on the Super Nintendo. This is the perfect game for new gamers to get into, as it allows them a chance to see what the older games were all about: gameplay. I have had a lot of fun times with this game, and I recommend it to anyone that wants to play through the game again.
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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