LogFAQs > #951381891

8. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1992)
May the way of the Hero lead to the Triforce.

In the Link's Awakening writeup, I rambled a bit about how my favorite Zelda game can swing from time to time based on what kind of game I'm looking for at a given point. Wind Waker has my favorite atmosphere, Link's Awakening has my favorite story, and both A Link Between Worlds and Ocarina of Time are really strong. But A Link to the Past is the one that I can break out, at any point, and have a blast. It moves along at a great pace, it's got a great selection of items and variety of enemies, and a decent level of difficulty that isn't overwhelming or exhausting. It basically set the standards for every Zelda game to come after it until Breath of the Wild; for Zelda, Link to the Past is the series' Super Metroid - it builds off the concept of its predecessors but brings it to a modern design philosophy that not only shaped the rest of its series but its overall genre, for decades to come.
Link to the Past establishes the structure that would come to be associated with Zelda, breaking from the more aggressively non-linear and open-ended "where the f*** do I go?" philosophy of Zeldas 1 and 2 for the NES. The very opening of the game is basically a tutorial sequence introducing you to the gameplay and dungeon structure while generating atmosphere by playing out the opening beats of the story in real time, set to the backdrop of a dark and stormy night. It showcases its flashy 16-bit graphics while redefining what exactly a Zelda game is. And like I've said, it seems so rote nowadays because this is the Zelda that made the standard - it hits all of those notes perfectly.
And the game is just stuffed full of...stuff. I don't think it's a flaw of Zelda 1 or anything, but I always get the feeling that the overarching sense of mystery and uncertainty and lack of direction was to pad the fact that it's not a particularly huge game with tons of variety - there's lots of screens and 9 dungeons, but they're fairly samey most of the time - and is meant to pad the game's length with its cryptic nature. ALttP is just crammed full of stuff - there's 11 full dungeons (and 1/2 more if you're counting Hyrule Castle) each with their own unique themes, structure, and bosses. You have an overworld full of varied areas and caves with secrets and treasures - and a second one, as A Link to the Past's Dark World was a clever way to add game length and variety to the experience, while also hiding its own set of secrets within the parallel universes. And it's a testament to how good the concept was that its been borrowed by other game series (Hi, Symphony of the Night inverted castle and Metroid Prime 2 Dark Aether) to solid effect as well. There's also a great set of items here (one of the absolute best in the series), both classic (bow, boomerang, hookshot, hammer) and original (Ice and Fire rods, Cane of Somaria, Quake/Ether/Bombos medallions, and many others) that have a ton of useability - they don't feel like they exist solely to solve a couple of puzzles, but can be employed against all manner of enemies and scenarios.
I want to make note of the recently-popular Link to the Past Randomizer, a custom mod of the game that shuffles around all the game's items (or items or entrances or whatever else, if you're brave enough), using logic to ensure it can be completed. It's both a huge portion of my own enjoyment of the game (I'm not good or fast, but I've done at least 10+ seeds in the 4 years since I've discovered it) and a testament to the quality of the original. As I said before, the items are top-notch, and getting them at different times in the game lets you discover creative and novel ways to use them. And the game's structure feels enhanced, not weakened, by the possible differences in order of dungeons and secrets when you're getting everything in a different order.
A Link to the Past is just one of those games that nails everything - the story and atmosphere are straightforward but handled expertly; the amount of options and variety in the game is outstanding for a game of its time, and still holds up excellently today; the gameplay is sharp and the control is fluid and natural. I remember discussing "greatest games of all time" with a friend of mine (who happens to be a World Record Cuphead speedrunner) a few years back, trying to come up with a relatively objective answer to the age old question, and when he quickly threw out A Link to the Past, I found it hard to argue. It broke ground, it does everything well, and it plays so smoothly and easily. While the rest of my list are games I have a more personal connection to, and I tend to favor more intimate experiences when doing this ranking, I still couldn't put ALttP any lower than this, and that, for me, feels like the truest testament to just how damn great it is.

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it's an underwater adventure ride