Back in the early 90s, I swear it took me at least a month of focused effort to work my way through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. And what a month I had. A month of navigating Hyrule and its dark twin, of pulling swords from stones, of collecting bottles - nabbing the last one from that guy sleeping under the bridge - and of sticking it to hideous fiends in a pyrotechnic tennis match. The Triforce was eventually united and ancient evil was sealed away, but at what cost? I'd missed four whole weeks of Clarissa explaining it all.

• Link Between Worlds All Items
• Loz A Link Between Worlds

By contrast, I blasted through A Link Between Worlds in two or three days. This isn't that surprising really: it's a shorter, swifter game for starters, but I've also come to understand the way Zelda works over the years. I've learnt the lessons of Link to the Past.

Just keep playing. You get an item that lets you use the X slot as part of the story pretty early on. 3DS FC: 1934-0726-1653. Pokemon X Safari: Riolu, Pancham, and Meditite.

• Hyrule Hotfoot is a mini-game from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Link can begin the mini-game in southeastern Hyrule, east of the House of Gales, by talking to one of the Racing Bros. The objective is to reach the second Racing Bro, who is standing behind Rosso's house, within.
• This is a compilation guide to items found in A Link Between Worlds. This is a compilation guide to items found in A Link Between Worlds. Wall merge north of the second eye to the chest with the master ore. More Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds Content.

As has A Link Between Worlds. In fact, it's learnt them pretty thoroughly.

Even by the standards of a series as backwards-looking as Zelda, this latest trip to Hyrule is astonishingly eager to walk in the footsteps of former games. A Link Between Worlds looks like it was put together in haste, and so beneath its rather sheeny, squishy 3D art, it borrows not just the Hyrule map from A Link to the Past, but the structure tied to that map. The overlapping worlds conceit returns - with you moving from one dimension to the next to solve traversal puzzles, like a sewing needle dipping in and out of cloth - as do a handful of famous moments and more than a few classic bosses.

The dungeon line-up features the same names for the most part, even if the interiors of these places have been extensively redesigned around the existing themes, and many of the best Link to the Past items will soon be waiting for you in the tantalising slots of the equip menu. Sure, Zelda's always drawn some of its magical power from a strong sense of deja vu, but at times A Link Between Worlds comes very close to feeling like a vague reimagining of the SNES classic rather than a sequel in its own right.

If there's a real victim of this, it's the overworld stuff. Granted, it's still enormously entertaining to move between Hyrule and its shadow - this time called Lorule - as you take on a villain who wants to trap seven sages inside paintings and raise Ganon from his dark slumber once more. The thrills of genuine discovery, however, are replaced with the quieter pleasures of rediscovery.

On top of that, despite the fact that a return to the top-down view makes for a Zelda with peerless controls, the whole process of trading dimensions isn't as intricate as it used to be. Lorule feels a lot smaller than its Link to the Past equivalent, and less riddled with mysteries. Actually, you'll find it fairly simplistic in terms of puzzle implementation even if you never played the original adventure. In 2013, a Zelda game is a lot more streamlined than the wonderful and sometimes inscrutable treats offered in the last century. (It's a lot uglier, too, which is just bewildering, really: the 3D approach taken here is surprisingly naff, with murky, lumpy textures and only a few moments - ice looks pretty good - of even faint prettiness.)

On the plus side, though, those redesigned dungeons offer a prolonged sequence of absolute delights. Cripes, they're good. If this really is Zelda produced at something of a clip - Zelda designed on the back of a napkin - at least it's actually taken something positive from the whole process.

It's Zelda delivered with a breeziness and lightness of touch that's been missing from recent instalments - perhaps because they had so many new wrinkles of their own to introduce. It's Zelda without any kind of slog, too, and where each dungeon - while hinging on themes and individual moments that will be familiar to Link to the Past vets - is shaped by a lithe economy as it captures a handful of brilliant ideas perfectly and then moves you on to something else.

