Single Player - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

  On April 13, 1992 one of the greatest games ever to be released on the SNES, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, went on sale for the first time.  Being a Zelda game most everyone knew what to expect of the series seeing as this was the third installment.  However, no one realized they were about to play a game that would set the standard for action rpg style games for years to come.

  Almost 20 years later this game is still a favorite of gamers in general, not just fans of the Zelda series.  The Gameboy Advance saw a remake in late 2002 and the Wii's Virtual Console was quick to get this game in it's roster as early as January of 2007, two months after the Wii's North American release.  Many popular gaming sites an magazines list A Link to the Past as one of the greatest games of all time, and for five years it reigned at #1 in Nintendo Powers top games list, even though the time of the Nintendo 64.

  So with that a review of the game is out of the question.  It's just simply a masterpiece.  It's easy to play yet deep enough to keep you coming for more.  Every screen has something to do so you are never bored.  The puzzles are challenging without being frustrating.  The dungeons are epic and the bosses at the end a good culmination of what you learned along the way.  The music is awesome even for the 16 bit era and many of the tracks would be used again for future Zelda games.  The story is good too, though if you are familiar with Zelda then you know that the story has just never made sense.

  There comes a time in a series, be it a movie, book, or game series, when everything comes together to create an instant classic and an experience that one want's to relive over and over.  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was that moment for the Zelda series.  All other Zelda games up to this point have referenced back to this one in one way or another, but none of them really were as flawless in their execution.

  It's not a coincidence that I'm covering this game late in the year.  I used to be a regular tradition for me to play though the game around Christmas time.  With school out for vacation, I had all day to immerse myself into the world of Hyrule and search every nook and cranny for the secrets and treasures.  As I got better I discovered interesting glitches and mastered the minimalist completion of the game (no extra hearts, no bottles, no quest essential items, etc.).  In fact, this is the only game I've ever played to death.  My original SNES cartridge burned out from the use it got.


  I'm not the only one who loved this game either.  That's why music from the game appears in Super Smash Bros.: Brawl and Link made a cameo appearance in so many other games.  This is also why someone remade Hyrule from A Link to the Past in Minecraft.  Everyone loves this game.

  I can't recommend this game enough.  If you only play one Zelda game ever, then this should be the one you play.  I don't care if you've never even played a video game before.  A Link to the Past is where you should start.  This is truly one of very few games that just gets better with age.

Equipment - Consoles: Old Vs. New

    I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the durability of video game consoles.  You no doubt are familiar with the issues the PS2, PS3, and XBox 360 faced.  Disk read errors, red rings of death… Even the Wii had it's issues with it's System Menu 4.0 update rendering your sleek little Nintendo console a white, slanted brick.  High technology sure has it's price.

    Rewind twenty years, it's the age of the original Nintendo Entertainment System.  The old gray box wasn't without it's own issues.  Stick a game in, shut the lid, click in the power button and… nothing.  What did you do?  Power off, slide out your game, blow on it, blow on the console, wiggle things, press down something, insert another game maybe.  Everyone had a trick that got the bugger to work eventually.

    How about the Wii?  If I put a disk in and nothing happens, what do I do?  Blow on it?  Push the disk in firmly?  In this day and age of next gen consoles there is one thing for certain, if it won't work you are more or less screwed.  Unless you are the savviest of tech geeks you're either on the phone with Nintendo's Help or in the market for a new console.

    I understand that these consoles are much needier devices than the older systems.  High end graphics, bluetooth, wifi, and internal hard drives all provide a number of things that could go wrong at any time, whereas the Atari 2600 - 7800, Sega, and Nintendo only had a motherboard and a cartridge slot for the most part, not to mention just simple RF or AV ports and your trust controller ports.  Very simple in this age that now lacks RF and controller ports (favoring HDMI, Component, Optical, and USB).

    There exists though another reason why consoles have become more fragile, a reason now long forgotten.  In the 1980's there was a video game crash of sorts.  Customers were't interested in consoles anymore and stores were quickly replacing displays of Ataris, Intellevisions, and Colecovisions with board games and card decks.  When Nintendo emerged on the scene here in the States they had a steep hill to climb.  There was no room for error as even the slightest slip up would forever doom the market to obscurity.  This resulted in the NES becoming a massively popular system, as well as the creation of the current video game era.

    Today games are a corner stone of companies like Sony and Microsoft.  Major games have productions that rival major motion pictures and release dates that the later schedule around.  E.T. on Atari had a six week development time from inception to release, Final Fantasy XIII was in development for over four years, both were highly anticipated titles for their times (ignoring the fact that E.T.'s flop lead to the 80's video game crash).  The industry is so huge now there really is little fear of it ever coming to an end, unlike the early days of Nintendo.  There is no razor's edge these days, just ups and downs.

    The consequence of this is that the same care and attention that went into the NES has been traded for mass production and lowered development costs.  What used to take only six weeks to three months takes years now, and in some cases more money than any single Atari or NES game grossed in it's time.  Naturally cuts have to be made where they can in order to curb time and lower prices for the consumer.  Unfortunately that sometimes means we're left staring at red rings and empty wallets.

    It's no wonder that old games are seeing a second life.  People are dusting off their old consoles for another go, even in this age of HD and 3D.  I think the new innovation in systems need to be reliability, not motion controls.  I'm confident that ten years from now I'll be able to hook up my NES and play The Legend of Zelda with a little tweaking.  I don't think my PS3 will survive that long.  My PS2 is showing it's age already, being unable to remember the date if the power is out even a moment.  And my PS2 is a slim, so it's not even as old as some of the others that exist out there.

    In conclusion while todays games are very gorgeous and tons of fun, the consoles are definitely letting us down, and I think it's high time we start remembering what it was about games that attracted us all in the first place; Reliability and simplicity.  Fun isn't determined by how it looks, but how it's played.

Random Encounter - Crystalis

    One of my favorite games of all time is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.  Swinging a sword, exploring a world, finding items in chests, whooping monster baddies, it was the ultimate action RPG.  In fact, I usually gravitate towards any game like it, but few games prove themselves to be a worth while endeavor.

    Imagine my surprise when I found a game from the old 8-bit era that actually gave me the fun and excitement of a Zelda game without actually being one.

    Crystalis is a game released for the NES back in 1991 by SNK (You know, the guys who do The King of Fighters).  I won't say it really brought anything new to the table as far as action RPGs go, but honestly the experience with the game was solid even though I have yet to actually finish it.

    I totally recommend giving this one a try if you can find it.  I also would recommend finding a walkthrough online for it too as it can be confusing to figure out where you are supposed to go.