Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Genre: Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Super Nintendo
Release: 1992
Rating: E

- Graphics -

I'm not gonna lie. I personally preferred the Genesis over the SNES (mostly nostalgia, but I also find that it generally has better graphics and sound quality). That doesn't mean that A Link to the Past (from now on abbreviated as ALttP) and other SNES games weren't great, of course! While the graphics were highly surpassed in my eyes by the other aspects I'll be reviewing, they're certainly some of the best I've seen on the console, and the styles were carried over in just about every 2D Zelda game since!

Graphics: 9/10


- Story -

ALttP set a lot of standards for the series in many ways. The story archetype is one that has been re-used throughout the series, and is, in some ways, the binding laws of Hyrule XD While I personally preferred Ocarina's rendition of this story, ALttP made a lot of headway towards that goal.

Story: 9/10


- Gameplay -

Like the story, ALttP also set the standards for the series in another few ways. First of all, we now have the standard 3, 5, final dungeon pattern, and also the tradition of having an alternate world to travel to (other variations being time travel in Ocarina/Ages, Subrosia, and the Twilight Realm, among others). For the first time in the series we have notable sidequests and minigames, and... what's this? Characters?! Aside from Link, Zelda, and Ganon, and Dark Link we really didn't have any notable in-game characters until now; Impa was mentioned in the instruction manual for Zelda II, and that was about the only additional named character.

Gameplay: 10/10


- Music -

ALttP's music has to be some of the most groundbreaking in the series, and set a lot of standards for the games. Definitely a worthy soundtrack, especially in high-quality covers!

Music: 10/10


Total Score: 9.5/10

Also available for Gameboy Advance and Virtual Console.