A Link to the Past released in the U.S. 27 years ago today

[Agent Unknown]

27 years ago on April 13th, 1992 The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past was released in the U.S. and 24 years after my parents got me a SNES bundled with the game back in '95 I'm still playing it and still have the same cart on the same system. =)

This is still my favorite game in the series, the first time I played it was magical. Waking up in the rain and going out on that first mission on the way to the castle with the ambient analog sounds of the storm outside. Leaving the sanctuary after rescuing Zelda and venturing out into the day on the overworld for the first time. Playing the Eastern Palace as you start the pendant quest. The lush visuals which were such an incredible step up from the NES. The amazing music. The incredible fog effects in the forest and the animals in the clearing where the Master Sword hides. Having your mind blown when you unlock the Dark World. Reading the amazing serial comics in Nintendo Power every month and discussing the game AND the comics with your friends. What are your memories? It's my tradition to replay the game every spring. On the second pendant now.

 

[P-Tux7]

Life pro tip for everyone: use the hammer on eneies you've frozen with the Ice Rod or Ether. They'll oftentimes drop full magic refills

 

[DecoReturns]

I feel we are getting awfully close to Nintendo remaking this game.

Then again. I always thought they would do this first then Links Awakening so maybe not lol. Maybe some games you just can't remake.

 

[Linde]

Everyone needs to play albw

 

[Deleted member 11276]

Still a great game. It's always surprising to see this game still holds up.

 

[MaitreWakou]

I feel we are getting awfully close to Nintendo remaking this game.

Then again. I always thought they would do this first then Links Awakening so maybe not lol. Maybe some games you just can't remake.

Click to shrink...

ALBW started as a remake but they just had too many new ideas so it became a new game.

 

[Boy]

One of the best game ever made. I would love to see a re-make like they did with resident evil 2.

 

[Juryvicious]

I remember the lead up to this game being released. I could not get enough magazine coverage, especially Nintendo Power. Bought the game in its 1st week of retail and my friends, cousins and I took turns playing, and eventually completing the game.

The game was all sorts of magical, and like Super Metroid, it remains the pinnacle of Zelda to me.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Got this game with an SNES on Christmas morning which also came with Super Mario World (also got Streets of Rage 2 for my Genesis), great fucking Christmas. Still one of my favorite games ever, and far and away my favorite Zelda game.

 

[Dukie85]

1/2 of my favorite game of all time, also sharing that honor with Super Metroid.

 

[eXistor]

27 years old and barely any competiton to this day. They pretty much nailed the formula so early on it's crazy. Same with Super Metroid.

I still have my original copy too, but I bought mine somewhat later on when the SNES was on its way out. I did play it before that, we borrowed it from friends who had it. The opening has to beone of the best ever; the sounds of the rain, the sense of adventure, it was all so atmospheric and unforgettable. A classic in the best sense of the word and still one of the very best Zelda's to this day. LttP is one of the handful of Zelda's that does pretty much everything right, I hope we can get another one of those soon, it's been too long.

 

[meph]

My first Zelda game. Had no idea what it was when I picked it up, but it made me a fan of the series. Still remains my favorite.

 

[GobHoblin]

Where's the time gone? :/

 

[Fizzgig]

Still the best Zelda game!

 

[Deleted member 249]

The most perfect game ever made.

 

[Smash Kirby]

The most perfect game ever made.

Click to shrink...

My only issue with the game is that the dungeons use the same track for the most part.

 

[Deleted member 249]

My only issue with the game is that the dungeons use the same track for the most part.

Click to shrink...

Yes, but I loved the track, so it worked for me!

 

[Smash Kirby]

Yes, but I loved the track, so it worked for me!

Click to shrink...

I'm not saying it wasn't a bad track, just that I'm spoiled by later Zelda games.

 

[Agent Unknown]

My only issue with the game is that the dungeons use the same track for the most part.

Click to shrink...

True but they're sooooo good (Light Wod palace theme is my favorite, so moody and atmospheric):

 

[PSqueak]

fuck, im old.

 

[FTF]

Amazing game. Still in my top 10 and I go back and forth between this and BotW as my fav Zelda game.

Edit: Also fuck I'm old :/

 

[bangai-o]

Could have wiped down that SNES before the photo-shoot.

 

[Smash Kirby]

True but they're sooooo good (Light Wod palace theme is my favorite, so moody and atmospheric):

Click to shrink...

Granted I played the game a long time after its release and I never had a super Nintendo either. Both are great tracks.

 

[Deleted member 8001]

My favorite 2D Zelda and I was really happy to see the game represented in Smash Ultimate.

 

[Sturoboros]

Tell you what after all these years, my love of Zelda has come from ONE GAME. Link's Awakening on the Gameboy. Astounding game. But other than play a few minutes here or there of a few others, I've never actually played anywhere near enough Zelda. Like a fucking fraud.