These refitted dungeons mint quite a lot of their gold from the game's one really big new idea. Link can now turn himself into a portrait when the need arises, shifting from 3D to 2D space as he flattens himself to a wall and inches past otherwise impassable obstacles. This is how he can slip between Hyrule and Lorule: by posting himself, Flat Stanley-style, through a series of stained-glass letter boxes. The whole thing also adds an ingenious twist to puzzles and combat as you pop gantries away from their moorings to open new paths, cross gaps, stealth your way around guards, and even duck away from an enemy's attack at the very last second.

Then there's the game's smaller new idea, too, as A Link Between Worlds overhauls the way the series parcels out its gadgets. Rather than collecting a key item deep inside each dungeon, you can now rent - or eventually buy - almost all of them from a central shop before venturing into the world. Most of them are available from about an hour into the campaign, too.

Link Between Worlds All Items

Don't fret: this isn't here to bog you down in virtual micro-transactions. The rupees come thick and fast and the prices are generally pretty low. Rather, renting's in place to allow you to approach the game's central dungeons in almost any order. Each will give you a fairly clear prompt as to the kit you'll need to complete it, but you genuinely can slice your own path through the game for the most part, even switching between different hurdles, if you want, on the rare occasions when you get stuck.

This means that the chests you find inside dungeons have lost a little of their thrill - they often contain only rupees or the monster parts that tie into a new potion-crafting system - and there's just something a little deflating about a hero waddling into battle after what amounts to a trip to Cash Converters. Where it really counts, though, it feels like a pretty smart idea. It acknowledges that the hookshot and the boomerang are no longer sources of massive, earth-shattering surprise to players, they're simply Link's tools and - in the absence of a whole bunch of entirely new items, which would be lovely - the surprise comes from the inventive way you're going to get to use them.

More importantly, when it comes to that invention, the new approach lets the developers build tricks around an item from the very minute you step through a dungeon's doors. It makes for coherency and a potent kind of creativity. Take the sand rod, for example, which allows Link to conjure columns of earth from the ground. Over the space of a few minutes, this has been used for crossing gaps, walling in foes, lofting turrets out of range (or into position), pulling burrowing enemies from the earth, and uncovering buried treasure - and that's before you throw in Link's new ability to turn 2D. It's by no means alone. The hookshot gets its own moment in a glorious reinvention of a truly legendary Zelda temple, the fire rod brings a crystalline world of frosty platforming to vivid life, and even the humble lantern gets its time in the limelight, via a temple of shadows and visual tricks where every step is a potential pitfall.

'It's often been said that A Link to the Past is a game set inside a puzzle. That means A Link Between Worlds is buried at least two layers deep, as it's a game set within A Link to the Past'

Beyond all that, the new item system adds a welcome element of threat to one of the easiest Zeldas in recent memory, since rented items go back to the shop each time you die. This in turn ties into another new focus: fast travel from anywhere on the map to a series of specific waypoints.

And fast travel, to be honest, is more of a mixed blessing. Your taxi is a wonderfully grumbly witch and her broomstick, which is all typically charming, but while hopping about cuts down on backtracking - particularly when you're going to and fro from that item shop - it may also be a key reason why the overworlds themselves don't make as much of an impact as they normally do. You don't really have to spend that long in them as the adventure progresses. Sure, the time you do spend there is wonderful, of course, filled with memorable side stories and oddball characters, but this is ultimately a flying visit - a flying return visit - rather than a prolonged holiday in Hyrule.

It's often been said that A Link to the Past is a game set inside a puzzle. That means A Link Between Worlds is buried at least two layers deep, as it's a game set within A Link to the Past. But that's both the pleasure and the pain of Zelda, isn't it? A tale endlessly retold, wrongs endlessly righted, a map endlessly tweaked and embellished and folded back on itself. If, heaven forbid, this was the last Zelda ever, I couldn't think of a more fitting tribute to the series' strange ritualistic preoccupations than this cheerful, slight, and ultimately rather strange game. It won't be, of course - and that's more than fine, too.

8 /10

January 17, 2020

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These are the glitches which are possible to perform in A Link Between Worlds. Please read the Glitch Disclaimer Notes before attempting any of the glitches on this page.

