Recently, a rare interview with Nintendo Producer Shigeru Miyamoto was rediscovered from a 1992 issue of Electric Brain magazine. In it, he discussed many of the challenges that Nintendo faced while developing the incredibly ambitious Zelda title, A Link to the Past. It’s a fascinating read that covers many aspects of the design process of the game. There…
Hyrule Castle is one of the most iconic locations in the Zelda universe. Whether it’s under the Great Sea or left in ruins, Hyrule Castle is always interesting. In A Link to the Past, Hyrule Castle is akin to a dungeon. It has a map, compass, Heart Container, special item (Boomerang), and an end boss. The main…
One of the joys of following a long-running series is hunting for Easter eggs and other references to previous installments in the most recent release. Zelda games are no exception. I always appreciate the creative ways Zelda developers allude to preceding titles in their work. In A Link Between Worlds, one of the primary story and…
Dungeon themes in Zelda games are usually outshone by the series’ more uplifting melodies. Similarly, the original Zelda games often lurk in the shadows of their more contemporary counterparts. But a recently released classical guitar medley throws a much deserved spotlight on the dungeon themes from the first three Zelda installments. They brilliantly capture the…
When Four Swords Adventures released in 2004, it was notable for being the first 2D Zelda console game in 13 years. The previous title to make this claim, A Link to the Past, appeared to be a significant source of inspiration for Four Swords Adventures’ graphical style, and the original Four Swords was, of course, an accompaniment to the Game Boy Advance…
Do you know how I always talk about the accordion being my favorite instrument? Well, there’s another one pretty close to it in my list of favorite instruments: the cello. But while I don’t own an accordion, I do actually own a cello, which I’m still not very good at but I keep on practicing.…
Link’s Awakening is such a weird and wonderful game, and it’s hard to imagine it any other way. A driving force of the game’s mysterious plot is the Wind Fish’s Egg, which fits in perfectly into the strange land of Koholint Island. It compels the player into a story unlike any other Zelda title before (or indeed…
Towns were first seen in The Adventure of Link, and to be honest, they weren’t very good or interesting. There were a lot of forgettable locations and even more forgettable people (Error being the obvious exception). It’s just not what a Zelda game deserves. Move forward a few years to the A Link to the…
I am so glad I get to cover this theme! When I saw that professional pianist Laurence Manning was featuring A Link to the Past (my favorite game in the series) in her new music video, I just knew I had to choose this for this week’s Melodies. Medli’s Melodies is a series in which we choose our…
After a long grueling fight through Hyrule Castle, Link finds Zelda only to watch her disappear at the hands of Agahnim. He chases after the wizard and after a hard fight, Agahnim sends Link into the Dark World. Having grabbed the Moon Pearl from the Tower of Hera, Link is immune to the influence of…
Bosses are an essential element of every Zelda game. They are the culmination of all dungeons, a test of your skills and mastery of the item you just found (which coincidentally turns out to be the boss’s weakness), and they provide a fun and innovative fight. Just throw in a pinch of awesome music, and voila! You’ve got yourself…
With the current craze of Zelda randomizers, I figured I’d give one of them a shot, what better game for me to start with than — you guessed it — my all-time favorite, A Link to the Past. After several attempts, I finally got a good playable seed in which I wasn’t stuck at the beginning of…
Any gamer who grew up with a Nintendo console, whether it was the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube or the Wii, will no doubt be flooded with memories at the sheer mention of these historic systems. The music of your favorite games is undoubtedly synonymous with these memories. YouTuber Evan Puschak, who also goes by Nerdwriter1,…
Remixed by Garrett Williamson and Sir Jordanius of the Over Clocked Remix Video Game Music Community, “The Goddess Gets Groovy Tonight” blends the groovy elements of R&B into the mystic theme of the Fairy Fountain — Specifically, the A Link to the Past version of the theme. This theme is easily one of my favorite remixes…
First of all, we need to get something out of the way: Is it pronounced “giff” or “jiff? Well, while you argue about it with your nearest colleague, have a look at this simple yet amazing animated tribute to A Link to the Past, created by director, illustrator and animator Greg Gunn, as part of the…
