The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

NES Complex Link to the Past Retrospective

YouTube personality NESComplex has a Link the Past Retrospective that I wanted to share because.... well firstly because Link to the Past is one of the best games of all time and also because I seemingly can't get enough of these kinds of videos. Want to take a peep back at one of the Zelda series finest? Then clicking play on the video above is for you.

Legend of Zelda Ancient Stone Tablets is The Lost Link To the Past Sequel

Nintendo released a Japanese exclusive follow up to The Legend of Zelda a Link To The Past on the Satellaview. The Satellaview game broadcast went to subscribers over Satellite and Link to the Past Ancient Stone Tablets was one such game that went out to players in 1997. Youtuber AwesomeFaceProd created a really great historical breakdown of the game, the Satellaview and it's history as well as the team of people that brought this rare game to a playable ROM form and translated it. It's nice this game wasn't entirely lost to history and can be enjoyed by players today. I've seen this game pressed on recreation SNES carts and i'm thinking this might be a fun oddity to... Read All

Super Nintendo Buying Guide With Metal Jesus & John Hancock

Metal Jesus has a new video with John Hancock where they cover the Super Nintendo, it's hardware and the games for the system they consider must buys. Nearly all of the games the include in their must buys are included in the SNES Classic but a few weren't such as Actraiser, Chrono Trigger, Biker Mice From Mars, NBA Jam & Mario All Stars. I agree with them on nearly every point but i'd personally put in Sim City, Mario Paint, Romance of the Three Kingdoms II & King Arthurs World.

And in thinking more about it i'd also put in Genghis Khan Clan of the Grey Wolf but like I think i'm the only one of the only people in the US that played that one.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/02/2017 at 01:22pm

I understood Actraiser not being included, as I don't think it was super popular at the time, and the cult following isn't as large as some. But I was a little shocked that Chrono Trigger wasn't in the Classic. Mario All Stars makes a little sense anyway, since those games were included on the NES Classic. NBA Jam was crazy fun, I'd honestly forgotten about it.

I've never even heard of that Genghis Khan game. It looks kinda like a Civ game but you get more hands on with the individual battles? Looks fun!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2017 at 04:09pm

> I've never even heard of that Genghis Khan game. It looks kinda like a Civ game but you get more hands on with the individual battles? Looks fun!

Yeah I was really into KOEI games back then. The only negative was that they were WAY more expensive than normal games back then due to how niche they were. KOEI was the best option for strategy war sim games on the NES/SNES back then and I couldn't get enough. I think I rented Romance II 5+ times because of how much I love that one. Now I have it in box, which was a treat to find and it was WAY less expensive that when it was new.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2017 at 04:10pm

> I understood Actraiser not being included, as I don't think it was super popular at the time, and the cult following isn't as large as some.

I've heard so much about it I really need to play it and to date I haven't.

... adds to list of shame.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/02/2017 at 08:12pm

You know how I feel about it! It's definitely worth a run through.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/03/2017 at 02:10am

Yeah, i'm going to pick it up for sure.

Timogorgon wrote on 11/06/2017 at 04:03am

I've never played Act Raiser either, but heard a lot of good things about it.
I'm pretty surprised Chrono Trigger wasn't included with the SNES classic, but I guess there were already two other Square games included (Mana and FF3).

Mario paint is kind of a weird game. I had plenty of fun with it at the time, but I don't really see much reason to pick it up these days.

Genghis Khan: Clan of the Grey Wolf is definitely a hidden gem on the SNES. So few people know about it, but it was a really fun strategy game!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/07/2017 at 04:07am

> Mario paint is kind of a weird game. I had plenty of fun with it at the time, but I don't really see much reason to pick it up these days.

If you want to make SNES music, it's an interesting option but I agree, it really is an odd game. I am not planning on playing it a ton but I like collecting the strange stuff and that swatter game was better than it should have been.

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Is The RetroN 5 STILL Worth Buying? Metal Jesus Re-Reviews This Mega Retro Console!

"Hyperkin's RetroN 5 continues to be a popular yet decisive retro clone system that has many redeeming qualities...and a few things it needs to improve upon. Metal Jesus & Kelsey give you their honest opinion after using the Retron 5 for several years."

