The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Here's a GBA game Biron let me borrow early this year- A Link to the Past. I've been a fan of the handheld Zeldas- The Oracle games, Phantom Hourglass, and Link's Awakening, all of them were great, so I started playing LttP with high expectations. Unfortunately, about 1/3 of the way in, I just wasn't happy with it. The dungeons didn't have that great design Zelda games are known for, the story was going nowhere, and I was at a boss who you're supposed to hit with a hammer that I just couldn't beat. I put the game down for months, picking it back up periodically just to get frustrated again. Finally about a week ago I decided to get back to this one one more time with the aid of a walkthrough. It helped. A few minutes past that boss, the game picked up, and I got really into it. The combat is pretty standard for top-down Zeldas, and you can see a lot of the items and game play here influenced later games in the series. The game was at points difficult, but I never found it frustrating (aside from that one boss). Overall, I'm glad I picked this one back up, and it's got me hungry for more Zelda games- Wind Waker is just begging to get played. But we'll see what I backblog next.

Unfortunately, while this game was great, my DS suffered while I played it. The top of my DS is now only half-attached to the bottom, and while it appears gameplay won't be affected, I think it's time to put the old boy down. After all, I didn't even pay for it, Trev gave it to me as a gift. What a generous guy. Anyway, a new DS may be purchased in the future- there are still plenty of DS games I need to play. Perhaps a DSi, if I'm feeling crazy. But as for now, I think it's time to get some TV-console games done.