.: December 2, 2002.: March 14, 2003.: March 28, 2003 Mode(s) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is an video game developed and published by for the. It is the third installment in and was released in 1991 in Japan and 1992 in North America and Europe. The plot of A Link to the Past focuses on as he travels on a journey to save, defeat and rescue maidens related to the Sages. A Link to the Past uses a 3/4 similar to that of the original, dropping the side scrolling elements of. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past introduced elements to the series that are still commonplace today, such as the concept of an alternate or parallel world, the and other new weapons and items. Critics and players alike have commented on the similarities between A Link to the Past and the sequel, with some even referring to the latter as a ' of A Link to the Past. Released to critical and commercial success, A Link to the Past was a landmark title for Nintendo and is widely considered to be.

Over four million units of the game have been sold worldwide. A Link to the Past was to the with slight changes (see ), and is available for the, and via the. Re-released A Link to the Past in the in September 2017 as part of the company's. A successor to the game, titled, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in November 2013. An area in the Light World (top), and the same found in the Dark World (bottom) Instead of using the side-scrolling perspective introduced by, A Link to the Past reverts to an overhead perspective similar to that of the original Zelda.

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While A Link to the Past still uses mechanics and concepts from the original game, it also introduces new elements and innovations. For instance, arrows are now separate items, as bombs are in the original, instead of using a to fire an arrow. A Link to the Past also takes concepts from The Adventure of Link, such as the magic meter, which is used by items such as the Lamp. Control of Link is more flexible than in previous games, as he can walk diagonally and can run with the aid of the Pegasus Boots (Pegasus Shoes in the GBA version). Link's sword attack was improved to swing sideways instead of merely stabbing forward; this gives his sword a broader range and makes combat easier. Link swings his sword as the default attack in future Zelda games, although stabbing is also possible in the later incarnations. Recurring items and techniques were introduced in A Link to the Past, such as the Hookshot, the, the Spin Attack, and the Pegasus Boots.

Heart Containers that increase the player's maximum (hit points) are present, but many are split into 'Pieces of Heart', four of which make up one Heart Container. Most of them are well hidden, adding replay value to the game. All dungeons are multi-level, requiring Link to walk between floors and sometimes fall through holes to land on lower levels. A Link to the Past is the first appearance of what would subsequently become a major Zelda trademark: the existence of two between which the player travels.

The first, called the Light World, is the ordinary. The second is what was once the Sacred Realm, but became the Dark World when acquired the Triforce. The Dark World is a corrupted version of Hyrule. People change forms in the Dark World based on their nature; without the Moon Pearl to prevent it, Link turns into a pink rabbit.

Each location in the Light World corresponds to a similar location in the Dark World, usually with a similar physical structure but an opposite nature (e.g. A desert in the Light World corresponds to a swamp in the Dark World, a peaceful village in the Light World corresponds to a dilapidated town of thieves in the Dark World). Link can travel from the Dark World to the Light World at almost any outside location by using the Magic Mirror, and can travel back to the Dark World again from the same location using a temporary left behind on the map at the point where he reappears in the Light World. Otherwise, Link must use hidden warp locations throughout the Light World to travel from the Light World to the Dark World. Travel between worlds allows for puzzles in A Link to the Past that exploit structural differences between the Light and Dark Worlds, as Link may travel to otherwise inaccessible areas in one world by warping from parallel but accessible locations in the other world. Plot Characters Players assume the role of hero, a young boy living with his uncle south of., a descendant of the seven sages, is held captive in the castle dungeon by Agahnim, a treacherous wizard who has set forth a chain of events to unleash Ganon. Sahasrahla, a descendant of those who forged the Master Sword, mentors Link on his quest.

Series antagonist remains sealed in the Dark World. It is revealed late in the game that Agahnim is an avatar of Ganon, used by the King of Evil to infiltrate the Light World. Story A Link to the Past is a prequel to the original. At the beginning of the game, a young boy named is awakened by a message from, who says that she is locked in Hyrule Castle's dungeon. As the message closes, Link finds his uncle ready for battle, telling Link to remain in bed.

