Zelda Fans Who Loved Ocarina of Time Need to Play This Game Next

Nov 14, 2026 - 14:06

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Zelda Fans Who Loved Ocarina of Time Need to Play This Game Next

Published Nov 14, 2026, 4:00 AM EST

Jason Venter is a long-time gamer from beautiful Oregon who has spent much of his life inside playing games or writing. He contributes to Polygon to share those passions, after previously freelancing at sites like IGN, GameSpot, GamesRadar, and HonestGamers, among others.

Dark times for Hyrule

Artwork of Link from The Legend of Zelda shows him posing while holding a sword and shield

By now, you’ve probably had time to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on the Nintendo Switch 2. You’ve marveled at what a great job it does of bringing the classic Nintendo 64 adventure to a new generation, with visual improvements and quality-of-life changes to make it more palatable for that new audience. Maybe you’ve even run through it a second time.

As good as Ocarina of Time might be, however, it’s just one game. It can’t keep you busy forever. Once you’re finished with that grand adventure, you’ll need to decide what to play next. And assuming you’re not tired of Hyrule and Zelda just yet, there’s one game you definitely should consider for your next conquest. That game is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and it did a brilliant job of introducing key elements that players loved about Ocarina of Time several years later, including an intricate world that changes over the course of the epic adventure.

Incredible as it may seem, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is already 35 years old. It arrived in Japan on Nov. 21, 1991. How can so much time have passed already? I have vivid memories of terrific games I played before Link’s first Super Nintendo outing ever occurred. Time clearly flies as fast for some of us, every bit as readily as it did for Link in Ocarina of Time.

When A Link to the Past hit Japan in 1991 and then launched in North America five months later, it provided the most meaningful update the Zelda series would see for decades. Up to that point, there were only two console releases. Both of them were wildly different. A Link to the Past cemented what a Zelda game should be, offering its grandest open world yet, stuffed with thrilling dungeons built on a foundation of everything that came before them.

The game began with Link following his uncle out into the rain in search of the imprisoned Princess Zelda. He freed her and then began a search for three magical pendants, the better to someday vanquish an evil wizard. As his quest neared its apparent conclusion, Link learned that it had really only just begun. He soon found himself traveling frequently between two realms: the Light World and the Dark World.

The Dark World is A Link to the Past’s grandest innovation. Players spent hours exploring every corner of Hyrule, from the warm desert sands in the southwest to the cascading waterfalls and mountains in the north. They might have thought they knew everything. Then another dimension came along and turned all of that on its head. Sand dunes turned to fetid swamp. A lake became a glacier, and a thriving village turned into a hideout for bandits. Truly, the alternate realm lived up to its title.

But the Dark World offered more than just a dreary aesthetic. Actions Link took in one realm allowed him to make progress in the other, in ways large and small. A Heart Piece might rest on a ledge that lay out of reach. A trip between dimensions added a walkway that finally granted access. Or a dungeon entrance might lie out of reach, but a trip between worlds would reveal a new path. Players got to know the landscape more intimately than ever before, or else they could never reach some of the places where their greatest adventures waited. In the end, Link’s ingenuity and bravery provided the strength necessary to defeat a familiar foe: Ganon.

Ocarina of Time built on much of that same design, with just enough differences to make it all feel fresh. Link wakes to find an insistent fairy by his side, instead of having his dreams disturbed by a telepathic plea. He meets Zelda early in his adventure. Three dungeons later, circumstances force them apart. Instead of traveling to another realm, the lad simply wakes in a different time period. It is a dark one, every bit as disastrous as the Dark World in the previous game.

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If you’ve just finished exploring that structure in Ocarina of Time, the time is right to experience the Super Nintendo version that pioneered its best attributes. You’ll be able to better appreciate just how much impact a classic 2D game had on the series as it evolved into 3D. It should serve as a reminder that the best entertainment experiences of today don’t come from nowhere. They often represent an evolution of everything that came before them. For people who enjoy the evolution of a medium, there’s true joy in exploring those roots, even now. And few games deserve your attention as much as A Link to the Past.