I'm not sure exactly how many hours I have now put into the SNES classic "Link to the Past" so far, but I do have a few thoughts on what I am assuming is the halfway point.
I just beat the first dungeon, to obtain the first crystal in the Dark World. So far, in one sentence, this game is fantastic. No one wants to hear that though, Everyone knows this game is great, even if they themselves haven't played it. I was in that camp for a while. The game always seemed just a bit too out of the way to play. I felt like i didn't need to play the game to understand how great it is, but I now know I was wrong. I'm going to tell you the game is great, I'm going to tell you why it's great.
There are certainly some ups and downs to be attributed to the game. Some things feel pretty tedious, while others feel really fresh, even with the game being more than a decade old. The tedious parts come in the backtracking, and slightly less in the combat. I'll talk about the combat first. It's hit and miss. Sometimes I feel like a knight, gallantly making my way through the depths of evil to save the day, and other times I feel like I am going to snap my controller in half because Link won't fucking line up correctly with the stupid fucking boss's god damn tail. The backtracking sometimes went from being really fun, to being mediocre. When you are first running through the map, it feels really fresh. It's actually quite enjoyable to backtrack through and discover new areas along the way. Once you have visited all these areas though, which will more than likely happen about a quarter of the way through your journey, it just doesn't hold the same appeal. It doesn't feel like you are adventuring from point A to point B, it feels like you are running errands. Here's hoping that with the introduction to the Dark World things feel alive again.
The "ups" are the highlight though, of course, and there are a lot of them. The pacing in the dungeons (and outside them, really) is incredibly satisfying. Each dungeon never overstays its welcome, but still feels like an epic event. I wouldn't say they are short, but they are definitely sweet. The enemy designs are all really great, and the actual narrative being told through the player's actions is phenomenal. Everything that I am doing feels like it is actually affecting things, and I feel like I as a player am learning and changing with the story. Most of the puzzles are the dungeons themselves, which is incredibly interesting and fun. You are mainly solving a bunch of very little puzzles which help you understand how to approach the dungeon and complete. You'll never sit there on a single puzzle scratching your head as to how to complete it, which is great.
 Something that might possible rank up as one of my favorite video game moments ever occurred, as I obtained the Master Sword, and then was told to make my way to the Sanctuary, as something had gone awry. The old man from earlier in the game was there, dying, and he told me to keep carrying on, as I am the land's only hope. It's at that point, that a large skull appeared on my map, bringing me back to where the game began, the Castle. I approached the door, shielded by some sort of magic, and slashed at it with the might sword I had just obtained, allowing me to cut through it (a hint for a later fight) and get inside the upper level of the castle which had alluded me but had been teased at the very start of my journey. Inside, I hurried through all the rooms, absolutely obliterating all the enemies in my path. Opponents that were once difficult were now barely a challenge thanks to my new sword and the knowledge I had obtained so far. Without taking a single hitpoint of damage I made it to Agahnim. This moment of progression, was incredible. The Master Sword felt like it mattered. I felt like I had been bestowed upon a gift that would change my life. It's very rare that a game does this for me, where it makes me feel the item I obtained was truly powerful. What followed was not nearly as great, as I walked around the room for a few minutes swinging my sword every where (including at the curtain), and eventually assumed I needed to use the mirror to follow Agahnim to where ever the hell he went. I used the item, and was teleported to the beginning of the dungeon. I was really, really not happy when that happened. Moments like this have happened to me a few times in this game, where I had to consult a guide because I just couldn't figure out where to go next. It almost always turned out I did what they wanted, but missed the mark by a pixel and payed the price for it.
It's things like this that are making me want to play this game all day, nonstop, to completion. The good parts, and the bad parts, all feel like a necessary part of the tale I am weaving while playing this game. Sadly, I have other things I need to take care of like eating, and sleeping, but either way, I can't put this game down.