After his uncle leaves, however, Link ignores his uncle's command and follows him through the rainy night to the dungeons under Hyrule Castle. When he arrives, he finds his mortally wounded uncle, who tells him to rescue Princess Zelda, giving him his sword and shield before dying soon after. Link navigates the castle and rescues Zelda from her cell, and the two escape into a secret passage through the sewers that leads to a sanctuary. Link is told by the priest in the sanctuary that Agahnim, a wizard who has usurped the throne, is planning to break a seal made hundreds of years ago by the Seven Sages to imprison the dark wizard in the Dark World, which was known as the Sacred Realm before Ganon invaded it, obtained the, and used its power to engulf the realm in darkness.

Agahnim intends to break the seal by sending the descendants of the Seven Sages into the Dark World. The only thing that can defeat Agahnim is the, a sword forged to fight evil that can only be wielded by the chosen hero. To prove that he is worthy to wield it, Link needs three magic pendants, hidden in dungeons guarded by mythical defenders. On his way to retrieve the first, he meets an elder, Sahasrahla, who becomes his mentor. After retrieving the pendants, Link takes them to the resting place of the Master Sword.

As Link draws the sword from its pedestal, Zelda telepathically calls him to the Sanctuary, informing him that soldiers of Hyrule Castle have arrived. Link arrives at the Sanctuary moments after the soldiers have vacated, where he learns from the dying Sanctuary keeper that Zelda has been taken to Hyrule Castle. Link goes to rescue her but arrives too late; Agahnim sends Zelda to the Dark World.

Link then faces Agahnim in battle and defeats him, but Agahnim's last act is to send Link to the Dark World as well. To save, Link must rescue the descendants of the Seven Sages from dungeons scattered across the Dark World.

Once the seven maidens are freed, they use their power to break the barrier around Ganon's Tower, where Link faces Agahnim, who creates two ghostly specters each as powerful as he is. After Link defeats Agahnim for a second time, Ganon rises from Agahnim's body, turns into a bat, and flies away. Link chases Ganon and confronts him inside the Pyramid of Power at the center of the Dark World. After a battle resulting in Ganon's demise, Link touches the Triforce and restores the Dark World and Hyrule to their previous state. Development In 1988, development of a new Zelda began, but one year later, the project was brought to 's next console; the Super Famicom in Japan, the in other regions. Due to the success of previous titles in the series, Nintendo was able to invest a large budget and ample development time and resources into the game's production. At the time, most SNES game cartridges had 4 Mbit (512 KB) of storage space.

This game broke the trend by using 8 Mbit (1 MB), allowing the Nintendo development team to create a remarkably expansive world for Link to inhabit. Like, this game used a simple graphic method on the by limiting the color depth of many tiles to eight colors instead of the SNES's native 16-color tiles. The tiles were decompressed at runtime by adding a leading bit to each pixel's color index. Storage space was also saved by eliminating duplication: The Light World and the Dark World are almost identical in layout (though using differing texture tiles), and the Dark World exists in the game's ROM only as an 'overlay' of the Light World. The script of the game was written by series newcomer, while was responsible for the background story explained in the instruction manual. The English language included changes to the original Japanese game. The most common change was the removal of religious references to conform with Nintendo of America's content guidelines.

The most obvious change was made to the subtitle of the game, which was renamed from Kamigami no Triforce (lit. 'The Triforce of the Gods') to A Link to the Past. The 'Sanctuary' in which Zelda hides during the first act is quite obviously modeled on the, with rows of, a raised and, but it contains no overt religious symbols, and the dialogue of characters within it was simplified to remove any religious implication. The font used to represent an unreadable language, originally had designs of a vulture and an.

