658 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Best Games - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

As a series, The Legend of Zelda rarely misses. You could start up just about any entry from the last forty years and have yourself a pretty good time. Some have aged better than others, but they are all top quality games worthy of their own entry here. But right now, I’m gonna focus on one.

A Link Between Worlds is, more or less, the sequel to A Link to the Past. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was a magnificent feat of game design, but it came out on the Super Nintendo in 1991. A Link Between Worlds came out on the 3DS in 2013. So it’s maybe less of a sequel and more of a reimagining. A remake that doesn’t try to recreate the beats of its predecessor, but does try to recreate the same feelings. It succeeds at that, and so much more.

I didn’t play A Link to the Past in 1991. I had computers, and played pc games. I definitely played a little of Link to the Past, but it wasn’t until years and years later that I actually got into the game properly on emulators (and later still on real hardware). I didn’t really have the nostalgia that A Link Between Worlds expected to play on. That didn’t matter at all.

I think that A Link Between Worlds could easily be someone’s first Zelda game. But I also think that any game in the series could probably be someone’s first Zelda game. They will provide that nostalgic feeling, manifested from nothing, for every player, no matter their experience with the series. They are games that sort of feel like they have always been there, and, in a way, I suppose they have.

Creating that feeling, that this is a game that has always existed, and will always exist, is exactly what makes A Link Between Worlds feels special. There are so many novel concepts and game mechanics spread all over A Link Between Worlds, but it all feels so recognizable. So woven into the fabric of the medium. A Link Between Worlds is what video games aspire to be. Joyful and engaging, and experiential. It’s an adventure that you live through, just the same way that you have before. Just the same way that you will again, the next time you choose to pick up the controller or the console.

I could write about all the of the individual parts that make A Link Between Worlds so excellent, the graphics, the sounds, individual mechanics, but I think that would be missing the point. The game is an experience, and you can’t really atomize an experience. You just live it.

A Link Between Worlds is one of the Best Games.