Loz A Link Between Worlds

Skip the Knucklemaster Fight

• Effect: Skip most of the Knucklemaster boss fight.
• Prerequisites:Tornado Rod
• How To: Once the fight starts, have Link run to the top portion of the room. Wait for Knucklemaster to attempt to ram into Link, then use the Tornado Rod just before he hits. If done correctly Link will appear outside the Skull Woods in the area where the portrait of Seres is.

Rockman

• Effect: Have Link get stuck in a rock.
• Prerequisites:Shield
• How To: In the Miner's House, have Link pick up a rock. Next, press the R button to activate his shield. If done correctly, Link will be holding the rock with his sword and shield out. If the R button is held down, Link will raise his shield, and the rock will be in his chest unless the R button is released or the rock is thrown. This glitch will not work if Link's sword and shield are out before picking it up, however.

A Link Between Objects

• Effect: Have Link get stuck in-between some hedges and a building.
• Prerequisites:Pegasus Boots
• How To: First, go to Fortune's Choice in Kakariko Village. Just next to the sign, face northwest and press the L button to activate the Pegasus Boots. If done correctly, Link will run in-between the hedge and the building and will violently bump into them. This glitch is cancelled if the Pegasus Boots are deactivated.

Shieldless Blocking

• Effect: Use your shield without using it.
• Prerequisites: Any shield
• How To: Simply go to any area, such as your house, where you can't use your sword and try to block with your shield. Link will perform the animation but won't be holding a shield.
• Notes: This will only work the first time you attempt it in an area. Afterwards, you must leave and reenter to perform the glitch again.

No Magic Meter

• Effect: Have no magic meter, and skip a few cutscenes.
• Prerequisites: See the signs at the eastern temple
• How To: First, go to the Eastern Temple and see Ravio's signs, telling you to get the bow. Return to your / Ravio's house, and he'll ask you which signs you saw. Choose any symbol but the bow, and he'll tell you that your selection isn't correct. Leave the house, and get killed by monsters. You'll be returned to Ravio's shop, and he'll ask you if you want to rent the bow again for 10 Rupees. Once you buy the bow, you won't have a Magic Meter , and you won't see Osfala's cutscene by the Eastern Temple.

Endless Dash

• Effect: Link runs but never hits a wall.
• Prerequisites: Access to Turtle Rock, Pegasus Boots, Access to Staircase Room (Either Floor)
• How To: Aim at the corner on either side of the staircase on either level and hold down L until Link starts dashing then release.
• Notes: You can stop running normally. Link will never hit the wall.

Ice Gargoyle Launch

• Effect: Link launches a great distance.
• Prerequisites: Have reached the Ice Caverns on the trip to the Ice Ruins.
• How To: Inside the Death Mountain Caverns (Lorule) that you have to take in order to get to the Ice Ruins dungeon, go to the giant Ice Gargoyle and aim yourself on the bottom part of the platform. Let the Gargoyle hit you. If performed correctly, Link will launch at high speeds to the bottom portion of the map.
• Notes: This is only useful to get the Maiamai at that part of Death Mountain.

Gargoyles and Sand Walls

• Effect: Link glitches into a sand wall.
• Prerequisites: Access to the Desert Palace
• How To: Inside the room to the room right of the glowing green portal, there should be three statues. Push the ones on the walls down to the ground. Make a sand wall with the Sand Rod towards the top of the room. Push one gargoyle onto the space next to one of the cracks between the squares in the sand wall, and place the other two above and below that one. Pull the middle gargoyle away from the sand wall so that it can be pulled back towards the sand wall, facing away from the wall. Now, pull the statue into the crack and do not let go of the gargoyle: Link should slide either up or down a little bit. Letting go of the gargoyle will slide Link further, now between one of the other gargoyles and the sand wall. Grabbing one of those gargoyles and pulling backwards will pull Link inside the sand wall. Walking around in the sand wall will be difficult and often push Link out.
• Notes: This is much easier to do with the upgraded version of the Sand Rod, as the walls will remain until a new one is formed.