These designs were based on which carry religious meanings, and they were altered in the English version. The localization also changed plot details included in the. The priest Agahnim became a, and his background, which originally implied that he was sent by the gods, was altered to remove any celestial origin. Music The score to A Link to the Past was composed, arranged, and produced. The theme of The Legend of Zelda ('Hyrule Overture') returns in A Link to the Past, redone in style. The theme is also featured in 'Light World Overworld' and in 'End Credits'. A Link to the Past helped to establish the musical core of the Zelda series.

While the first game originated the 'Hyrule Overture', many recurring motifs of the Zelda scores come from A Link to the Past, including 'Zelda's Lullaby' (Princess Zelda's Theme), 'Ganondorf's Theme', 'Hyrule Castle' (Royal Family Theme), 'Kakariko Village' and 'Select Screen/Fairy Cave'. These themes have been used in subsequent The Legend of Zelda games. A soundtrack to Kamigami no Triforce, entitled The Legend of Zelda: Sound and Drama, was released by in Japan on June 22, 1994. The first disc is 44 minutes long and features rearranged versions of a selection of the game's themes, along with a bonus drama track. The second disc features 54 minutes of the original arrangements for the game and those of the original game,. Reception Reception Aggregate scores Aggregator Score 92.87% (SNES) 91.74% (GBA) 95 (GBA) Review scores Publication Score (SNES) (GBA) 8.75/10 (SNES) 39/40 (SNES) 5/5 (SNES) 5/5 (GBA) 9.2/10 (GBA) 9.7/10 (GBA) 4.675/5 (SNES) 4.9/5 (GBA) A Link to the Past is one of the best-selling SNES games, with 4.61 million units sold worldwide, and has had an exceptionally long stay on 's top games list (ranking number 2 in Nintendo Power's last issue in December 2012): when the SNES list was finally retired, A Link to the Past had more than five consecutive years in the number one spot.

It was re-released as a title in North America, indicating that it has sold a minimum of one million copies there. In the United States, A Link to the Past 's version alone sold 1.4 million copies and earned $41 million by August 2006.

During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 8th highest-selling game launched for the, or in that country. Picked the game as the #4 greatest game available in 1991, saying: 'Completely addicting, especially for unsuspecting adults.'

A Link to the Past was critically acclaimed upon release for its graphics and gameplay, and has since been recognized by critics as one of the greatest video games of all time. In 2005, IGN editors placed it 11th in its 'Top 100 Games', while readers voted it to 5th place. The following year chose it as the best game of all-time. Members of ranked it the 4th best, and readers of Japanese magazine ranked it 31st in a 2006 poll. It also placed 3rd in 's list, 23rd in 's, and 3rd in a best 200 Nintendo games list. In July 2007, readers of the magazine voted it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games of all time. Placed it 2nd on their list of.

Named A Link to the Past the 3rd best Super NES game of all time, losing only to (2nd) and (1st). It was awarded Best Sequel of 1992 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.

The game placed eighth (the second-highest Zelda game on the list) in 's '100 greatest Nintendo games of all time' list. In 2009, Game Informer put A Link to the Past 12th on their list of 'The Top 200 Games of All Time', saying that it 'remains a blast today'. This is 11 places ahead of the rank it had back in 2001. The game was reviewed in 1993 in No. 198 by in the 'Eye of the Monitor' column. Petersen gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.

A Link to the Past & Four Swords for the Game Boy Advance received positive reviews and sold over 1.81 million units. Praised it for being a faithful conversion of the original, but noted that the audio did not sound as crisp on the Game Boy Advance, and found the frequent sound effects tiresome. The game holds the top spot of 's all-time high scores for Game Boy Advance games with a score of 95. In 2007, IGN named A Link to the Past & Four Swords the third best Game Boy Advance game of all time. 's Star Dingo called it a 'masterpiece,' as well as an 'important part of the Grand Renaissance of the Second Dimension.'

He also praised the overworld for its secrets and 'quirky random characters,' adding that playing it required patience and exploring. Star Dingo praised the port of A Link to the Past 's ability to retain its visuals. He specifically praises its 'clean sprites,' calling its overworld a 'colorful, happy place,' sarcastically calling it kiddy. He also questioned how the series' cartoon style was abnormal for the series. Star Dingo called the sound effects 'indelible,' though he noted that they were 'a little dated.' Compared Four Swords to, calling it 'similarly gimmicky'. They commented that the best Four Swords brought was its sequel,.

