finished another SNES game, the much-lauded the legend of zelda: a link to the past. for me the game was a classic case of something that was astounding for its time and incredibly influential on the series, but that pales in comparison to what followed when looking back on it now. like donkey kong country link to the past really helped define the series (although in a lesser way, since the groundwork in the orig. zelda game was so strong); classic items like the hookshot and bottles, locations such as kakariko village, game mechanics like travelling between two worlds, and a lot of the now-classic music all make their first appearance here. the game itself is still a lot of fun to play, esp. as every zelda game ends up with a few unique items, and although the level designs don’t reach the heights that they did in other games in the series they’re still enjoyable. the dungeons make particularly good use of a pseudo-3D perspective, in which a single floor of a dungeon will have an upper and a lower level that you have to navigate. it was also interesting to me that the game includes a net and a shovel, both of which clearly foreshadow the animal crossing games that followed much later. there isn’t much of a story, though, and the game is notably stingy on the hearts, but all in all although i don’t rank this as one of my “favorite games of all time” it’s still a great game and a definite classic. of course one question remains: why is link’s hair pink??

light and dark links:
- walkthrough at the official site
- entry at strategywiki.org
- maps with locations of the items at IGN