Video games - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

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	Video games - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (aka Zelda 3) is the third video game in The Legend of Zelda series, designed by Nintendo and released for the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game consoles. It was released in Japan on November 21, 1991 as ゼルダの伝説神々のトライフォース (Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Toraifōsu, literally The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods), and in North America and Europe in 1992. The game is hailed by many (especially of its generation) as Nintendo's finest hour and the greatest video game of all time. It is also noted for its exceptionally long life in Nintendo Power's top games list: when the SNES list was finally retired, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past had more than five consecutive years in the number one spot. Because of its astounding success, it was re-released in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance with a new multiplayer expansion, entitled Four Swords
.

Although Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
was well-received by the market, it was stylistically a major departure from the first game - being a 2D side-scroller rather than a top-down view - and as such, greeted with a less than enthusiastic response. Therefore, A Link to the Past returned to build on the original NES Zelda
's gameplay. Despite its return to an earlier style, A Link to the Past greatly expanded on the game mechanics of the original, introducing many of the features of gameplay that are hallmarks of the Zelda series to this day, such as multi-level dungeons, the Master Sword, the hookshot, and a dynamic environment with parallel worlds. Along with Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening, many fans consider A Link to the Past to be one of the finest games in the Zelda series.

Storyline

Shigeru Miyamoto has yet to make an official statement about the true chronology of the Zelda series. However, according to the text on the back of the game's packaging, A Link to the Past follows the adventures of Zelda's and Link's ancestors, referring to the characters from the two NES games The Legend of Zelda
and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
. Thus, A Link to the Past takes place before the events of the first two Zelda games. The story of the Triforce and the banishment of Ganon by the seven sages is a rough outline of the story of Ocarina of Time
. References to the Imprisoning War and the Great Cataclysm places A Link to the Past after Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker in the Zelda timeline.

Long before the period during which the game's events occur, stories were told in Hyrule about a Golden Land, with unknown powers and controlled by an omnipotent and omniscient Triforce. Once the vile Ganon gets into the Golden Land, he aholds the Triforce and turns it into the Dark World. To lock Ganon there, the Seven Wise Men created a seal to the Dark World, which can only be broken by the Wise Men or their descendants. This story became a legend, and it is told to the player as the game unfolds.

Right before the game starts, the wizard Agahnim, who had achieved an important advisory role in the kingdom, gets rid of the King of Hyrule and starts searching for seven maidens, descendants of the sages, in order to send them to the Dark World and break the seal.

At the beginning of the game, a young boy named Link receives a telepathic message from a girl named Princess Zelda. She says that she is locked in the dungeon of the castle, and Link goes to rescue her. On the way, however, Link finds his uncle severely wounded in the sewers, and receives his uncle's sword and shield before his uncle dies. Link and Zelda escape the castle via a secret passageway to a Sanctuary where Zelda stays while Link collects three pendants needed to free the Master Sword from its resting place.

Link retrieves the Master Sword only to learn that Zelda has been taken to the castle by Agahnim. Link goes to the castle to rescue her but arrives too late; she is the seventh girl Agahnim needed to break the seal. Zelda disappears into the Dark World and Link and Agahnim do battle. Agahnim falls but sends Link into the Dark World.

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