Portal clipping glitch

• Effect: Causes Link to be pushed through the portal without having to merge.
• Prerequisite: Stun an enemy and take damage, so that Link can run through the enemy during the invulnerability period.
• How to: Find a portal that does not have a smooth surface. To determine this, Link should walk diagonally against it at sharp angles. If Link acts as he walking against the corner (not sliding against the wall), then it is 'clipable'. Locate an enemy that can be stunned (such as a Moblin), and lure it so that it is directly in front of that patrol and as close to it as possible. After that, make sure both Link and the enemy are in front of the portal. Stun the enemy, and as soon as its stunned state is about to wear off, take a hit from it by contact and run through the enemy into the portal. The enemy will push Link through it. Unlike using wall merging to travel through portals, the game will act as if Link had fallen into a pit. This clipping glitch also works on a crack that leads to a Piece of Heart in the woods in Hyrule, by making the Buzzblob push Link through the crack.

Skip bosses in Lorule Castle

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• Effect: Allows link to skip many of the bosses in Lorule Castle.
• Prerequisite: Have Bombs, have not destroyed the boulder near giant bomb.
• How to: In the room with the red/blue Crystal Switch, Moldorms and a giant bomb, head south to where there is a boulder that can only be destroyed by a giant bomb that is south of it. Stand on the red barrier left of it and trigger the crystal switch from a distance so that the barrier that Link is standing on rises up. While on the barrier, move close to the boulder so Link's sword can hit it. Now place the bomb and time the Spin Attack right when the bomb explodes (note that this is difficult to perform), if done correctly, the sword hitting the boulder and the explosion from the bomb will launch Link above the southern wall. After that, stay above the wall and keep heading right until Link reaches the bottom-right corner of the room, now pass that corner and Link will be on the other side of the gate leading to the final boss. Here is the video starting on 1:28:13.

Early Death Mountain

• Effect: Access Death Mountain without using the Power Glove.
• Prerequisite: Have received the Captain's sword from the Blacksmith.
• How to: Head to the entrance of Death Mountain south of the Miner's House before delivering the sword to the captain. Lure the nearby bird so that it is southwest of the Death Mountain cave entrance. Stand in front of the rocks blocking cave, facing southwest in line with the bird. As the bird charges, jump off of the ledge into the bird and it will knock you back on top of the rocks. Then simply head inside the cave and follow it round to death mountain. Entering the cave in this way also removes the rocks blocking it for the future. As you can't yet use the sword and have low health, killing the moldorms inside with pots is recommended.

Early Ravio's Shop

• Effect: Access Ravio's shop before delivering the sword to the Captain.
• Prerequisite: Have performed the above 'Early Death Mountain' glitch.
• How to: First, perform the above 'Early Death Mountain' glitch to access Death Mountain without delivering the Captain's sword. Activate the Death Mountain Weather Vane, and then kill yourself using a nearby enemy. When you respawn in your house, Ravio's Shop will be open, and its opening cutscene will play as normal. The shop is still fully functional at this point.

Two Ravios

• Effect: Two Ravios will be in your house at once for the remainder of the game.
• Prerequisite: Have performed the above 'Early Ravio's Shop' glitch.
• How to: Perform the above 'Early Ravio's Shop' glitch to cause Ravio's Shop to open without delivering the Captain's Sword first. Then speak to the guard outside Hyrule Castle and go to the Sanctuary as normal. Once the Yuga cutscene has played, the game will take you to the cutscene where you first meet Ravio in your house. However, due to the shop already being open, another Ravio will be standing in the centre of the room whilst the cutscene plays out. You will also appear to get up out of the Tornado Rod counter as that is where Link's bed would normally be. Once the cutscene is over, the second Ravio will stand behind the first for the rest of the entire game. This glitch also causes some Kakariko Village NPCs to duplicate too but these clones disappear later in the game.

Glitch Images That Need Explanation

• Invincibility Bell 1

• Invincibility Bell 2

• Wall Merge off of corner

• Wall Merge off of wall

• Wall Merge over ground

• Standing On Tree

• Two Cursors

• Pulling Air

• All Soldiers in Hyrule Castle

• Vanished And Swimming