Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, released in 1991, was the only game in the Zelda series released for the Super Famicom (in Japan) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (in North America and Europe.) It was originally planned for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since Nintendo had a lot of resources at the time, they decided to carry "A Link to the Past" over to the SNES instead. It introduced many of the features of gameplay that are still included in the series to this day, such as trading sequences, multi-level dungeons, a dynamic environment (light and dark worlds), and items such as the Master Sword, the boomerang, and the hookshot. As of now, according to the official word from Nintendo, "A Link to the Past" is chronologically set last in the Legend of Zelda series. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes first in this order.

The music was composed by Koji Kondo. The overworld theme of the original Legend of Zelda, or Hyrule Overture theme, was carried over to A Link to the Past and played in the Light World, redone in SPC700 style. It was also carried over to Super Smash Bros in Nintendo 64 style and Super Smash Bros. Melee in orchestral style.

The name is a pun on the main character of the Legend of Zelda series, Link, who must travel back and forth across time to fulfill his quest.

Technical notes

For the time being, most of SNES games cartridges had 4 Mbit (512 KB) of memory. This game jumped to 8 Mbit (1 MB), which may seem ridiculous since now games require at least 1 CD-ROM (600 MB, approximately). However, the Nintendo development team created a remarkably engrossing world for Link to inhabit.

"A Link to the Past" features 2 fully-explorable worlds; Light World has 4 castles and Dark World has 9. Each castle has from 3 to 8 floors, and each floor has quite a lot of rooms. Moreover, there are many places that expand to bigger maps (usually, through a door or a hole). In short, the game's world is amazingly intrincate.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was ported to Gameboy Advance by Capcom in 2002. The Gameboy Advance version was released in North America first, then Japan. "Four Swords", a new Zelda game specifically designed for multi-player play on the Gameboy Advance, was included with the game.