First time I've played it properly and I got absolutely lost in Link To The Past last night on my new 2DS. Absolutely amazing, can't believe it came out so long ago. Definitely jumping into the 3DS sequel once I'm done with it.

 

[Agent Unknown]

Could have wiped down that SNES before the photo-shoot.

Click to shrink...

The system is not dusty, those are dark gray scuff marks from age and usage. Got any tips on how to "wipe down" physical scuff marks which have gradually worn their way into hard plastic over the course of 24 + years? My SNES is still in great shape, I keep it in a small plastic storage bin near my entertainment center and it has almost no yellowing on the chassis. Also, what a weird reply to this thread but I guess not even a LttP nostalgia duscussion is safe from a snarky drive by.

 

[Agent Unknown]

27 years old and barely any competiton to this day. They pretty much nailed the formula so early on it's crazy. Same with Super Metroid.

I still have my original copy too, but I bought mine somewhat later on when the SNES was on its way out. I did play it before that, we borrowed it from friends who had it. The opening has to beone of the best ever; the sounds of the rain, the sense of adventure, it was all so atmospheric and unforgettable. A classic in the best sense of the word and still one of the very best Zelda's to this day. LttP is one of the handful of Zelda's that does pretty much everything right, I hope we can get another one of those soon, it's been too long.

Click to shrink...

Link to the Past and Super Metroid have my two favorite openings of all time, and they both take place in the rain. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[Nax]

Damn. I'm only a few months older than that game. I remember getting it at some point in the late 90s. Still my favorite Zelda game.

 

[stressboy]

I remember buying this just after it released when I was 15. Feeling a bit.. old...

 

[Heri]

For some reason I could never finish the game back in the day, I recently got the GBA version but I'm not sure if I should play that or the SNES version, any advice?

 

[honavery]

Was there day 1, I was 11 years old. Still maybe my fave Zelda game. Not sure what a remake would even look like. (Minus a big conversion to 3D)

 

[jakomocha]

I wasn't alive when it came out, and I played ALTTP for the first time on Wii U virtual console a couple years back. Was a fantastic experience, the game has aged perfectly. One of the greatest video games ever made (and better than OoT imo).

 

[Deleted member 3017]

Although it's not my favorite game in the series (I'm not even sure it cracks the top 5), if I were to name the definitive Zelda experience, I would pick ALttP.

 

[Stryder]

I love this game. The only game I refer as "The best game of all time" or my favorite game even if it's not probably true.

I fell in love with gaming and work in the industry today because of this game. This game made me want to learn to read when I was a child and picked it up.

 

[Agent Unknown]

Also highly recommend the Link to the Past graphic novel re-release from Viz media which collects all of the classic LttP comics which appeared monthly in serial form in Nintendo Power in 1992, I used to borrow a classmate's NP issues every month just so I could read these. It often takes a lot of liberties with the game's story and progression but it's still a fun read and the art is amazing:

 

[Dice]

I have so many memories playing this with my brother as kids and figuring dungeons out. Loved it then, loved it now, and I was soooo absorbed into Link between Worlds and was thrilled how well it turned out.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Happy anniversary to an absolute classic. I replayed it last year and it absolutely held up.

 

[Deleted member 29599]

LttP was my first "proper" Zelda. First Zelda game i ever played was Zelda 2 (i know, really weird) so this was a revelation. Everything about it was sublime, the music, the graphics, the incredible world and dungeon design. Pretty damn impressive for something that came out so early in the SNES's lifespan. I did get slightly stuck because i didn't realise you had to dash into the bookcase to drop the book to get into the second dungeon. The moment when you pull the master sword out was so magical to me (look, i was very young!) that when i replayed it i got my dad to watch that part who couldn't give less of a shit about videogames in general let alone Zelda but was nice enough to politely indulge my enthusiasm. I remember the boy with the flute made me very sad when he turned into a tree and i tried to find a way to save him for a very long time. It was a lovely moment when he showed up in the end credits alive and well.

Sweet little anecdote: When i first saved up enough money (500 guilders was a lot!) to afford the SNES obviously it came with Super Mario World but i wanted LttP to be my second game. When i managed to get the cash together the local toyshop didn't have it in stock, no other shops were within biking distance for me and my parents weren't about to try and drive around looking for it. So i kept coming back every few days, to no avail. I rapidly started to lose patience what with SMW finished multiple times over and everything completed. There was another game i wanted; Street Fighter 2. But i knew that a better version was coming (SF2 Turbo) thanks to game magazines. In the end after about a month of waiting i finally gave up and grabbed the OG SF2 game even knowing it was gonna be the shit version. Took it to the counter, was about to pay when the lady behind the till recognised me from all the times i had come in desperately trying to buy LttP and said "Hey, weren't you the little boy who wanted to buy Zelda 3? We just got it back in stock". Obviously i was more than happy to put SF2 back on the shelf. I'm not sure i have ever appreciated a random person's kindness as much since that wonderful person stopped me wasting my money. I cycled home as fast as i could and promptly had my tits blown off at the amazing game that i got to play. So thank you random Dutch woman from my childhood, you don't know how happy you made me.

