GBA · Classic Vidya Review
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Completed 28 Nov 2022
Still Holds Up
Cover Art
Ending Screen
- To be clear, this is only here because I played through ALttP. I’ve still never played Four Swords at all
- The GBA port of this game is…. Fine. There are some really nice quality of life features, and it seemed like a couple dungeons were changed so that you can’t get the game in an unwinnable state. And happily, nothing was cut from the original game; all the content from the SNES is here.
- But, the sound design is extremely, extremely annoying. Giving Link the same voice from OoT/MM is such a head scratcher. Of all things to change, why that?
- Not as annoying but very insulting: After you rescue the woman in the crystal at the end of each dungeon, she does her usual speech, just like on the SNES, but at the end of it, you’re prompted with the “did you understand all that?” question, and have to select between “yes” and “not at all.” I understand that this is an OoT reference but I thought it was annoying every time I saw it.
- There are some areas in the later dungeons with puzzles which were clearly designed for having more vertical viewing area. For example, hookshot targets which were on screen on the SNES, but which aren’t visible on the GBA. Same thing with some red/blue switches. There was probably no way around this, but it would seem a little unfair to someone playing this for the first time.
- I hate to just talk about the quality of this port and not say anything about the game itself, but surely everyone who wants to play this has played it by now. It’s an abject classic, it has that status for a reason, and GBA weirdness around the edges does NOT make it less fun overall. It is still worth playing today.