Many of today’s most avid players might not think about it often, but the video game industry has been going strong for a long time now. Major releases might have been sparse in the earliest years, as the medium found its footing. But by 1991, a full 35 years ago, important new releases that would have lasting impact had begun to arrive every few weeks.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of those early titles of note. Launched on Nov. 21, 1991 in Japan, the game was a must-have gem in the Super Nintendo’s developing library. The minute I saw my first screenshot in the pages of Nintendo Power (depicting Link descending some steps near the Eastern Palace toward waiting Armos statues), I knew I had to own both the game and the hardware to run it. Happily, I managed to make both of those things happen within a year. And I’ve since played A Link to the Past many times, including recently. Despite being 35 years old, the game is somehow more fun than ever.
The developers at Nintendo knew how to kick things off the right way, which counted for a lot then — and still does. Link wakes in the middle of the night to find his uncle preparing to head to the castle. The princess has begun sending out telepathic distress calls. She urgently needs someone to rescue her from the local castle dungeon, where she has been imprisoned, and Link’s uncle is just the man for the job.
The portly hero heads out into the rainy night, leaving his concerned nephew to worry that things might not go well. Playing as Link, you soon decide to follow your elder. The two of you live in a shack improbably placed right near the castle drawbridge. It has been raised, so you sneak around the wall and access an underground passage beneath a conspicuously placed shrub. There, you come across your wounded uncle. He hands over his trusty sword so you can finish what he started.
Before long, you manage to find and rescue the princess. It all happens in the first few minutes, right near the start of the game. No credits roll. Fighting rats and other hazards, you lead your royal companion away from the castle grounds to a place of sanctuary. But the adventure is only just beginning, despite that one early triumph.
Over the coming hours, you’ll explore a beautiful world featuring several dangerous dungeons as you seek out three magical pendants, which you must find to prove you are worthy of claiming the Master Sword. Only with that legendary weapon in hand can you face off against the wizard, Agahnim, who is working to bring back a great evil. However, even that quest is only a part of the larger whole. A Link to the Past breaks its adventure into a couple of major pieces. The first piece is the familiar world of light. The second piece is the Dark World.
When the player first gets the chance to properly explore the Dark World, that’s when the game really hits its stride. By looking through a magical mirror, Link leaves behind the sunny fields, mountains, and deserts he has always known. In their place, he finds a decaying alternate reality where thieves roam the streets, warm sand has become fetid swamp water, and an ominous pyramid stands in the space Hyrule Castle once occupied. To restore order and hold off the encroaching threat, the young hero must travel between both realms before finally putting an end to the true enemy who was behind the trouble all along.
In 1991, that hero’s journey was a real kick in the pants. It remains effective to this day. There are many moments I would happily go back to experience for the first time, if only I could. Modern players don’t have to wish, though; they can fire up the game in the Super Nintendo channel on Nintendo Switch Online, where it waits to be enjoyed on current hardware, and with perks such as save states and rewind.
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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past isn’t a difficult game by 2026 standards, especially compared to the likes of Dark Souls. Link finds bottles scattered around Hyrule, which he uses to store potions that refill his life, or fairies that revive him when he falls in battle. There are many heart containers to discover that also extend his life meter, as well. A blacksmith refines his sword to deal more damage. But it’s still possible to mess up, to lose precious minutes or perhaps even an hour of progress thanks to poor preparation. Not every problem is fatal, either. If Link steps wrong and falls to a lower floor (or gets knocked down by a rampaging boss), it’s convenient to avoid frustration by rewinding the action a few seconds to try again.
Similarly, it’s nice to know that if you’re in the middle of a dungeon run and suddenly you have to dash off to school or tend to your child or job, you can create a quick save and pick things up later, right where you left off. In the 16-bit days, we had to leave the hardware running and hope it didn’t melt. “Let me reach a save point first,” we would plead, when our parents told us it was time to go to bed or surrender the TV.
Not every old game from 1991 holds up well in 2026. A Link to the Past absolutely does. Not only that, but newcomers have an excellent chance to experience the early game that inspired some of the best elements of Ocarina of Time, years before its eventual release. And with the Ocarina of Time remake due to launch on Nov. 5, 2026, there has never been a better time to have fun in the past. Hyrule awaits.
