The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords is a two-game package developed by Nintendo EAD and Capcom and first released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 in North America and 2003 in Japan and Europe. It features a slightly modified port of the 1991 SNES classic, A Link to the Past, plus an all-new, multiplayer-only adventure called Four Swords.

In Four Swords two to four players must cooperatively work through a series of puzzle-filled dungeons, while competing to collect rupees. The player with the most rupees at the end of a level wins a special prize. Dungeons are randomized before play begins and each has three levels.

Four Swords has a number of new and unique features, not seen in A Link to the Past, like deep water (that you must swim through by tapping the ‘A’ button, and can even dive down into), and rapids (that you cannot pass). There are also platforms that only players of a certain colour can see or walk on. Players must cooperate to press switches, push large blocks, beat timers, move carts, and kill monsters. And a whole host of other things.

If a player dies they can be resurrected again, but it will cost some of the rupees they’ve collected. And the resurrection cost goes up every time a life is lost.

One important feature in Four Swords is item-swapping. Each player can only carry one special item – other than their sword – and must swap these at pedestals, depending on what is needed in a particular area. There’s a shield that is required for killing certain creatures or defending yourself from arrow-firing monsters; the ‘Gnat Hat‘ which allows you to shrink down to a tiny size to fit through small places (just like in The Minish Cap), and the ‘Pegasus Wings‘ which allow you to fly a short distance.

Four Swords is definitely an interesting multiplayer experience and does bring a fair few new ideas to the Zelda series, but it lacks atmosphere – in that: if you compare A Link to the Past and Four Swords graphically, the latter is bright and could even be described as ‘gaudy’. Four Swords, aesthetically, is closer to The Minish Cap than A Link to the Past, and it’s obvious that it was developed by Capcom.

The port of A Link to the Past isn’t too different to the SNES original, but that’s okay because it’s one of the best games of all-time and shouldn’t be tampered with too much. The game does have a secret, extra dungeon – called “Palace of the Four Sword” [sic] – although this only becomes accessible after both games have been completed. Some features are also linked between the two games. For example: when players learn a new sword move, it is transferred between games.

Finally, the GBA version of this game can also be linked to the GameCube version of Four Swords Adventures to unlock a variety of features in the game, including multiplayer gameplay.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords is a suberb package that is well worth owning and playing today – even if you already own, or have played, the original SNES version.

Note: it is possible to play Four Swords by yourself by using a fan-made utility called VBA Link. This allows you to launch more than one instance of the emulator Visual Boy Advance and link them together locally, or over a LAN or Wifi. It has to be set up correctly to work, but isn’t too difficult to figure out if you follow the instructions correctly. It’s worth remembering that – to play Four Swords properly, without it timing-out all the time – you should set the time-out delay option [in Options > Link] to a relatively high number (say: 100000 milliseconds). It’s also worth bearing in mind that trying to play as two different players is quite difficult, especially when you’re presented with a situation that requires both players to fight or move at the same time.

More: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords on Wikipedia