Praised both the original A Link to the Past release as well as the Four Swords multiplayer mode, calling the former a 'great handheld port of one of the greatest games ever released for Nintendo's 16-bit system', while describing the latter as 'an exciting, replayable multiplayer experience'. Legacy Chris Houlihan Room held a contest which selected a winner at random to appear in an upcoming Nintendo game. At the time, it was not revealed which game it would be.

A certain single room in A Link to the Past contained 45 Blue Rupees and a note bearing a greeting from Chris Houlihan, the winner of the contest. The room has been found through five different methods, and was intended as a crash prevention measure; the game would send players to this room if it couldn't determine where Link was going when he goes to another area. The message reads: 'My name is Chris Houlihan.

This is my top secret room. Keep it between us, okay?' There was not wide awareness of the room until more than a decade after the release of A Link to the Past after the increased popularity of the Internet and Super NES emulators. The re-release of A Link to the Past titled removed the ability to access the room, though it could still be found in the game's code. The re-releases on the and of A Link to the Past however allowed players to access the room. Included it in its lists of the greatest video game Easter eggs and the nine 'video game secrets that were almost never found.' GamesRadar's Jason Fanelli called it 'one of the Zelda franchise's biggest mysteries.'

GamesRadar's Justin Towell included it in his list of the top seven secret rooms in video games at number two. He felt that the contest prize was exciting, and called it 'one of the coolest and most exclusive secrets in the Zelda universe.'

Featured it in its list of '25 things you didn't know about The Legend of Zelda.' 's Good Game, and Nintendo Life referenced it in articles which discuss video game Easter eggs and secrets. See also: A comic book adaptation of A Link to the Past illustrated by was published in that was serialized for 12 issues from January to December 1992.

The comic was then re-released as a trade paperback in 1993. The comic is a loose adaptation of the original game's story, featuring several plot changes and new characters. Two other manga were released in Japan: a manga by Ataru Cagiva from 1995 to 1996 that was serialized in and later collected into three volumes and a one-volume manga by the duo Akira Himekawa released in 2005 corresponding with the release of Game Boy Advance version. Both follow the game's plot more closely, and the latter introduced a new character called 'Ghanti', a thief with a single devil's horn and a star under her eye. Related games A French version of this game was released in Canada, making it the only French-only release in North America for the SNES. This version had the same case as the English release in North America, but the whole game was translated in French.

On December 2, 2006 in Japan and January 22, 2007 in America, the game was added to the 's Virtual Console. Players can download the game for 800, or US$8. Travis: use curl rather than wget for mac. The English version is nearly identical to the English SNES version, with none of the GBA additions or changes. The next Zelda title, was released in 1993 for the Nintendo. It retained many of A Link to the Past 's gameplay mechanics, including the top-down perspective, as well as an overworld which resembled that of A Link to the Past.

After traveling to train abroad, Link is shipwrecked and awakens on an island called Koholint. Beginning on March 2, 1997 a simple unaltered re-release of the original Japanese version of A Link to the Past was broadcast via Satellaview. The game would be rebroadcast more often than any other Zelda title on the Satellaview, and was the only Zelda title broadcast by after ties with Nintendo were broken in April 1999. Unlike the two other Satellaview Zelda titles, Kamigami no Triforce lacked SoundLink support. Apart from official sequels and re-releases made or licensed by Nintendo, A Link to the Past has proven to be very popular within the, inspiring the development of numerous, such as the unofficial 2007 sequel The Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds. Inishie no Sekiban.

Main article: In 1997, a follow-up entitled ( lit. 'BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets' or 'Stone Tablets of Antiquity') was released in Japan. Designed exclusively for the Super Famicom's peripheral, the game would make notable use of a voice broadcast system called to provide voice-acting for several of the characters from A Link to the Past. The game takes place six years after the events in A Link to the Past and it is set in Hyrule's Light World.

