This game presents a lot of interesting and great ideas, but they're all hidden behind hours and hours and hours of tedious tests of patience. A Link to the Past is largely held back by a lack of modern conveniences, as well as general lack of direction. I think this game is great for children who have countless hours to spend walking around and exploring Hyrule, but as someone who has played any Zelda game that came out after this, it is a slog to get through. The dungeons are generally annoying to sift through, the Dark World is boring and annoying to traverse, the Light World is effectively a giant time waster once you finish three dungeons. There are only a couple of good dungeons in the game, and unfortunately they're the last ones and are still ridden with various issues the other dungeons (and the rest of the game) contain. I think the good ideas this game presents are done far better in later titles, so I really recommend only playing this if you want to play every Zelda game or if you haven't played one yet and want to see what all the hubbub is about.

Reviewed on Mar 14, 2021


3 Comments


6 months ago

Interesting review! Would you recommend a similar but better Zelda game for someone who didn't like this one?

6 months ago

@kujin I personally really liked Minish Cap and Link Between Worlds. LBW is super super similar to this in a lot of ways, but I think it's more palatable to the modern era. Minish Cap has a lot of different flaws that I think slow the game down a lot, but I have a soft spot for it. If you want 3D you can't go wrong with Ocarina of Time, and I'm also partial to Wind Waker.

6 months ago

@WubGaming thanks!