Plenty of fans would still argue that A Link to the Past is the best Zelda game of all time, but the developers at Nintendo weren’t even able to squeeze all of their ideas into the SNES classic. In fact, Shigeru Miyamoto specifically requested that one radical idea be left on the cutting room floor, and the team would oblige – at least until Link’s Awakening came around a few years later.
“At the start of development, we wanted players to be able to freely choose which weapons to hold, not just the sword and shield,” director Takashi Tezuka said in an interview for the March 2017 issue of Retro Gamer magazine. We republished that feature on the making of A Link to the Past in 2023, and portions of the interview were included in the Mini SNES Companion book bundled with Retro Gamer #287.
“We also thought about having these weapons combine,” Tezuka continued, “say, for example, having the Bow & Arrows set to the A Button and a Bomb to B Button so that when you use them together (i.e. press both the buttons), Link would shoot an arrow with a bomb attached.”
But, as anyone who’s played A Link to the Past knows, that feature was never implemented. “In the end, we didn’t use this in A Link To The Past, as Shigeru Miyamoto requested that Link always have the sword equipped,” Tezuka explained.
“We were able to implement this system in the next title, Link’s Awakening, though.” Tezuka also directed this Game Boy classic, which launched just two years after A Link to the Past. There aren’t many opportunities to make use of the item combo system in Link’s Awakening – it’s pretty much just the bomb arrows – but being able to freely swap out your active items, even the sword, gives the game a unique vibe that stands out from other Zelda games.
Personally, Link’s Awakening was always my favorite 2D Zelda game, but there’s a reason A Link to the Past has spent so many decades soaking up accolades and influencing other games. How do the devs who made the game feel about all that praise? “We’re truly thankful, and consider it a great privilege,” Tezuka said. “At the same time, it also drives us to create new games that will surpass this acclaim.”
These two titles rank pretty highly on our lists of the best SNES games and best Game Boy games of all time.