#1: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Released In: 1992
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

      The evil wizard Agahnim has taken over Hyrule Castle and imprisoned Princess Zelda in its basement. After the young hero Link rescues her, he learns of the full extent of Agahnim's evil intentions. Agahnim plans to use Zelda's body in a dark ritual that will break an ancient seal and release the powerful wizard Ganon from imprisonment in the Dark World. Link eventually obtains the Master Sword and defeats Agahnim in Hyrule, but he is unable to stop him from breaking the seal. Now Link must travel to the Dark World and defeat Ganon before he breaks free and conquers Hyrule...

Syd Lexia: I absolutely love this game, in a completely unhealthy obsessive way. Back when I was in fifth grade, I had to leave for school at seven in the morning, so I'd shower before I went to bed and then get up at five and play Zelda for two hours, completely skipping breakfast. Then I'd come home and play it some more, occassionally stopping for dinner and homework, or because my stupid brother thought he deserved a turn. Not only did I find fucking EVERYTHING in that game, but I ended up with a 3.6 GPA that term. I got the game again when it came out on the Game Boy Advance, and I played it during the boring lecture classes I had to take to fulfill my elective requirements. While my elderly East German professor was rambling on in a barely understandable accent about stupid things like "facts" and "science", I was mowing down the enemies of Hyrule with the Master Sword. And since attendance was 20% of the grade for that bullshit class, it's like I got an "A" for playing the greatest action/adventure game ever made. Actually, it's nothing like that, but don't belittle my accomplishments!

Oh, and how fucking annoying was that final boss battle with Ganon? If you fall through the floor, you have to re-enter the room and start the entire battle over. It's not really a problem now, but that shit made me furious when I was eleven.

greeneyedzeke: A lot of people will tell you that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the greatest video game (and, by proxy, the greatest Zelda game) ever made. They’d be wrong. While the title of overall best video game ever is highly debatable, the pinnacle of this particular franchise is the Super Nintendo incarnation. And, while Super Metroid is almost indistinguishable from A Link To The Past quality-wise, Zelda deservedly edges it out to be the greatest game on the system.

I’m not sure why it turned out so awesome. Maybe Nintendo felt pressure to reassure the masses after The Adventure of Link suffered a particularly violent reception. Maybe working with hardware that was such a drastic step up from its predecessor opened the doors of creativity. Maybe God Himself felt the need to re-establish the foundations of faith and gave us this game as divine acknowledgement of Heaven’s existence. Whatever it was, holy fucking shit…

The quest is epic, merging both light and dark worlds into a seamless fusion of design aesthetics that has yet to be replicated. The graphics were sublime. The music was a joyous orgasm of aural happiness. The puzzles were challenging, but not aggravating. In short, just about everything was goddamn perfect.

To sum up: if you haven’t played A Link To The Past, you aren’t a gamer.

Valdronius: If you've read through the top 100 NES games article, you know about my hatred for the original Legend of Zelda. When I think about A Link to the Past, I think of all the things that I hate about the original... and how they remedied every last one. This game gave you a world map, and more often than not, showed you where you had to go on said map. The few times you didn't have a clear goal, the area you were restricted to was small enough that it wasn't a problem.

I used to get really annoyed when my friends would say that it was impossible to get all 20 hearts. Sure, if you were an idiot it was impossible, but I accomplished this feat several times. Once, in a single sitting. Yes, I'm that damn good.

Murdar Machene: This game is great, it's got all the heart containers. I can never find the last one though. That really brings my piss to a boil. I like this game because you can replay it once every year and you sorta forget the exact way to beat the dungeons (especially that piece of shit turtle rock dungeon).

Douche McCallister: This game brings back so many memories, shape shifting bunnies, items I couldn't find, heart containers that still remain a mystery. Ahhh the good days. Here's to you Link, and your never-ending struggle to rescue Zelda/Save the world.

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