A Link To The Past

Learning from their experiences from the previous two games in the series and perfecting the "Zelda formula," Nintendo delved into the development of the upcoming title for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in Japan at the end of 1991 and for international release near the end of the next summer, A Link to the Past was a work of art that quickly climbed the ladder of the highest rated games and for many fans, was the Zelda game that got them into the series in the first place.

Returning to the overhead perspective, A Link to the Past featured tons of new enemies, items, characters and an enchanting plot that was miles ahead of the previous installments. This game introduced a duel world mechanic in which Link could travel between the Light World (normal) and the Dark World (a twisted parallel dimension), able to go between the two worlds in order to unlock secrets and progress to new areas. Simply put, the game was massive, containing over twelve dungeons and two versions of each area of the Overworld due to the duel-world feature, promoting hours of adventure and more in depth puzzles to solve.

Nintendo had narrowed down what had made the first game in the series such a success and expanded upon it, creating an innovative, immersive experience that holds its place as one of the best games for the SNES and even more so, one of the highest rated games of all time.

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Nearly ten years later, the game was released again for the Gameboy Advance, containing another stand-alone game on the cartridge called the Four Swords. A Link to the Past on this cartridge was updated with a couple changes including sound effects for Link's actions, updated dungeons and characters. A Link to the Past later also became available for purchase on the Wii Virtual Console.