The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords

The Good
Zelda is a true classic. Since bunking of school for a week to play this for 10 hours a day iv always had a good association with the game on the Snes, and seeing it out for the GBA makes it an essential purchase. Materially this is not dramatically different to the snes original. The graphics seem sharper, but that could be my hazy memory combined with the lovely GBA sp screen. I've seen it on a regular GBA but I guess it'll look pretty similar. Gameplay wise its concentrated classic Nintendo - do tasks to get abilities to do tasks to get prizes. Not just as simple as that though, as the concept is taken all the way to the logical extreme. The combat is generally pretty good, though the bosses tend to be somewhat easier, at least in comparison with some of the other Zelda games (that dastardly dark link from ocarina for example). Sounds effects are nice, but the music is great, a good number of classic themes - the rising triumphant theme when wandering around the light world is a true Nintendo classic. Add in to the game dozens of secrets, lots of NPCs to meet, the usual plot twist and the gameplay twist of the two worlds, and overall this is great fun. On top of this is the cool 4 swords game. Iv only played this with two, i guess 4 player is the real biz, but its till good old Zelda fun. There's no proper plot as such, just dungeon puzzle solving, which can be both co operative and competitive. Great fun, but iv not really rinsed it so I'll leave it at that.

On top of this is the cool 4 swords game. Iv only played this with two, i guess 4 player si the real biz, but its til good ol zelda fun. Theres no proper plot as such, just dungeon puzzle solving, which can be both co operative and competetive. Great fun, but iv not really rinsed it so il leave it at that.

The Bad
no major complaints, just a few niggles. Not being able to shoot/swing your sword diagonally is annoying, given that baddies can run into you from that angle. The bosses are generally pretty easy - two bottles of health will usually allow you to complete em first go, or occasionally die once THEN beat em.

Plus the fact that we've since played the brilliant Ocarina plus the latest Windwaker means tastes are a little more refined. None of the secrets are particularly complex compared to, say, collecting that damn last bottle in ocarina (tho its an arguable point whether shooting all those poes is fun as such, or whether its just filler material). Furthermore I think the dark style of Ocarina and Majoras mask, criminally cast aside in windwaker, is not in here. I know these games were after the snes release, but this is a new release for the gba, so it must be compared. but having said that, tho we all want the dark manga anime style of adult link in ocarina, or the E2000 demo, nintendo are the bosses so we stick to that. They've hardly let us down so far.

The Bottom Line
If you've got a GBA I'd make this no.1 priority. the dungeons are great for short blasts i.e. on the bus, and the over ground sections are much longer and stand up to serious playtime. highly recommended.