The RetronN 5 is a classic console mega station that allows you to play NES, Famicom, SNES, Super Famicom, Genesis, Mega Drive, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games. I picked up the RetroN 3 to replace a broken NES & Super Nintendo but the RetroN 5 supports WAY more systems and is totally compatible with HDMI outputting your retro games in amazingly crisp HD. Seems like the consensus is it's... Read All

How To Preserve And Restore Retro Game Boxes

Collecting Retro Games is a bit part of preserving video game history for the future. Collectors spend lots of time trading old games keeping this stuff out of the landfill and available for future generations. We've shared retro game preservation videos before about caring for and cleaning game karts but this video focuses on how to restore Super Nintendo boxes. Currently I only have two retro games in box in Kirbys Dreamland and Romance of the Three Kingdoms II and they are in great condition. If I find a box in bad shape, I think i'll come back to this video and see what I can do to make it better.

SGDQ Wrap Up Volume II

Strap in for another installment of some of the coolest speedruns out of this years Summer Games Done Quick starting with an incredible Link to the Past swordless run by Andy completed in 1:14.58! Andy uses every trick in the book to complete this run quickly without a sword and lots of it is glitching out the game to skip areas and get some items out of order. If you are a fan of the game this is a must watch run!

Super Mario Series Warpless Relay Race in 2:47:12 is an epic run of three teams through all of the Super Mario games on the NES ending with Super Mario World. It's a nail biting race and the end is surprising as it was quite close with all teams coming very... Read All

What 30 Games Would You Put On A Super Nintendo Mini?

Now that the NES Classic has launched and is getting incredible reviews I was wondering what we'd all like to see in a future Super Nintendo Mini launch? Curious what games people would put on it and make sure to limit your list to 30 games. Personally I think the Super Nintendo was one of the best consoles of all time and the game catalog is nothing short of incredible. Nintendo might not be able to license out each game on our lists but i'm curious what all our dream lists would be?

Drop your list in the comments and i'll do the same.

GregoPeck Supporter wrote on 11/12/2016 at 04:29am

Difficult to say...All Marios, Tetris Attack, Dr Mario (it's on the SNES right?), All Mortal Kombats, Zelda, Super Metroid, maybe Street Fighter...oh and how could I forget the Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger...

Travis Admin wrote on 11/12/2016 at 04:55am

Super Mario World 1 and 2 obviously, Mario Kart, Mario All-Stars (kinda cheating), Actraiser (required), Actraiser 2 (optional), Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Star Fox, Super Punch Out, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy "2" and "3", NBA Jam, Street Fighter 2 (the kinda ultimate version, whatever it was called), MK1, 2, and UMK 3, Killer Instinct, all 5 of the Mega Man games that aren't soccer games. That's 24.......

Six more copies of Actraiser.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/12/2016 at 05:52am

Not really in an order

1. Link to the Past
2. Starfox
3. Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2
4. Super Mario World
5. Donkey Kong Country
6. Final Fantasy IV
7. Final Fantasy VI
8. Super Street Fighter II Turbo
9. Super Metroid
10. Mario Kart
11. Yoshi's Island
12. Mortal Kombat
13. Super Star Wars
14. Secret of Mana
15. Chrono Trigger
16. Earthbound
17. Super Mario RPG
18. Castlevania IV
19. ActRaiser
20. Zombies ate my Neighbors
21. Simcity 2000
22. Harvest Moon

That's all I could think of but I might be missing something.. oh right.

23. NBA Jam (like Travis said)

GregoPeck Supporter wrote on 11/12/2016 at 06:00am

Hell yeah, guys! I forgot many of them. I agree with NBA Jam, though I think I played it on the Genesis. I remember it being a fun game.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/12/2016 at 06:10am

Donkey Kong Country! All of those!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 11/12/2016 at 12:15pm

I think that's pretty much everything! Putting together a list makes me realize there weren't a ton of great games on those early systems, as compared to the standing army that is our Steam game lists (apples and oranges, I know, but still...).

Travis Admin wrote on 11/12/2016 at 02:45pm

There were 720ish games released for it here, I'm sure there are some great games in there that we've missed, but yeah it was a different time. It seems like there are 720 games released in a month these days.

