Over the holidays we’re reposting some select features from the past 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinions and more NL staff and associates, you’ll find our usual mix of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy Holidays!
Let’s set the scene: The year is 1992. You’re sitting in your living room, probably wearing something with massive shoulder pads. Guns N’ Roses are playing on the radio. Social media doesn’t exist yet.
To this peaceful scene we can add a pile of video game magazines, filled with an incredibly large number of large, loud fonts, an interior full of hotlines for help with gaming tips and unusually aggressive advertisements. And, on the cover of one of the 1992 issues, a new game: The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, the third in a series previously only on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
However, this new game promises more color, more story and, unbeknownst to you, a whole new world apart from the Hyrule you know and love. This is the first time a Zelda game has introduced the concept of geographical and/or temporal dichotomy, but let’s be honest — it’s 1992, and you don’t know what any of those words mean. You’re just excited to get a new Zelda SNES game for your birthday and we don’t blame you. Besides, magazines say it is really good.
And now, 30 years later (to the day!) we combed through the magazine archives to find a handful of those magazines, to examine what the gaming world was like back then — and how people really felt about A Link to the Past. It was only the third Zelda game, and even though Zelda was obviously very popular, it wasn’t even close to today’s cultural saturation, where a Zelda game can sell millions in its first week of release and send adults into a tantrum if it’s not exactly what they want.
It’s fascinating not only to look back at the general perception of a game that would eventually make its way onto “greatest of all time” lists, but to see exactly what game critics found useful for their readers in 1992.
Nintendo Magazine System
Nintendo Magazine System, the British mag that would eventually become the official Nintendo Magazine (RIP), has a lot to say about the game in its guide/review with tips:
“Zelda is great… Buy it and you won’t regret it. What you will have is a game of immense depth, excitement, even humor, but above all quality. The quality of design and implementation is what is most striking about Zelda. The graphics are stunning designed to look three-dimensional with brilliant colors and the animation has beautiful details: just witness a lever pull or a fight.
“Putting all the technical wizardry aside, Zelda struck me as a brilliantly crafted adventure. The puzzles are ingenious and challenging, but never too obscure, and there’s a sense that progress is always possible.
“This is one of the few games that rewards exploration, and beneath the exterior there are heaps still waiting to be discovered (by me!).”
– Gus
“It’s always hard to think of things to say about games that are almost perfect… What impressed me the most though was the huge amount of thought that went into the controls. There are an absolute ton of objects to manipulate, people to interact with to talk and the actions to be carried out, and every last one is managed logically and amicably.
“Anyone with even the slightest inclination to explore the RPG adventure genre should grab this one with both hands, and anyone who lacks that inclination needs a brain test.”
-The gap
Abstract:
- Zelda: “A cheeky little girl” who has an “annoying habit of getting caught on a regular basis”
- Hyrule: “Square-shaped land bordered by rocks”
- Graphics: “Great” with “excellent animation” but “maybe…too colorful at times”
- Responsiveness: “Excellent”
- Playfulness: “Engrossing from the start” but “roaming monsters are sometimes an annoying distraction”
- Durability: “This game is absolutely massive…takes weeks or months to complete”
- Difficulties: Medium/Hard
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power’s coverage seems to be mostly focused on how game A link to the past, and also spoiling all the cool secrets. But that’s just the thing — back then, talk of cool powers you’d eventually get, like the ability to swim or move to the Dark World, were just enticing reasons to buy and play the game. That wouldn’t fly today!
Nintendo Power also published a 12-issue LTTP comic alongside the game’s release, from January 1992 to December 1992. The series was illustrated by Shotaro Ishinomori—an influential manga artist who created many tokusatsu series, such as the precursor to Power Rangers, Super Sentaiand massively popular Come Riders. It’s a really cool video game relic, especially for someone who writes about Zelda as much as we do — there’s a bunch of never-before-seen drawings of Link!
While Nintendo Power’s coverage is a bit more “here’s a bomb wall” than “here’s what we think of this game,” there’s still some excellent prose to be found:
“A Link to the Past could be called the ultimate adventure. There’s action for those players who like adventure, mystery for those who like secrets, two worlds to explore, and a story that ties it all together. The quest has only just begun, though it already seems like was a long way.
Link’s path will pass through seven levels of the Dark World and the Golden Pyramid. He will meet unusual friends and face dangers in the Light and Dark worlds before he hears whispers of the terrible name Ganon.”
God Triforce, what an amazing way to describe the game! This makes us want to dig out our own copies and start the game all over again.
Computer and video games
“I didn’t half like the first two Zelda games,” says writer Frank O’Connor in a very British way, saying that he actually really liked the first two Zelda games. – This is a real sight for sore eyes. He goes on to say that “Zelda III,” as it was called, retained the “instantly accessible arcade style of gameplay” while introducing “elements of strategy and adventure.” It’s worth noting that CVG played the game on the Super Famicom in Japanese, which they say is “intimidating” at first, but “all you have to know is the difference between yes and no.”
- Connection: A “little elf” and a “strong fellow” who is “dead brave”
- Zelda: “Smart and sexy little princess” (ew)
- Graphics: 85/100 — “very simple”
- Sounds: 87/100 — “spot-on”, whatever that means
- Playfulness: 90/100
- Durability: 90/100
- Overall score: 89/100
CVG’s review is a bit muted, especially given the modern knowledge that “Zelda III” is considered a masterpiece, but we admire their work on getting the Japanese import up and running early. The other thing about this review is that it’s almost a comical 90s British thing. Look:
“Zelda! For some people this is the definitive RPG and now it’s in its third incarnation on the Super Famicom. The game features the exploits of a little elf named Link. Zelda is a smart and sexy little princess who spends most of her time being kidnapped by evil magicians. It doesn’t cause the end of the problem for the unfortunate Linka, because he is the one who always has to get her out.
Link is a strong guy and dead brave. He must be strong though, because he can carry an incredibly large amount of stuff in his magical pockets…”
The review is one page long, and they spend a lot of time talking about Link’s inventory. We guess they couldn’t really talk about the story, since it was entirely in Japanese…
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Nintendo Player’s Guide
It’s the early 90s, you can’t play a video game without a game guide. Whether you’ve spent hundreds of pounds/dollars/local currency on printer ink and dial-up internet costs to print your own, or managed to convince your parents to spend their hard-earned money on one of the bulky newsstand guides — it’s all the same — but this great , an illustrated guide that is official Nintendo (it even has a seal of quality!) is quite nice.
Plus, just like Nintendo Power, there are even more Zelda images we’ve never seen before!
Super NES Buyer’s Guide
If you own a Super NES (or SNES), you might want to know what’s worth buying. Trick question! The first thing you need to buy is a buying guide, dumbass!
Like Nintendo Power, the Super NES Buyer’s Guide is more of a “how to play” than an actual review, but it seems to give potential players the information they need (difficulty level, format, genre, etc.) and let them make up their own minds. Not exactly a buyer’s guide though, is it? It’s basically just a back-of-the-box claim, and we could only, you know, look at the back of the box. Oh good!
What a lovely trip down memory lane. Nothing shocking, of course – we were kind of hoping for some surprisingly negative review that we could laugh about in hindsight, but of course everyone loved A Link to the Past. It’s not only a great game, it’s been the blueprint for Zelda games ever since. We wouldn’t have Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild without ALTTP, let alone all the other brilliant non-Zelda games that have since been inspired by Link’s Dark World adventures.
Happy 30th Birthday, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. You’ve changed the gaming landscape forever and we love you for it. And thanks for giving us a reason to read old game magazines too.
Give us your Link to the Past and gaming magazine memories in the comments below!
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