The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Best: All of it

Man, what a banger. A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo is such a haunting escalation of everything the original game built. Who can forget the first time they used the Magic Mirror to warp into the mysterious Dark World? While the first game was a foundation for what was to come, A Link to the Past feels like the game that really solidified what the world of Hyrule was and how the player would navigate its 2D entries. It’s a sublime realization of everything the first game aspired to be.

Worst: The difficulty

A Link to the Past is perfect.

But fine, if you want to nitpick, it’s an early example of the series getting gradually easier as time went on, and compared to the challenge of the first two games, it was kind of a cakewalk. A Link to the Past built on the original Zelda’s mechanics with new gadgets and gizmos at Link’s disposal, but the gradual difficulty curve ended up a bit flat by the end. One Kotaku staffer who wishes to remain anonymous was saddened when they got this most anticipated game at launch, then blew through it in just a day or two. Where’s that second quest?

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