"The Legend of Zelda is arguably the greatest adventure game of all time. Released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987, it has entertained millions of players with its perfect combination of tricky puzzles and arcade action. It's not surprising to learn that the designer of The Legend of Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto, also came up with Super Mario Bros. which was bundled with the NES and largely responsible for its sales success.
Like most popular video games, The Legend of Zelda spawned a sequel: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The sequel was certainly entertaining, but most players agreed that it lacked the "spark" of the original game.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a 16-bit continuation of the Zelda game series. Most players refer to it as Zelda III, but that's not the game's official title..."
Since this book came out in 1993, a new Zelda has been made for Nintendo64, and yet another one is due to be released in America soon.
Now that the history of Zelda has been explained, I'll describe the actual video game - The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past.
You are Link, a young boy maybe between the ages of 10 and 16. You live in the land of Hyrule which is ruled by a good, fair king. Link lives with his uncle in a small, 1-room house that is east of Kakariko Village. One day, the king disappears, as do six maidens who are in the bloodline of the seven wisemen. The 7th maiden is Princess Zelda, who is the daughter of the King, and who has yet to disappear. During a storm one evening, your uncle is summoned telepathically to rescue Zelda. He tells Link to stay in the house, grabs his tiny shield and wimpy sword and heads off. Link, not being able to go back to sleep, is curious and decides to check out what's going on. This is where the game begins.
Link is now on a grand adventure, filled with mind-boggling puzzles, terrifying bad guys, ancient items that prove to be very helpful and 3 pendants and 7 crystals that prove his bravery and skill. After leaving the house, going to Hyrule castle and getting the sword and shield from your injured uncle, Link rescues Zelda and is then told by a wise old sage to seek Sahasralah, the village elder and all-around nice guy.
During your journey, you learn more about what's going on with all these strange disappearances. Ganondorf, the evil thief, has transformed himself into Ganon, the biggest and baddest bad guy in the game. He is trying to take over the world (pretty predictable bad guy goal, huh?) and has started his conquest by turning the "Golden Land" into the "Dark World."
After Link beats 3 castles in Hyrule (The Light World) he takes his prizes, the Pendants of Courage, Strength and Wisdom, to the Lost Woods where he uses his powers to pull the Master Sword out of a stone. He then goes back to Hyrule Castle where Agahnim, Ganon's alter-ego who you have to beat twice in the game, makes Zelda disappear. Link finds Agahnim's secret hideout and beats him, and then is transported to the Dark World. Once there, Sahasralah speaks to him telepathically and tells him what to do.
Link must beat 7 castles in the Dark World. Instead of pendants as rewards, he receives special crystals when he beats the bosses of the dungeons. When each maiden disappeared, Agahnim transformed her into a tiny glowing thing inside of a crystal. Once Link gets all 7 crystals, (the 7th containing Zelda) he goes to this huge castle and has to beat Agahnim again. Once he has done this, he goes to the Dark World version of Hyrule castle and has to defeat Ganon. If he succeeds, he won the game! Yay!
During this adventure, Link runs into many people who play significant roles in his journey. From the bed-ridden Bug-Catching Kid to Venus the Queen of the Fairies, from the Quarreling Brothers to the twin dwarf swordsmiths, from the Flute-Playing Kid to the Desert Thief, and from the sweeping lady to the possessed soldiers, each character either helps Link along his journey or basically makes his life miserable. It's good to talk to everyone along the way, because many of the people and things have something valuable to say.
There are also many items that are very important to Link. The boomerang. The Magic Cape. The swords: fighting sword. Master Sword, tempered sword and gold sword. The clothing: the green jerkin that he wears at the start, the blue mail and the red mail. The shields: fighter's shild, red shield, Mirror Shield. The medallions, the canes, the bow and the arrows... eachthing is important in some way, and it's important that Link get all of these items.
I give The Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past an A+. When it came out way back in the day in 1992, I was but a wee 7-year-old and my 14-year-old brother soon added it to his extensive collection of Super Nintendo games. I found myself fascinated with the "good graphics" (for back then) and the whole concept of this new adventure game. The years passed, and last year I got myself my own version for my SNES, and with my brother's expert advice, everything I remembered from watching my bro beat it numerous times, and with my trusty sidekick, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Game Secrets book, I was on my way. A few weeks later, I had beaten the game and was overcome with sheer joy from having foiled Ganon and his evil henchmen. Though I had beaten the game, I found that I still wanted to play. So I started a new game. Again, I beat it and again I wanted to keep playing it. Now, I have beaten it at least 10 times and I'm still not sick of it. In order for someone to play the same game over and over and still get confused in the Ice Palace even though they've beaten it many times, the game must be good. That is why I gave it an A+.
Click here to see screenshots from this game.
