This game is a sequel to the SNES classic A Link to the Past. While the storylines are largely unrelated, the world map is exactly the same as the one in the earlier games but it has changed, quite significantly in some places, as the many years have gone by. At first I was sceptical about this game: of course I was happy that a new Zelda title was out, but at the same time I was concerned that it wouldn’t be as good as other titles. I worried that the main focus would be of evoking feelings of nostalgia and so probably not up to the standard I was used to. I was wrong.

The story is as follows: as usual, Link is just an average guy going about his life and being just a little bit hopeless, but before long, disaster strikes. A man named Yuga appears, turns a woman named Seres into a painting and escapes into a portal. Link soon discovers that he must collect the Pendants of Virtue in order to get the Master Sword and defeat Yuga. It does sound like a very generic Zelda story, but things actually take a very interesting and unexpected turn later on, but I won’t go into that as I don’t want to spoil anything.

Aside from the usual elements of Zelda games (a big beautiful world to explore, secrets to find, dungeons to get through, bosses to beat) this game adds one or two nice new features. First, there are item rentals. All of the items required to get through all of the dungeons are available from the start in a shop run by an entertaining new character called Ravio. You can either rent them for a cheap easily affordable price, or actually buy them for quite a bit more. The difference is that if you have only rented an item, Ravio gets it back when you die, and if you own an item you always keep it and have the option of updating. This means, if you rented all your items, dying would lose you everything. While this does make dying have much bigger consequences than usual, it also doesn’t really matter, since the game is a little too easy and you’ll probably not die much (I never did).

The 3DS’s StreetPass feature is also integrated into gameplay. You design your own version of Shadow Link and then people you pass on the streets can find him on their map and fight him. It’s a nice little feature, but, it’s not really anything special. You get money from these battles, but I wish you got something more useful.

Shortly into the game, Link also gets the ability to merge into walls as a painting which means, for example, he can slip through a crack in the wall to get to another room. I really love this feature because it’s extremely well used and it makes this game very different to the other top down Zelda games. In fact, I got so used to it, than when playing similar games later, I’d occasionally think the solution to puzzles involved wall merging.

For me, this is one of the best Zelda games. The soundtrack is magnificent, there’s a lovely mix of old and new, there’s a nice amount of side quests to do and it’s all so open, too. You can pretty much do things in any order you feel like. Other than, perhaps, the first, very few other games in the series have this much freedom and it feels very good. There are a couple of little downsides, like the return of the annoying save points from Skyward Sword and the fact that it’s a little too easy, but still, this is one of the best and is certainly not to be missed!

Rating: 9.4/10

Buy it here.

A Link to the Past is actually the third in the Zelda series (or fourth, if you count the Game & Watch title) but it is the first one to give the series the shape which it would retain to this day. You could almost look at this as a template for later Zelda games.

The game starts with Link’s uncle leaving the house to go and rescue Zelda, who is being held in Hyrule Castle by the mysterious wizard named Agahnim. He insists Link stays behind, but obviously that doesn’t happen and Link follows after just a little later. He finds his uncle wounded, takes his sword and goes on to finish the quest himself. Sadly, things aren’t so easy and he soon discovers that he has to travel across Hyrule in order to collect the three pendants of courage so that he can defeat the evil wizard.

After the opening sequence of events, you are pretty free to explore the large world of Hyrule as you please. You can visit Kakariko Village where there are lots of people to speak to and games to play, or you can go out and explore the forests and the fields, finding secret houses and caves where you’ll get little things that may help you along with the quest. The map shows you were you need to go, but not what you need to do there, so it’s all fairly nice and open. You can be quite rigid and go straight to the marks on the map and figure out how to get into the dungeons or you can take your time and explore every corner of the world.

One downside is the difficulty: I found that the majority of the game to be a little too easy. Pretty much all of the first dungeons in the game could be completed in a single sitting, but then the last two were incredibly difficult. I’d actually go so far as to say that I didn’t especially enjoy any of the dungeons in this game that much and that the main appeal for me, was the bits in-between (the bosses are good too). I also found that, at times, supplies could be annoyingly sparse. If I ran out of magic, it might take ages to replenish it. The same is true of arrows. This provides you with what I think is a case of unfair difficulty which is just irritating more than anything.

Thankfully, this still manages to be a very good game. The sound track is wonderfully atmospheric and gives the whole thing a lovely tone and I find the 16-bit graphics quite charming. Lots of important things like the hook shot and ocarina are introduced in this game too so I’d suggest that anybody who likes The Legend of Zelda series should give this a try.

Rating: 9.2/10

Buy it here.