The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

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... 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... 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 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 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 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 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 wrote on 11/12/2016 at 06:10am

Donkey Kong Country! All of those!

scrypt 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 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 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 wrote on 11/12/2016 at 03:33pm

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

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

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

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

And Super Bomberman.

Travis 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 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

WhiteboySlim 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

WhiteboySlim 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 wrote on 11/15/2016 at 11:01pm

Super R-Type!

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

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

jdodson 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 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 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 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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!

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to CSS

"This week, a new release of the popular Zelda game franchise was announced for the Nintendo 3DS. It is to be set in the world of “A Link to the Past”, a game that was released in the early 90’s on the Super Nintendo platform.

It was always my favourite game when growing up, so what better way to celebrate than to recreate part of the opening sequence to the old SNES game using nothing but HTML and CSS?"

I like sharing these projects because its cool to see people doing awesome stuff in HTML and CSS. If you are looking to get into HTML and CSS I recommend you read through the steps of how they made this happen in the browser.

Happy hacking!

http://hop.ie/zelda/... Read All

An Awesome Old Coat: Link To the Past Playthrough

On a lark yesterday I decided to start a game of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I was kind of deciding between games and picked out a classic. At first I thought I might really only play it for a few minutes of nostalgia, but after I beat the intro I decided I was up for more.

As I have been playing more modern indie titles that use pixel-art or try and riff the Zelda motif I have noticed they do quite a good job of harnessing that tone and style. After playing the first bits of Link to the Past these games seem a bit further away from the absolute amazingness of this game in particular. I am not saying modern indie takes on the retro 2D games are... Read All On a lark yesterday I decided to start a game of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I was kind of deciding between games and picked out a classic. At first I thought I might really only play it for a few minutes of nostalgia, but after I beat the intro I decided I was up for more.

As I have been playing more modern indie titles that use pixel-art or try and riff the Zelda motif I have noticed they do quite a good job of harnessing that tone and style. After playing the first bits of Link to the Past these games seem a bit further away from the absolute amazingness of this game in particular. I am not saying modern indie takes on the retro 2D games are bad, far from it. But there is a level of polish with this game that few games achieve and its worth noting that even 22 years later that still comes across strongly.

I never noticed this before, but as I first entered Kakariko Village, the game gives you waypoints of sorts. Zelda didn't invent this perhaps, but I can't remember a ton of games that did this before Zelda and they are super useful. Not that I need them, so far I have completed much on pure reflex memory alone, but they are interesting to see and compare to games made now.

The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past was one of the triple A releases of the day and as such the level of polish and game design is superb. Blowing the game up on my widescreen TV(but in fullscreen aspect ratio of course) I can see more detail than I otherwise did on my ol CRT. Since I am not a barbarian, I don't set the pixels to smooth out and experience the game in all its blocky pixel glory.

The superior game design comes across right at the start of the game in how it guides you along and teaches you the gameplay as you go. Feeding you easy puzzles that teach you the basics as it slightly changes them is a really nice touch. As a kid I flew through the dialog and now find myself reading it more now and taking it in at level I didn't really appreciate as a youngster. Not that the writing is very good, its passable, but I want to soak in more of the game and its interesting to take in the words in a way I haven't before.

My one complaint about the game, if its even a complaint, is the game isn't as deep in lore and story and I would like a bit more. Opting instead to have the player mostly piece the story together based on what they do, the game delivers you a great couch and popcorn experience but I am finding I want a little bit more "Hyrule by campfire."

Before I started the first light world dungeon I had already collected 5 hearts, 2 bottles, the net, bag of magic, bombs and the lantern. As I was coming up to the first dungeon I realized Link was moving rather slowly and one of the things you get after the first dungeon is the boots that allow you to sprint. Again, more absolutely awesome polish here because just as you start to realize you move slowly you get the ability to sprint.

I plan on posting more of my thoughts as I continue my quest through Hyrule. As I was considering what to screenshot for this post I decided to do the flute boy. I couldn't snap the picture with all the animals around the trunk, but got him as he was fading from view. By the end of my first playthrough I completed the first dungeon and just nabbed the icerod. I also am nearly maxxed out on Rupees, those really were fairly plentiful in Link to the Past.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/16/2013 at 06:57pm

You really should mark this as containing spoilers! Sprinting boots?!? Way to ruin the surprise man.

But really, this was such an amazing game! I've been meaning to play through it again as well. I think you're right about the polish vs today's retro games. Back in the day, the paradigm was "How can we make this look as amazing as possible?" They weren't constrained by anything but technology. These days we have so much more potential, limiting ourselves to a "retro" look is quite limiting, and that comes across in some retro style games.

jdodson wrote on 04/16/2013 at 09:18pm

I can be limiting I suppose depending on the game. I think some are just using that style, but Nintendo has certainly moved on for sure.

Spoilers, yeah I guess for some it totally is. Not everyone played this for sure. Especially new gamers.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/17/2013 at 12:19am

lol, I really don't think you should put a spoiler alert for sprint shoes ;)

What I meant about it being limiting is that when creating Zelda, the artists could say "We can use this color *and* this color!" whereas a developer today would say "We can use this color and this color." It's self limiting, which could stifle some creativity. But that's just my theory. I could be totally wrong.

jdodson wrote on 04/17/2013 at 02:05am

I agree. Many of the retro 2D games now days go beyond the original limitations of the SNES and I think that's totally fine. Its the vibe the graphics produce for me, not the limitations of the platform. Then again, art through adversity and all that.

krcDeuce wrote on 04/17/2013 at 09:45pm

I think there are many good reasons why this was #1 on Nintendo Power's list for years.

jdodson wrote on 04/18/2013 at 02:48am

Agreed.

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A few seconds into this video the person taking it asks for

A few seconds into this video the person taking it asks for the Zelda song and Boba Fett plays a song out of Link to the Past. Listening to the song being played by Boba Fett made me smile.

Enjoy.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

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

How To Preserve And Restore Retro Game Boxes

SGDQ Wrap Up Volume II

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

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

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

I Recently Completed Link To The Past Four Swords

Video Game of Thrones: The Legend of Zelda

Make Your Own Zelda Game With The Solarus Project

How To Beat Link to the Past In Under 4 Minutes

May The Way of The Hero Lead To The Triforce!

Dark World Dungeon 2

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to CSS

An Awesome Old Coat: Link To the Past Playthrough

A few seconds into this video the person taking it asks for

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