The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords

About This Game

Gameplay

Four Swords is the multiplayer portion of the cartridge. Four Swords features gameplay similar to A Link to the Past, with a focus on multiplayer; in it, two to four players must cooperatively work through a series of puzzle-laden dungeons, while competing to collect rupees. The player with the most rupees at the end of a level wins a special prize, though all rupees are shared together in the long run. All players are given respective colors – player one is green, player two is red, player three is blue, and player four is purple. Once all players are connected, player one chooses one of the four stages available to play on. All dungeons are randomized before play. Each dungeon has three levels, with a portal at the end of each level. the first player to reach the portal will be rewarded with a Heart Container, an item that increases the player's health meter. The third level is not a traditional dungeon, but rather, a boss battle. Once the boss is defeated, players will return to the hub area.

History

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords was a collaborative development effort between Nintendo and Capcom, the process supervised by Minoru Narita, Yoichi Yamada, Takashi Tezuka and Yoshikazu Yamashita from Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development. The A Link to the Past portion re-used the art assets from the Super NES version. Alterations include tweaks to item locations to prevent exploiting the game, a reduction of the viewable playing area, and the inclusion of voice samples from Ocarina of Time. Capcom had begun development of The Minish Cap in 2001, but temporarily suspended it to free up resources for the Four Swords multiplayer component. The company designed the multiplayer portion to force cooperation between players in order to progress.