The game notably lacks a Link character, and instead the player character is known as the Hero of Light. The available player-characters are actually the male and female avatars that also featured in.

The game was divided into four weekly episodes. These episodes were played live, and a voice-acted soundtrack simultaneously ran on the satellite network, sometimes containing suggestions, clues, and plot development for the game currently being broadcast. Each week, the player could only access certain portions of the. Areas shrouded in clouds were unreachable.

Two dungeons were accessible per week, however the episode ended only when time expired and not when the player had completed all the objectives for that week. The game could only be played during the set hours because the SoundLink content was central to gameplay (and not stored on the base unit or flash-RAM cartridge in any way), and the timer was based on a real-time clock set by the satellite itself. A Link to the Past and Four Swords. Main article: The game was re-released for the in 2002 in North America and 2003 in other territories as part of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords, a collaborative development effort between. The port of A Link to the Past contains minor changes from the original, including the addition of vocal grunts and other sound effects taken from. Four Swords is a multi-player adventure that interacts with the single-player adventure. Accomplishments can be transferred between the two; for example, if the player learns a new sword technique, it is made available in both modes.

By completing Four Swords, a new dungeon called the Palace of the Four Sword is unlocked in A Link to the Past. In Four Swords, dungeons are randomly generated and are affected by the number of players. If only two players are active, the game ensures that all puzzles generated do not require a third or fourth player to solve. The plot of Four Swords revolves around the wind mage, who escapes from the Four Sword he is sealed in and captures Princess Zelda to marry her. Link uses the Four Sword to create three copies of himself and rescues Zelda, trapping Vaati in the sword once again. At the time of its release, the story of Four Swords was considered the oldest tale in the series' timeline.

A Link Between Worlds. Main article: In 2011 expressed desire to have A Link to the Past remade for the, stating how attractive the two layers would look. In April 2013, Nintendo announced in its presentation that a new game based on the same world as A Link to the Past was currently in development for Nintendo 3DS, featuring new 3D visuals. On November 22, 2013, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which takes place in the same world, but features a new storyline, new puzzles and original dungeons. Height and depth play a large role in the game by taking advantage of the 3DS’ 3D feature, while maintaining the traditional top-down perspective. References Citations.

Embark on a journey to save the land of Hyrule from darkness in, out now only on. Discover the definitive version of one of Link’s darkest adventures, now with high definition visuals, new controls, improved gameplay and more! Join farmhand-turned hero Link as he seeks to drive away the dark forces that threaten Hyrule. With the help of shadow spirit Midna, Link must navigate both the world of light and the Twilight Realm to seek out the powers necessary to save the world! In this epic adventure, travel to the far corners of Hyrule and harness the unique ability to switch between human and wolf forms to explore vast dungeons, solve mystifying puzzles and battle malevolent foes.

As a human, use the Wii U GamePad to equip items and gear on the fly and aim items such as the Hero’s Bow using intuitive motion controls. Transform into a wolf and take advantage of your cursed form to sniff out clues and team up with Midna to explore and fight shadowy monsters in totally new ways! If battle makes you weary, you can also use (sold separately) to help you out!

Some amiibo will restore your hearts, whereas others will restock your arrows instead or reveal new challenges! You can also test your mettle in Hero Mode, a new tougher quest where the land of Hyrule is mirrored and Link will take twice as much damage. Also available today is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Limited Edition bundle., which includes The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Game Disc, Wolf Link amiibo. and Sound Selection CD. You can prepare yourself for the heroic quest ahead at our! Between light and darkness, can you save Hyrule?

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD is available from shops and as a downloadable version from Nintendo eShop now, only on Wii U. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD Limited Edition bundle is also available, containing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Game Disc, Wolf Link amiibo and Sound Selection CD.Please check with your local retailer for information on current availability.Wolf Link amiibo will also be available to purchase separately.