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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)

Nintendo EAD

New Nintendo 3DS · Satellaview · Super Famicom · Super Nintendo Entertainment System · Wii · Wii U

4.41 from 4491 ratings · #55 top rated on Grouvee

8810 members have it in their collection · 408 playing now · 1955 backlogged · 995 wish listed

How long? Main story 15h · with extras 17h · 100% 15h (from 49 logged playthroughs)

Venture back to Hyrule and an age of magic and heroes. The predecessors of Link and Zelda face monsters on the march when a menacing magician takes over the kingdom. Only you can prevent his evil plot from shattering the land of Hyrule. In your quest, you'll venture into twisting mazes, dungeons, palaces and shadowy forests. Test your mettle with … Read more
Venture back to Hyrule and an age of magic and heroes. The predecessors of Link and Zelda face monsters on the march when a menacing magician takes over the kingdom. Only you can prevent his evil plot from shattering the land of Hyrule. In your quest, you'll venture into twisting mazes, dungeons, palaces and shadowy forests. Test your mettle with mighty swords and magical weapons. Or heft a boulder and hurl it at your enemies. If the going gets tough, dive into a river - you can swim to escape! Learn powerful spells, locate magical artifacts and solve the mysteries of the evil magician and the hidden realm of Hyrule. Read less
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Details

Developers
Nintendo EAD
Publishers
Gradiente, Hyundai, Nintendo, Playtronic, St. GIGA
Genres
Adventure, Puzzle
Themes
Action, Fantasy
Franchises
The Legend of Zelda
Series
The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Release dates

  • Nov 21, 1991 (Full Release) (Japan) Super Famicom
  • Apr 13, 1992 (Full Release) (North_America) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Sep 24, 1992 (Full Release) (Europe) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  • 1992 (Full Release) (Korea) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Aug 30, 1993 (Full Release) (Brazil) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Mar 02, 1997 (Full Release) (Japan) Satellaview
  • Dec 02, 2006 (Full Release) (Japan) Wii
  • Jan 22, 2007 (Full Release) (North_America) Wii
  • Mar 23, 2007 (Full Release) (Australia) Wii
  • Mar 23, 2007 (Full Release) (Europe) Wii
  • Jun 10, 2008 (Early Access) (Korea) Wii
  • Dec 12, 2013 (Full Release) (Europe) Wii U
  • Jan 30, 2014 (Full Release) (North_America) Wii U
  • Feb 12, 2014 (Full Release) (Japan) Wii U
  • Mar 04, 2016 (Full Release) (Japan) New Nintendo 3DS
  • Mar 10, 2016 (Full Release) (Europe) New Nintendo 3DS
  • Apr 14, 2016 (Full Release) (North_America) New Nintendo 3DS

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Featured in lists

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Vote on Grouvee's Favorite Nintendo Games! by shinespark · 25 games · 4
Decompilation/Recompilation Projects by DucksOnQuack · 24 games · 4
The Legend of Zelda - Ranked by lingsdook · 33 games · 3
1990's Games by Roach · 140 games · 2
The Best Video Game Soundtracks by WerqKween · 41 games · 2

Rating distribution

5 stars
2568
4 stars
1317
3 stars
493
2 stars
91
1 star
22
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Community All Reviews Statuses

Capt.ACAB

Status Capt.ACAB Mar 30, 2023

Really enjoying this. They really got so much right here over what I remember from Zelda 1. The pacing is really nice and the dungeons can he played leisurly in 1 hour chunks. I'm embarrassed to say I did have to look up the Zora flippers. I had no idea I could pick up the big rocks with the gloves …

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Really enjoying this. They really got so much right here over what I remember from Zelda 1. The pacing is really nice and the dungeons can he played leisurly in 1 hour chunks. I'm embarrassed to say I did have to look up the Zora flippers. I had no idea I could pick up the big rocks with the gloves and got stuck haha.

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1 Comment Permalink
Capt.ACAB

Status Capt.ACAB Mar 27, 2023

Started and stopped this so many times over the years. Stoked to finally play through it now my life is more stable.

6 Comment Permalink
kingbk83

Status kingbk83 Jun 9, 2022

Just finished this up again. What a classic.

I think it's my second favorite Zelda game after Breath of the Wild.

It's hard for me to revisit the Nintendo 64 ones, as great as they were/are. But something about the Super Nintendo makes it seem like the games on that platform never age.

3 Comment Permalink
kingbk83

Status kingbk83 May 29, 2022

Revisiting this one this weekend via Switch Online. Gotta say, in my opinion, this one has aged far better than Ocarina of Time.

