The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

And here we have the Super Mario Bros. 3 [スーパーマリオブラザーズ3] of the The Legend of Zelda [ゼルダの伝説] franchise. It builds upon the first game as the basis and expands upon it with so many great changes. It's a borderline excellent game all things considered. I think the greatest praise I have for it is how intuitive everything is in its core design. Link now having an extra spin attack is a fun decision that you can use strategically and he also has many special weapons which can all be used to great effect in the dungeons and overworld. You also have some great mobility and travel options in the form of the Pegasus Boots, Zora Flippers, as well as a sidequest that basically gives you fast travel in the Light World. Traversing both the Light World and the Dark World is really fun too, the areas you go through feel very alive and it's especially helped by the introduction of Kakariko Village as well as other very well themed and beautiful looking areas. A lot of the secrets are very very well hidden, being hidden enough to get you to think but not being so obtuse that you have to look at a guide to solve them.

Finally, there is the dungeon design. The dungeons are EXCELLENT in this game especially when it comes to puzzle solving and it is the biggest step up compared to the original. Instead of opting to use obtuse block solving and rooms filled with 5-7 Blue Darknuts, this game opts to lay out its puzzle and enemy challenges in a way where the difficulty progression feels very natural. I think that's especially evident in the Dark World dungeons such as Swamp Palace, Ganon's Tower, and, possibly a hot take, especially the Ice Palace which are all a blast to play through. I also appreciate the Light World dungeons just the same though, with the Hyrule Castle and Eastern Palace being excellent at teaching you how the game works. These dungeons are also each capped off with a boss battle and every single boss in the game is fun to take down. Yes, even Mothula and Moldorm are still somewhat fun as annoying as they are. Overall, I love the dungeons in this game and it helps that the game around it is so well designed too, complete with great graphics and soundtracks too.

That being said though I do have a few nitpicks with the game. A lot of the secrets and ways to progress are well hidden but maybe some of them are maybe a bit too much so? I'm not sure how anyone, without trial-and-error, was supposed to figure out how to beat the first Agahnim fight. While I praised the dungeons in general too, I didn't exactly enjoy Skull Woods. It's pretty brutal for just being the third Dark World dungeon and the Wallmasters are a little annoying to deal with even though I get their purpose. And yeah part of the reason the Mothula fight of this dungeon is so annoying is the room itself because spikes are going to fly all over the place and the floor is constantly moving in directions you probably don't want it to. Overall, the dungeon is kind of a dud on the design front but it's not bad by any means especially since the rest of the game is designed so well.

Still though, I believe this game aged insanely well and you should all play it. It's excellent and very influential to the rest of the The Legend of Zelda [ゼルダの伝説] franchise