A Link to the Past Part 2: No hearts, no fairies, no service.

Let's start from the top of the game. It's pretty standard Zelda - you enter your name of choice, then a scene opens of Link sleeping in his house. He receives a telepathic message from Princess Zelda asking for help, his uncle tells him to stay in bed while he handles the situation, and Link totally ignores him and follows.

The first thing that really struck me about this game happened as soon as I walked outside of Link's house. The ambiance. There's rain, thunder and lightning, and foreboding music. I can't begin to express how big of a jump up this is from the previous games in the series, both of which had all the ambiance of an awkward dinner with your least favorite side of the family. Every dungeon has its own unique theme and looks completely different from any other dungeon in the game. One dungeon, for example, is extremely creepy and made largely of skeletons, while another is an icy palace covered in tiles which make Link slip all over the place, adding difficulty. My favorite dungeon takes place in a tower - many of the puzzles in it involve jumping down floors to land in the right spots, which is frustrating but fun.

The graphics, for 1991, were absolutely astonishing. There are games that were made at the end of the SNES's life that this game easily rivals in appearance, thanks largely to excellent graphical direction from the Zelda team. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, look to the right for a screenshot from a game released in the same year, Final Fantasy IV. There's really no comparison.

The musical score is vastly superior to either of its predecessors. One track in particular, the Dark World overworld theme, stands in my mind as one of the greatest video game tunes ever composed. There's a separate tune for dungeons in the Light World and the Dark World, as well as unique tracks for special areas on the map - the Lost Woods, Fairy Fountains, Kakariko Village, and Hyrule Castle. There is, of course, also the classic Zelda tune for the Light World map, as well as a special track for the end of the game and the final boss battle with Ganon.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty of it, the gameplay changed a lot from Zelda II. Nintendo (wisely, in my opinion) ditched the side-scrolling aesthetic of the previous game in favor of the top-down view they used for the first Zelda. Swordplay is much easier due to the fact that rather than just stabbing, Link's sword now slashes in a semi-circle in front. Link can now run diagonally, sprint, and pick up and throw bombs. Rather than needing to duck up and down to use the shield like in Zelda II, the shield acts automatically as long as you're facing in the right direction.

Arrows in this game are exhaustible, just like bombs, and both drop WAY more frequently from random enemies and pots. It's much easier to regain health than in the previous games - there are extra hearts lying around pretty much anywhere, and enemies drop them often. This Zelda also added a familiar helping hand - the heart piece. These are optional items that you can collect throughout the game. If you collect four, Link's heart meter goes up by one. Heart pieces became a standby in almost every Zelda game afterwards. There are three magic spells that you can collect in the game, all of which are necessary to open the way to different parts of the adventure. They're all attack spells, and while they use a LOT of MP, they can be really helpful in certain situations.

This game features the very first appearance of the Master Sword, and like in the original Zelda, Link can shoot projectiles from it when he's at full health. Unlike in the original, though, he shoots beams of energy instead of weird little sword things. These are awesome and kick everybody's ass from a long way away. You can also now catch helpful fairies in a bottle, which will revive you from death! Hooray! These are standbys of the series, and have probably saved every single modern Zelda fan's ass at least once.

The bosses in this game are incredibly difficult - they require a lot more strategy than in any of the previous games. Unlike in the first game, it's not about surviving the enemies in the dungeon to get to the boss. You have to survive the many traps and pitfalls in the dungeon this time; the enemies are really just decoration.

In summary, A Link to the Past added pretty much everything to the series that we recognize about it today. Anything that you might mention as gameplay elements that are distinctly Zelda-like probably either came to fruition here, or was developed for this game. Rather than being frustratingly hard, A Link to the Past is a brain-teaser which will keep you thinking and provides real satisfaction whenever you figure anything out.

Next post: the review. Watch for it.