Also-- I need to add Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 to my list, and the Lion King which was a surprisingly good game.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/12/2016 at 02:49pm

Oh and they would never do it for obvious reasons but: Super Noah's Ark 3D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/12/2016 at 03:33pm

Noah's ark 3D? I'd buy that for a dollar.

Timogorgon wrote on 11/12/2016 at 11:48pm

F-zero! You need to add that to the list.

Timogorgon wrote on 11/13/2016 at 03:14am

And Super Bomberman.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/13/2016 at 01:22pm

Oh yeah! F-zero is a keeper. Never played Super Bomberman but I think I remember people liking it.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/13/2016 at 02:34pm

I'd add:
UN Squadron
Contra 3: The Alien War
Super Castlevania IV

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/13/2016 at 02:36pm

Oh, I see Castlevania IV is already on Jon's list :)

Travis Admin wrote on 11/14/2016 at 04:03am

@Adam is UN Squadron about the United Nations?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/15/2016 at 04:40am

One would think that, but I don't believe it has anything to do with it. I have no idea where the name of the game came from. It's really good though. A tough side scrolling shooter.
https://youtu.be/_B0xfgdPdMQ

Timogorgon wrote on 11/15/2016 at 08:10pm

U.N. Squadron! I forgot about that game but yes, it deserves a place on this list. Wikipedia says it was based on a Manga by the same name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.N._Squadron

Timogorgon wrote on 11/15/2016 at 08:13pm

Since this is a fictional list, I'm going to add a game that was never released in the west: Seiken densetsu III, the sequel to Secret of Mana. It's downright criminal this was never released on SNES back-in-the-day. It's a fun game and it also had the co-op multiplayer aspect.

Will_Ball Game Mod wrote on 11/15/2016 at 11:01pm

Super R-Type!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/16/2016 at 02:58am

Looks like the Famicom Mini is just as popular in Japan http://kotaku.com/1788988883

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/18/2016 at 03:24pm

All but certain Nintendo will do a SNES mini. Some have said they can do them up to the Nintendo 64 and I think I'd buy them all if they did. Not sure it will ship with 30 games but even if they include half of our list it would be awesome.

GregoPeck Supporter wrote on 11/18/2016 at 03:51pm

That would be sweet!!! Still it'd be sweeter if we could have more games available for each system.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/18/2016 at 04:07pm

I would get the SNES and N64 mini in half a heartbeat because I don't have nearly as many of those games in my collection.

Will_Ball Game Mod wrote on 11/18/2016 at 04:22pm

The mini snes might be worth it given the high resale value of existing games. It could be a good deal!

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Want a New Challenge For Link To The Past? Try The Link To The Past Randomizer!

If you have played The Legend of Zelda Link to the Past inside and out and are looking for something new you might want to download the Link to the Past Item Randomizer. It's a Windows program that generates you an unique ROM that randomizes all the items in the game among all in game chests. The first chest you open might contain the Master Sword or the Hookshot but since it's random, you never really know till you open it. It's a cool speedrunning project to give the community something new to challenge themselves and also memorize the location of nearly all the in game chests and how to get to them.

"This is a simple program that moves around items in the Legend of... Read All

Are You Down With Zelda? The Most 90's Rap About One Of The Best Zelda Titles Around.

"Down with Zelda from the very start, I got the heart it's smart to play the part. Down with Zelda! Creepin' through with an overhead view because a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. So I stay on track collect the fact, never cut slack and I always watch my back for Jack. Down with Zelda! Don't ask them because i'm the man with the plan because the power's in my head and the power's in my hand. Down with Zelda!"

If you didn't understand 90's colloquially and didn't watch the video you might think this person want's to take Zelda down but these kinds of videos are so uniquely 90's you can't make them up. Like any Nintendo commercial from the 90's I remember this one... Read All

I Recently Completed Link To The Past Four Swords

At Portland Retro Gaming Expo I picked up a new Gameboy Advance alongside Zelda: Four Swords & Link to the Past Advance. Originally I wanted to play a few original Gameboy titles but couldn't because of battery save issues so I decided to play Link to the Past instead. If you grew up in the SNES era, you've played Link to the Past. I didn't know the game could be improved but the simple act of playing it on a handheld made the experience that much better. It's still the same game I remember but being able to play it anywhere I want is so much better. The game isn't as long as I remember nor are the dungeons as annoying as I remember some being. Because I only had... Read All

Video Game of Thrones: The Legend of Zelda

Game of Thrones intro done with the art of Link to the Past? Apparently it happened and you can watch it.

