The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The adventure is long, involving, challenging and presented to perfection with beautiful graphics and a stunning soundtrack.

"Four Swords" is the perfect multiplayer Zelda game. It combines amazing cooperative gameplay with competitive gameplay at the same time. The end result is a multiplayer game like no other.

A flawless masterpiece, Link to the Past drastically improved upon its predecessors by introducing a more linear framework for the player to explore (rather than the vast open-endedness of the two previous games), a better interface and controls, and dungeon puzzles and layouts designed in such a manner that can only be called perfect.

A thoughtful, huge, rewarding classic.

A long, challenging quest that holds up well to repeated play. Younger players who never had a SNES will find this game an excellent warm-up for the soon-to-be-released "Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker" for the GameCube.

A Link to the Past is one of the best SNES games ever made, and it's found a new home on GBA, losing absolutely nothing in the translation. [Dec 2002, p.93]

The puzzles are still clever, the dungeons are still brilliantly laid out, the control is spot-on, and the graphics still look sweet. [Jan 2003, p.64]

Four Swords is the perfect multiplayer Zelda game. It combines amazing cooperative gameplay with competitive gameplay at the same time. The end result is a multiplayer game like no other. You’ll be up with your friends late into the night trying to save the Princess in this four-player frenzy.

Incredible level design. [Dec 2002, p.222]

Four Swords is Nintendo's way of giving gamers something completely new and different in the Zelda environment, and it's one heck of a good time in each play through.

While Zelda Advance is really two games on one cartridge, each is brilliant and very solid in its own right.

There are certain games that come along, a few very generation, and they are the pinnacle of a genre, or an ideal. Such is A Link to the Past. The game is as close to flawless as is humanly possible.

"Four Swords" is the most fun I've ever had with a four-player GBA game. [Jan 2003, p.212]

So much fun that you'll play 'til the batteries run out. You simply cannot miss this game. [Spring 2003, p.28]

This is a great opportunity for old schoolers to enjoy some excellent nostalgia (while kicking friends around in Four Swords) and new schoolers to partake in one of the greatest adventures of all time (er, while kicking friends around in Four Swords).

By coupling one of the memorable SNES games ever released with an incredibly novel and addictive multiplayer mode, this version of A Link to the Past is an extraordinary game with awesome replay value.

This title is the definition of perfect pacing. [Jan 2003, p.121]

A great handheld port of one of the greatest games ever released for Nintendo's 16-bit system.

A huge 30 hours-plus adventure but it never feels intimidatingly big. Whether you're a games novice or geriatric you'll be able to play it. [NGC]

Not having to dig out the SNES and clean out the cartridge port is nice enough, but to play this classic game on the bus? Pure Nirvana. [Feb 2003, p.74]

Although A Link to the Past represents some of the most fabulous game designs you're ever likely to see, it also suffers from some criminally unforgiving sections that today's gamer-on-the-go is likely to scoff at. Not quite the vision of perfection that it once seemed to be.

A classic no matter the platform.

To the untrained eye, the Link To The Past cartridge may well appear to be nothing more than another videogame for kids and others who refuse to grow out of childhood. However, it is much more than that, being as worthy a narrative as many popular books out there can be.

From finding all the unique items to helping a boy stuck between the worlds to rescuing all the maidens to finding out who is behind everything, the game has tons of adventure to spare. This is simply one of the must-haves for the GBA.

This new type of multiplayer is worth the purchase of the game itself but the only down fall is trying to find another player (or three) that owns a copy of the game.

A must-have title that, if nothing else, represents the missing "link" of Nintendo classics destined to appear on the color handheld.

But the most amazing feature is that an entirely new game has been added. It's a multi-player game that is worth the price of admission alone. It's more than Gauntlet and it's not just another Deathmatch, it's a stand-alone game that makes this one of the best GBA buys in history.

While Mario has aged well, A Link to the Past feels a little old. Unlike other GBA ports, the game definitely shows its age graphically, especially when compared to Four Swords.