4 Comment Permalink
Lygodesma

Status Lygodesma May 3, 2022

Playing this right now and I sort of like it. I was gen-64 so this is the first time. Question: Why is this on so many GOAT-lists? What was innovative or historically new about this? The non linear open world design? I like the way you need to obtain certain items to solve the 'riddle' to get past a certain …

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Playing this right now and I sort of like it. I was gen-64 so this is the first time. Question: Why is this on so many GOAT-lists? What was innovative or historically new about this? The non linear open world design? I like the way you need to obtain certain items to solve the 'riddle' to get past a certain point, it's satisfying, but also exhausting at times (and I even play with a guide!). The way that you have a feeling of progress by obtaining items and hearts without actually being a RPG is also what works sort of really well about these 'adventure'-Zelde games.

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1 Comment Permalink
grok

Status grok Feb 10, 2022

This will be my first ever Zelda game :) i'm excited to give this much hyped franchise a try!

3 Comment Permalink
Reset_Tears

Status Reset_Tears Oct 27, 2021

I have attempted various Zelda games from time to time over the years, and I always bounce off them pretty quickly. It's not a setting I'm into, and to me at least they generally just don't click with me for either the combat or for the puzzle-solving. I decided I would try as hard as I could to get through …

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I have attempted various Zelda games from time to time over the years, and I always bounce off them pretty quickly. It's not a setting I'm into, and to me at least they generally just don't click with me for either the combat or for the puzzle-solving. I decided I would try as hard as I could to get through Link to the Past at least... but I still ended up giving up by the time I was in the alternate world.

I just. Don't think the combat is fun. And I hate the puzzles. I kind of don't like to even call them puzzles tbh, because it's usually more like "do extremely specific thing in an extremely specific way with no hints given to you." Push every block in the world every single direction you can. Use every item you currently have on every object you come across. Mash buttons as you shove Link against every wall and pray for a miracle. In the end I never feel that satisfied when I do happen to uncover a hidden door or trinket. Which I guess is just me saying the game's not for me. I always end up searching the entire world map a bunch of times, not having the slightest idea what to do next, and getting frustrated every time I attack an enemy but my sword somehow passes right through it while the enemy sure hits me perfectly fine.

So sayonara, Link to the Past. I Youtube'd the rest of the story, and yeah I sure wasn't missing anything in that department lol. Playing this reminded me of how I couldn't get myself to love Super Metroid like everyone else does, either. Maybe if I were a kid in the 90s again with all the time in the world, these sorts of games would work a lot better for me. Though I think I'd still want one of those Prima Guides...

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3 Comment Permalink
ApramPepo

Status ApramPepo Oct 17, 2021

When I played "A Link to the past" a few years ago, I hated it so much and thought that Nintendo downgraded the game and always saw it as Overrated.

Started to play it again recently, now for some reason I love this game. maybe I didn't learn to respect the "slow and steady" start of the game back then …

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When I played "A Link to the past" a few years ago, I hated it so much and thought that Nintendo downgraded the game and always saw it as Overrated.

Started to play it again recently, now for some reason I love this game. maybe I didn't learn to respect the "slow and steady" start of the game back then and always loved the "Jump into Action" start.

Maybe I've grown to love old games a bit more? Anyway, what I wanted to say is: This game is Solid.

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2 Comment Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Sep 13, 2021

Alright, sorry teenage self, this game is great. It's a nice surprise when something so highly rated actually delivers when you push through, albeit usually the case heh.

1 Comment Permalink
ArmFallOffBoy

Status ArmFallOffBoy Apr 20, 2021

Have not played the GBA version even though that is apparently the better version, so I would like to try that out. ALTTP is a bit overrated and this is coming from a huge Zelda fan. It still holds up pretty well though.

1 Comment Permalink
Kernspalt_Kartoffel

Status Kernspalt_Kartoffel Mar 24, 2021

I finished the game a few minutes ago but started playing it before I created my Grouvee account. Its suprising to find so many great elements introduced in this game that would reappear in most zelda games that released after this one. It aged really well as I was enjoying playing the game in 2021 without major issues. In the …

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I finished the game a few minutes ago but started playing it before I created my Grouvee account. Its suprising to find so many great elements introduced in this game that would reappear in most zelda games that released after this one. It aged really well as I was enjoying playing the game in 2021 without major issues. In the first 80% of the game I basicly never used a guide because I did not have to. Only for the last 2 Dungeons I kept looking into a guide as it helped me progress more smoothly towards the end. I did not really enjoy the last 2 or 3 Dungeons in Zelda 1 and as this is the second Zelda game I played since starting the "lets play all zelda games in release order" project (I skipped zelda 2), I appreciate that the dungeon design wasn't nearly as annoying in the last two dungeons here. I have to be honest and say I abused the "wind back" feature the switch emulation offers quite often, but I did not want to get frustrated by dying in the last dungeon a dozen times :)

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2 Comment Permalink
internpepper

Status internpepper Nov 19, 2020

My favorite Zelda game of all time. It took everything great about the first game and made everything better. I still come back to this one as it's just that much fun.

1 Comment Permalink