Make Your Own Zelda Game With The Solarus Project

Solarus is an Open Source Zelda-like 2D game engine. The Solarus engine was built to help people create Zelda like games and the Solarus project released its first game "Zelda Mystery of Solarus" with it.

"The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Solarus DX is set to be a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES, using the same graphics and game mechanisms. Zelda Mystery of Solarus DX is the first game made with the Solarus engine and in fact, Solarus was primarily designed for this game."

If you are interested in making your own Zelda game or if you are just interested in playing a fan Zelda game directly after the events of Link to the Past, give... Read All

How To Beat Link to the Past In Under 4 Minutes

I have added learning this speedrun to my list of awesome things I need to do before the year is over. It's not too hard to do and is pretty incredible.

If I had more time, I always thought getting pretty heavy into speed running would be a fun thing to do. I imagine the joy of finding a new faster way to beat a game would be pretty incredible.

May The Way of The Hero Lead To The Triforce!

If you have noticed a bit of a dip in my posting on the site its because I was on vacation for the last week. One of the games I took with me to play on my trip was The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past. Its a pretty good game to pickup and play in short bursts as the dungeons are not very long to complete. In my most recent play through I tackled the last two dark world dungeons before the one on the mountain.

I have been playing the dungeons mostly out of order as the game isn't very rigid with how you play them save a few cases. For instance, you need the fire rod to enter the ice world dungeon. That said, during my play through of the ice dungeon I remembered why... Read All If you have noticed a bit of a dip in my posting on the site its because I was on vacation for the last week. One of the games I took with me to play on my trip was The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past. Its a pretty good game to pickup and play in short bursts as the dungeons are not very long to complete. In my most recent play through I tackled the last two dark world dungeons before the one on the mountain.

I have been playing the dungeons mostly out of order as the game isn't very rigid with how you play them save a few cases. For instance, you need the fire rod to enter the ice world dungeon. That said, during my play through of the ice dungeon I remembered why I tackle the swamp dungeon where you get the Cane of Samaria first. In the Ice World dungeon at one point you must drop blocks down to a earlier floor to push on a pressure plate to open a door. The steps you need to take to do this are annoying BUT the game allows you a way out by using the Cane of Somaria. Always wondered if this was an intentional design choice Nintendo made or if it was just happenstance. That said, I came to the part where I needed to drop the block to continue and I left the dungeon and went to the Dungeon where you obtain the cane and beat that. After I nabbed the Cane and beat the Dungeon I went back and completed the Ice Dungeon.

I wish more games allowed you choices to skip annoying parts in games. For instance, I wish I could push the "please let me bypass the grind" in Borderlands 2 to speed up to the interesting story missions. Its not really practical to do that because the game is fairly hard if you don't grind to level up your character. I used to lament the loss of games that take 60 hours to complete but more often that not nowdays it just means 40 hours of boring content. And if you really think about it, Link to the Past isn't a 60 hour game. I may have spent more than 60 hours playing it through multiple times but one can easily complete the game in 20 hours or so. Getting a ton of enjoyment out of a game doesn't mean the game has to be long as hell it needs to just be compelling enough to come back to.

Which is one of the cool things I am starting to notice about classics like The Legend of Zelda compared to more modern AAA games. The fun and interesting game play make me come back year after year, not a 4,000 hour single player grind-fest.

http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Cane_of_Somaria

P.S. Does anyone know of a use for Rupees in Link to the Past? Besides buying the flippers, nothing seems useful to buy. I load my bottles up with faeries and since there is a pretty good amount of magic and heart drops I don't think blue potions are that useful.

Dark World Dungeon 2

The game I am currently playing is The Legend of Zelda Link to the Past and I decided to make a video of me playing the Dark World Dungeon 2. As I explain in the video, I tackle Dark World Dungeons in the order of 1, 4 then 2. After that I usually hit up the ice level as I find that quite a bit of fun. I may capture the remaining levels and post them depending on time and interest by all you lovely people.

It has been __YEARS__ since I last played Link to the Past so my run has a few back tracking moments. That said, this game is still very fun and am really enjoying my time with it.

Happy Retro Tuesday!