30 years ago to the day appeared on the shelves of video game stores a golden cardboard box of the most beautiful effect and of incredible sobriety. Could we imagine at the time that it contained a title close to perfection a future timeless classic that would mark entire generations of players? While a certain Tears of the Kingdom is beginning to point the tip of its nose lets come back to a masterpiece from another time: A Link to the Past.
I have long considered The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past to be objectively the greatest video game I have had the chance to play yet it was never my favorite. At a minimum it was at least the best game of all time at the time of its release and we had to wait for the arrival of sacred monsters in its field like Final Fantasy VII or The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Timeto regain that status. Not because they were better but rather because they excelled just as much in their time while setting new standards in terms of production new generation of consoles requires. However they still had their faults, where I have hardly ever found any in the one that has been called Zelda III for 30 years a game that quite simply changed my life as well as that of probably the majority of those who have played it.
In the early 1990s titles stamped The Legend of Zelda acted like a UFO in the middle of video game boxes on the whole very colorful and seeking to put their protagonists forward. Unlike the Japanese versions very focused on the character of Link the young saga was then distinguished in the West by gold tinted boxes struck only with a logo in the form of the main name of the hero and swords and shields providing information only on the apparently medieval context of the work they contained. It will take more than 15 years and a certain The Wind Waker so that the playable hero of the franchise finally makes its appearance on the box of one of its main games and this in a rather discreet way always behind a golden veil dominating the jacket.
On September 24 1992 in Europe The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past was no exception to the rule and laid the foundations of a graphic identity which we obviously did not imagine would become a trademark. The name of the princess also the heart of that of the license is displayed in capital letters with a font that still persists today whose iconic initial Z is crossed from top to bottom by a sword and associated to a discrete subtitle. But above all,the one more commonly called Zelda 3 was going to lay practically all the foundations of one of the most famous licenses and constitute a game changer of its time by touching perfection as rarely.
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