A Link to the Past: Oh my God, it's actually fantastic.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Triforce of the Gods in Japan)
Original Release: Nov. 21, 1991
Game #: 3
Chronologically: #8, Young Link timeline

After a long, four-year hiatus, Zelda reappeared once again on the Super Nintendo. Nintendo's new console was far superior in every way to the NES, allowing for graphics and a new complexity of gameplay that awed the anti-social basement dwellers of the time. A Link to the Past was released in Japan almost exactly a year after the SNES emerged in Japan, making it one of the first big-ticket games that this new gaming generation would experience.

In the production of A Link to the Past, the original team from The Legend of Zelda were back with a vengeance. Technology had finally caught up with their vision of what they wanted the original Zelda to be, and they used the new power of the SNES to make that vision a reality. Many gamers today still consider A Link to the Past to be the true sequel to The Legend of Zelda, as the Adventure of Link was produced by an entirely different team with a distinctly different feel. The game itself was almost twice as big as the average SNES game at the time, taking up a 1MB cartridge all to itself. This allowed for a vast, expansive world to explore, as well as a much larger soundtrack.

A Link to the Past is, I think, the very first modern Zelda game and the oldest one which I would recommend anyone play. It introduced several of the Zelda standbys which modern gamers recognize - three introductory dungeons, sidequests, the first appearance of the full triforce (all three pieces), the first Zelda 'gimmick' (in this game, two parallel worlds) - and technology had progressed to the point where, for the first time, complex and even challenging puzzles were possible. A Link to the Past was immediately successful, and to this day has sold over 4 million copies. It has been re-released on both the GBA and the Wii's Virtual Console.

For the first time in a Legend of Zelda game, a significantly more complex (although very familiar to today's gamer) plot was introduced. From Wikipedia:

"A young boy named Link is awakened by a telepathic message from Princess Zelda, who says that she is locked in the dungeon of Hyrule Castle. As the message closes, Link finds his uncle ready for battle, telling Link to remain in bed. After his uncle leaves, however, Link ignores his uncle's command and follows him to Hyrule Castle. When he arrives, he finds his uncle seriously wounded. Link's uncle tells Link to rescue Princess Zelda from her prison, giving him a sword and shield. After his uncle dies, Link navigates the castle and rescues Zelda from her cell, and the two escape into a secret passage through the sewers that leads to a sanctuary.

Link is told by a man in the sanctuary that Agahnim, a wizard who has usurped the throne, is planning to break a seal made hundreds of years ago by the Seven Sages. The seal was placed to imprison a dark wizard named Ganon in the Dark World, which was once the Sacred Realm before Ganon invaded, obtained the legendary Triforce and used its power to turn the realm into a land of darkness. Agahnim intends to break the seal by sending the descendants of the Seven Sages who made the seal into the Dark World. The only thing that can defeat him is the Master Sword, a sword forged to combat evil.

To prove that he is worthy to wield it, Link needs three magic pendants. After retrieving the pendants, Link takes them to the resting place of the Master Sword. As Link draws the sword from its pedestal, Zelda telepathically calls him to the Sanctuary, informing him that soldiers of Hyrule Castle have arrived. Link arrives at the Sanctuary moments after the soldiers have vacated, where he learns from the dying man that Zelda has been taken to Hyrule Castle. Link goes to rescue her but arrives too late; Agahnim sends Zelda to the Dark World. Link then defeats Agahnim in battle but is subsequently also sent to the Dark World.

To save Hyrule, Link is required to rescue the seven descendants of the Seven Sages from dungeons scattered across the Dark World. Once the seven maidens are freed, they use their power to break the barrier around Ganon's Tower, where Link faces Agahnim again. After Link battles Agahnim for a second time, Ganon rises up from Agahnim's body, turns into a bat, and flies away. Link chases him, finally confronting him inside the Pyramid of Power in the Dark World. After a battle resulting in Ganon's demise, Link touches the Triforce and restores Hyrule to how it was before Ganon intervened."

As you can tell, the plot is very similar to later games like Ocarina of Time (seven sages, Ganon has an alterego, Sacred Realm, etc.) but for 1991, this was a very impressive amount of plot for what was essentially a puzzle/adventure game. It doesn't compare with the plot of some of its contemporaries (Final Fantasy IV, for example) but it still stands up as a classic of gaming storytelling.

There's your introduction to Link to the Past! My next post will highlight some of the features of the game in more depth, followed by a review. I promise it won't take four months this time. Seriously.