Here’s a question literally nobody would ever ask, why did I even want to play A Link to the Past? This right here is the answer. Pure randomizer goodness baby, except when the seed I played was total trash. Seriously, who expects me to do suitless Maridia to get to Mama Turtle without hi-jump because fuck you, the answer is me and I did it just to prove myself and I feel SO damn good about finishing that seed. I’m just that amazing at Super Metroid.

I seriously love randomizers. Over the past couple months I’ve been playing tons of Super Metroid randos, solo and multiworld. SMZ3 always interested me and thanks to a certain friend invading my home, I finally forced myself to play A Link to the Past. Good game on its own, but I think it shines most in randomizer, especially when paired here with Super Metroid. It deepens both games immensely, not just because items from Super Metroid can be in ALTTP and vice versa, but also due to the routing opportunities it creates. Sometimes to get to where you want to go in Super Metroid, it can be faster to go through ALTTP for example. Or the fact that you can get to Misery Mire through Lower Norfair, negating the need for the Flute or the Titan’s Mitts. This is a huge rec if you’re at all experienced with both of these games, turning both on their head and giving a really fresh experience both randos alone might not provide.

Rest of this is a sort of diary on how my first seed of this went, so if you’re uninterested you can stop right here!

For reference, my settings were hard logic for Super Metroid, sword and morph anywhere, and 4 crystals needed to open Ganon’s Tower. If you’re a Super Metroid veteran like I am, these are the best settings for you and might even give you a nice challenge as it did me! Also, definitely use a tracker. A link to the past is insanely difficult to deal with without one.

The game always starts in super metroid, and I really didn’t get much there, so off it was to ALTTP. And so began an hour and a half long hunt for Morph, which I found at the buried flute spot, one of the last places I could have checked. Past this dogshit start (as my friend in call with me at the time called it), it was pretty smooth sailing for a bit. That was until I ran out of checks to do in both Super Metroid and ALTTP, or so I thought. My only choice was one I hadn’t considered, being Maridia, suitless and hi-jumpless. And so began my hour of pain, trying to get to Mama Turtle while freezing crabs and fish and doing precise springball double jumps to climb to the top of Main Street. Once I got there, grabbing the Magic Mirror was trivial. What wasn’t trivial, however, was the exit from mama turtle. Only having 75 health and no gravity suit, any hit would kill me, and considering plasma was behind the Master Sword check (hilarious by the way), I had no ability to kill the pink pirates. Needless to say, I died. A lot. Spending so long trying different jumps to get out of the literal hole I was stuck in. Finally, I escaped the hole and at that point, I was basically in go mode. All I had to do was find a couple more items, which all happened to be easily accessible behind the Magic Mirror. Finding Gravity Suit was basically the last big hurdle to get over, and it was found quite easily once I had Speed Booster from King’s Tomb in ALTTP. I finished Super Metroid first, and then finished ALTTP. I’m seriously proud of myself for pulling through that suitless maridia bullshit, I didn’t know I had that level of skill at SM, and being able to realize that was honestly great, and I felt really accomplished when I finished the seed after like. 8 hours. Here are my results if you're curious!

I don’t like the sentiment that this game was “What Xenoblade 3 Should Have Been”. This game feels largely like a nostalgia-fest-y victory lap while also trying to be a full fledged game (and it succeeds in that!), and quite honestly I feel like wanting this first would have gone very much against Xenoblade 3’s message of moving on from the “Endless Now”. Thankfully aside from that one gripe with the sentiments, I’m by no means immune to nostalgia-fests! Every little reference and location and nod warmed my heart, and speaking of heartwarming SHULKDAD!!!! God I loved seeing the parents interact with their kids, even Rex who I’m not especially fond of elsewhere, I was pretty fond of in this game. Matthew and A are a fantastic duo as well as great characters individually, I love how Matthew is this sorta dumbass (lovingly) hyperactive guy, love him so much. A is my genderfuck monarch and I love A with all my heart, perfect char. Nikol and Glimmer as said earlier, in addition to being great in their own right, I loooove their relationships with Shulk and Rex so damn much. Great story of course as well, even if I feel like it could have used a bit more room to breathe. Combat I feel is pretty alright as well, they did a pretty good job differentiating it from 3’s, which was something I was a bit worried about. Major issue with it is that the defense classes can’t keep aggro for shit, especially with how overpowered Rex is (SPIN TO WIN). But yeah! Overall I loved this dlc, it stands pretty well among its peers in the series and despite how I felt for a bit in the middle, it worked its way into my heart pretty dang well. Love you, Xenoblade <3

Intensely conflicting game for me… I have a deep love for Little Big Planet when I was a kid that would play it with my brother all the time for a couple years. So seeing Sackboy placed on what’s a “just okay” 3D platformer kinda set me off at first. But at the same time, god this has the feel I really wanted it to! It really does feel like an LBP story mode, something that's been severely lacking in the world ever since LBP3. It has that soul of the series there, at least a little bit. The world is of course amazingly crafted, and it definitely does feel like an LBP game… one without creative aspects outside of character customization. I guess I just want a Little Big Planet game again, and this at least kinda looks and feels like an LBP story… but that’s really the only big positive.