Challenge #9: Sarah vs. Zelda (A Link to the Past)

This battle has gone on for nearly 20 years. It was Christmas 1992 when my Snes arrived, excitingly packaged in its yellow Mario-themed box and unwrapped from its Christmas paper within five seconds flat.

If you're old enough to remember the Snes, you'll remember every boy you knew declaring that there would never be anything with graphics better than this. If you're not old enough to remember the Snes then you should probably be hanging around somewhere else looking sickeningly youthful and using slang words I don't understand.

It was my first games console and like many firsts, it still holds a special place in my heart. While everyone else sold theirs off for the N64 or the Playstation, mine has spent the last two decades juggled between the top of the wardrobe and the bedroom floor, plugged in a couple of times a year in order to provide a regular nostalgia trip.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of my favourite games as a ten-year-old, but one which I always approached a little half arsed. I would do a few tasks, then eventually get stuck, get pissed off and not play it again for ages. Remember people, this was in the days before I could go on the internet and cheat my way through it, which as a ten-year-old I definitely would have done given half the chance. So, it seemed natural to add it to my list of things to do before I become too weak and feeble to be able to lift the controller.

The basic idea of Zelda is that some evil dude has taken over the land and captured the beautiful princess, and it's your job to save the day. The thing I loved about it was the story it had to it and as well as killing people, you had puzzles to work out. Some puzzles were easy to solve, but sometimes they were so difficult to work out I would resort to call the game unspeakable things beginning with the letters c, f and b.

As mentioned previously, my younger self would've been more than happy to cheat the entire way through, but it wouldn't have been much of a challenge if I'd done that. So, the two rules I set myself were no cheats to be used at all and I was only allowed to StrategyWiki it if I had reached a point where I really couldn't work out where to go next and the swearing was getting out of control.

Being the idiot I am, I didn't keep a log of how many hours I spent playing, but I think it took around six weekends to complete the game, completing about two sections of the game every weekend. Sometimes I played for hours at a time, occasionally it was just a brief stint, but the further along I got with it the more it seemed to consume my Sunday afternoons and evenings. Then, from out of no where, suddenly I was facing the last big bad ass dude (are they still referred to as bosses?? I'm calling them bad asses these days) and it was all over.

You're welcome.

First rule of Snes Club is you don't talk

about Snes Club. Second rule is you're not

 allowed to brush your hair and you must

 wear half of your pjs.

Also, looking a bit like the love child of Rebekah

 Brooks and Dave Mustaine here, only

 happier and less whiny.

And less orange of course.

Apparently it took me 155 games to complete it. Oops.

Well, it may have taken me almost 20 years to complete, but it just shows that you can do stuff when you put your mind to it. Or when you add it to a stupid list.

Verdict: WIN!