EDIT: I just remembered something. This game had the awesome obscure "Chris Houlihan" secret room thing that was an anti glitch measure IIRC. But long before i ever figured out how to access it thanks to the internet i found out about its existence through another glitch. Don't ask me how, but messing around in the prologue one time i managed to trigger a glitch where the stationary guards who block the roads leading out of that beginning area started to cycle through every single bit of text in the game. I was sitting there casually talking to this guy over and over just having fun at the fact i had managed to break the game a little when the message "My name is Chris Houlihan. This is my top secret room. Keep it between us, OK?" appeared. I must have played Zelda more times than i could remember and I had never seen this before and it lodged itself in the back of my mind as a long unsolved mystery until i finally read about the conditions for getting to the Top Secret Room.

 

[low-G]

The Nintendo Power coverage and comics made me so jealous of those that had a SNES at the time... Took me 16months to get a SNES. I rented the title pretty early on and played through it on a rental. In fact I could find everything but 1 heart container piece. Bought the strategy guide and the game about 6 months later at a nice discount (Summer 1993) and finally got that heart container piece I had overlooked.

The game stuck with me for a long time though. I'd think of how awesome it'd be to find the master sword somewhere in the woods, etc... Was replaying it again in the last few days...

 

[lake]

This might sound weird but it was my first gaming disappointment. I liked the game a lot and got it on launch day but after anticipating it for months I was shocked I finished it in like 24 hours. Wanted more!

 

[Agent Unknown]

The Nintendo Power coverage and comics made me so jealous of those that had a SNES at the time... Took me 16months to get a SNES. I rented the title pretty early on and played through it on a rental. In fact I could find everything but 1 heart container piece. Bought the strategy guide and the game about 6 months later at a nice discount (Summer 1993) and finally got that heart container piece I had overlooked.

The game stuck with me for a long time though. I'd think of how awesome it'd be to find the master sword somewhere in the woods, etc... Was replaying it again in the last few days...

Click to shrink...

Like I said in the OP I didn't get my SNES until 1995, those Nintendo Power previews comics and previews kept me hyped for the game. It also helped that my family also had a NES, Gameboy and TG-16 which also kept us tided over until the day we finally got that SNES, the wait was worth it.

 

[InspectaDekka]

Gonna say I'm not as hugely into A Link to The Past as much as other people ITT but man it's so wonderfully simplistic and straightforward that it makes me miss that nature of games where you thrown the fuck into a world and it felt like the game was going "Nah man chill just do whatever"

 

[entremet]

Sprite work is beautiful.

One of my favorite SNES games. I played it late in the SNES lifecycle as well. I prefer its sequel but LTTP is still great.

 

[Nessus]

Doesn't feel like 27 years.

First time I played it was at my cousin's house, a friend of theirs had brought over an SNES and a couple games (Zelda and SimCity). I remember being blown away by the scale of the game, the save file we were playing on was already in the Dark World and it was the first time I'd encountered a game that was that wide open, with secrets seemingly on every screen.

I ended up getting both Zelda and SimCity when I got my SNES a while later.

One thing I like about Nintendo's SNES games is that it feels like it was before they fell into a routine. They didn't quite know what a Zelda game was yet.

 

[Hecht]

Absolutely still the best Zelda game.

So glad randomizer runs are a thing, love seeing a breath of fresh air in one of my favorite games

 

[TubaZef]

And it's still the best game ever made.

 

[jett]

One of the most enduring games of the era.

 

[LebGuns]

Just playing it right now on the 3DS. Never beat it. My older brother and could only find the German version in Lebanon, so that's what we played, one of us with a controller, the other one with a German-to-English dictionary trying to decipher the game. We got as far as the dark world before we got stuck. We could never figure out the damn monkey to get into that first dungeon. One of my fondest gaming memories ever.

 

[low-G]

Like I said in the OP I didn't get my SNES until 1995, those Nintendo Power previews comics and previews kept me hyped for the game. It also helped that my family also had a NES, Gameboy and TG-16 which also kept us tided over until the day we finally got that SNES, the wait was worth it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, 1995 is a harsh wait. I didn't have a TG-16 but I did have an Atari Lynx.

SNES is the only system where not getting it at launch really stung. Other kids would come into middle school with SNES game manuals and I'd drool all over them...

 

[MasterYoshi]

I want to say the moment you enter the Dark World and hear this theme would be the moment that forever hooked me as a major Zelda fan.