The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past review - Super Nintendo

I haven't actually played any of the 8-bit Link adventures to any great depth, but this 16-bit offering had me hooked after a few minutes' play. The game is incredibly easy to get into, with user-friendly controls and beginners mini-quests to get you into the game. However, later on the game gets far more difficult, with mind-bending puzzles that should have you perplexed for ages. That isn't to say that Zelda III is lacking in the action department. The amount of enemy minions to slap about and the awesome line-up of bosses make for a game that requires all of your arcade skills as well as your puzzle-solving talents. Zelda III is the ultimate exploration game on a console and ranks as yet another essential Super NES purchase!

Although I usually hate games of this type, Zelda III offers a perfect mix of action, excitement and puzzling to make it one of the finest games I've played on the Super NES. The graphics and sound are hardly earth-shattering, but where this game excels is in the playability department. It's simply superb and is unbelievably addictive. The puzzles are tough but they're logical (the answers are usually staring at you in the face) and the feeling of satisfaction when you suddenly work out what you need to do and start to make headway again is what makes this game such fun to play. Zelda III is a massive game, has enormous depth, offers weeks of intensive, highly enjoyable play and should be put at the top of your shopping list.

To put it simply, Zelda is the finest RPG in existence. Although the legendary series has been taken into the realms of 3D with the wondering Ocarina of Time on the N64, it still doesn't match the sublime SNES installment in my eyes. Everything is perfect - the bold lines and subtle pastel-tones of the graphics, the triumphant rendition of the Zelda theme, the excellent yet simple combat system, the brilliantly conceived logic puzzles…basically Nintendo left nothing to chance here and crafted one of the finest pieces of software to grace the SNES. The recent release on the Gameboy Advance was a godsend to me - being able to play one of my all-time favourite videogames whilst conducing my business on the bog really is something else! Amazingly the game doesn't feel like a retro title, even when played today. That's the sign of a true classic.