December 3, 2002 - On the surface, it looks like Nintendo went the cheap way out by simply converting the admittedly outstanding Super NES adventure The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to the Game Boy Advance as the system's first official Zelda product, pretty much pixel-for-pixel in graphics and note-for-note in sound. It's a fantastic game in its own right, but the GBA has proven time and again that it has significantly more potential in capabilities than the Super NES ever did, and a conversion of an early generation 16-bit title hardly impresses on a technical scale. But put that thinking aside, because the developers didn't just put out a simple port for Zelda fans; the secondary selling point of the game cartridge, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords is a deep, thoroughly designed, and absolutely fun multiplayer experience that's based around the established Zelda gameplay mechanics. It's here that the cartridge really shines, and makes the purchase of the game an absolute necessity for Zelda fanatics and GBA owners alike.

Features

  • Accurate portable conversion of the SNES A Link to the Past
  • Multiplayer-only original adventure Four Swords
  • Cartridge save (three slots)
  • Link cable support for four players (multiple cartridge)
  • Future connection with Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker GameCube
  • Only for Game Boy Advance
All Zelda fans should know exactly what they're getting into with the Game Boy Advance conversion of A Link to the Past. The original game released back in 1993 for the Super NES is still revered as one of the best games released in the series, even among the more recent 3D releases on the Nintendo 64 system. The game takes place way early in the admittedly wonky Legend of Zelda chronology. As the elfish adventurer Link, players head off into the huge overworld to rescue the princess Zelda from the castle dungeon; as players save her from the lock-down, they learn that an evil wizard Agahnim has put the land under a cursed spell, and it's up to Link to grab the Master Sword and break it. But anyone who is familiar with the story, or Legend of Zelda games in general know that this is only the beginning of the adventure...

The Game Boy Advance game is a 100% accurate port of the Super NES game, right down to the pixel. The GBA game uses all of the original art assets from the game released in 1993 for its graphics, which admittedly look a bit dated to today's standards and what the GBA can actually pull off. But it remains extremely faithful to the original, which will definitely please videogame purists; any slight alteration of the original game and you could definitely hear all the fanboy comparisons to the original SNES version. The only real changes in gameplay are alterations on where certain non-essential objects are located; a tree that always dropped a rupee gem when rammed now unleashes a fairy, which eliminates the exploitation of unlimited funds from the original game. And, of course, the screen resolution means that the GBA has to scroll a bit more than the Super NES version did, but the original SNES game didn't require any real long-distance action, so this "cropping" does not hinder gameplay at all.

And while the music isn't quite as "crisp" on the GBA system, the handheld hardware does a wonderful job pulling off all the audio from the classic. But, just as Nintendo couldn't leave the past Super Mario games alone, the company insisted on adding to the sound effects by giving Link grunts, shouts, and yells, lifted from the samples used in the previous N64 adventures. It would have been a decent inclusion had it been used sparingly, but man, it gets annoying when every slash of the sword results in an audible grunt from Link. Every single one. It's cool that Link now lets out a yelp when he falls off a ledge or bites the big one, but a shout every single time he uses his sword? Yes, after about five hours into the quest your mind may grow used to this sound effect, but as it stands, the developers should have gone easy on the Link yelps.

But it's the gameplay that matters, and even today Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past holds its own as one of the best-designed action-adventure games ever created. For those not quite familiar with the way the Zelda design works, A Link to the Past features a huge overworld with several dungeons in which players will have to shove boxes, trigger switches, and destroy enemies in order to progress to the end where a very large boss creature sits and waits to crush Link into a pulp. These dungeons are pretty much the core of the Zelda gameplay, and it's these areas that give the game most its challenge. Each dungeon (there are at least a dozen of them in A Link to the Past are both extremely fun and, in many cases, extremely frustrating...but in an amusing sort of way. This game was the first Zelda game to utilize alternate-world travel; players will have to hop back and forth between the light and dark world to solve puzzles and get through certain challenges. There are times that, yes, you'll get stuck, so taking a step back to figure out the best (and usually only) course of action in the specific area is definitely encouraged. When all is said and done, A Link to the Past is a lengthy 20 to 30 hour adventure for folks who don't remember every little element from the SNES version. Those with the upper hand with prior knowledge of the classic adventure can probably breeze through it in a dozen. But whether you're a newbie or veteran, you ain't seen nothin' yet.