Zelda Runthrough Part 2: SNES Era

A Link to the Past (SNES, 1991):

This game is the epitome of Zelda.  It's a common refrain that all Zelda games after Ocarina of Time are remakes of that classic.  If that's true, then considering that Ocarina is in essence a 3D remake of Link to the Past, then we owe a lot to the sole Zelda game for the SNES.  It's easy to forget that the series could have gone in so many different directions after Zelda 2.  The developers decided to scale back from the larger size of that world, in order to focus on a smaller, more detailed Hyrule.  Somehow the world doesn't feel smaller, because each area has a different theme and feel.  However, the inclusion of the dark world does continue the more depressing tone that originated in Zelda 2.

I didn't play this game until a year or so ago.  After I did, I was ready to call it my favorite in the series.  It felt like an awesome compromise between the soul-crushing difficulty of the NES incarnations and the hand-holding of later entries.  The puzzles made sense, and yet solving them felt like a major breakthrough.  This time I was slightly less entranced.  The dungeons feel a little too combat-heavy - not in itself a bad thing, but constantly refilling my 4 fairy jars began to wear on me after a while.  Maybe I just suck at this game.

As the last major 2D Zelda on consoles, this game is drop-dead gorgeous though.

Link's Awakening (Game Boy, 1993):

Handheld games don't have a right to be this good.  I'd played both this game and its predecessor before, but back-to-back it's incredible how this game improves on Link to the Past in nearly every respect.  It's got better dungeons, with cool puzzles, minibosses, and different music for each.  It's got dynamic NPCs that travel around, have conversations, and generally react to your presence.  It's got new items, including a feather that lets you jump around like your pants are on fire.  And somehow it does all this with hardware that was embarassingly bad for its time.  In what kind of dream world does the existence of this game even make sense?

But seriously, I'm ready to place this game among my all-time favorites.  My 'original hardware' stipulation game me an excuse to buy an old Fat Boy (which I haven't owned since I was 10 - L.A. was the second game I owned).  There's no getting around the dim screen, but the speakers are terrific.  By the way, L.A. has awesome music.

A footnote:  Link's Awakening might be the most light-hearted Zelda game - it has a great sense of humor.  And as much as I love darker entries like Majora's Mask, the series can stand some lightening up.