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Zelda: A Link to the Past Review - GBA

2nd November 2003 by
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There are certain games that come along, a few very generation, and they are the pinnacle of a genre, or an ideal. Such is A Link to the Past. The game is as close to flawless as is humanly possible. Doing away with the side scrolling of Zelda II, the game returned to its roots, and gave gamers the top down adventure RPG that defined a generation. Every other top down adventure game released was compared to ALTTP (A Link to the Past), but few came close to its greatness, let alone surpassed it. Even today, a decade later, it still defines the genre and gives gamers an experience to die for. The genre has moved on, with Ocarina of Time now the epitome of the genre, but re-releasing ALTTP on the handheld GBA was a genius move, let gamers relive the golden days anytime anywhere. Plus it has a free multiplayer game to boot!

Gameplay

Perfect. Right there, that describes how the gameplay works. Ease of movement, item use, pacing, challenge, style, and atmosphere. It's all there, and it delivers without a glitch. There have even been a few additions to the game itself. Link now has his trademark yelp when he swings his sword of falls down a hole. Plus there a whole new dungeon, Palace of the Four Swords, to be unlocked once you've finished the multiplayer game once. Even better, once you get ten medals in The Four Swords, you can take on an extra sub-quest to earn the Hurricane Spin, the crazy move from The Wind Waker. The Ice Palace has been slightly rearranged too, removing a handy little trick exploited by gamers in the original. Apart from this though, the game is a pixel perfect port of the original classic. If anything, it looks even better than the original with the GBAs custom screen making sure not a pixel is ever out of place.

Starting out in the game, waking from a strange dream, you head out in the rain armed only with a lantern. Finding your Uncle injured, he gives you his sword, and the adventure to rescue Princess Zelda begins (again). The beginning is atmospheric, full of danger and excitement, and it suits the game perfectly.

Speaking of perfection, how about the dungeon design! This is what Zelda games are all about. Dungeon crawling has been done for years, but never as well as in the Zelda series. Finding keys, solving puzzles, getting a new treasure item and fighting massive boss battles, the game has it in spades. With a massive total of 11 wonderful dungeons, plus Ganon's Tower, Hyrule Castle and the Four Sword Palace, not to mention various side quests and mini games, will have you playing this game for hours on end, and then replaying it every now and then, just because you can.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are amazingly well done. While not mind blowing, they certainly stand up with their incredible detail. Not a pixel is out of place, the colours ... (continued next page)

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