TASaturday #7: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
For this TASaturday #7, we went with another classic of the SNES: The Legend of Zelda – A Link to The Past. One of the reasons we picked up this game is obviously because it’s one of the most well-known on the platform, and one of the most beloved in the Zelda series… But that’s only one reason.
The main reason we picked up this game is because the TAS we chose is… special, to say the least. Pretty much all TAS (and even regular speedruns) use and abuse of various glitches, and of course, it’s the case of that one. But this time around, things are pushed to the extreme and in the end… there’s nothing much left of the actual game.
Instead of spoiling the surprise, we’ll let you discover the TAS right away (It was done by Tompa.):
For more information about this TAS, please click here!
As you can see, this is quite the extreme glitch abuse… and one might wonder what’s even point of the TAS to begin with. Well, one possible answer is that it pushes the game to its limits. Just how far is it possible to go? Just how quickly can the game be beaten by all means possible? Also, it shows how the game works, how it was coded… though obviously, you need to read the authors’ notes to understand anything.
The fun part is: the TAS you just saw was actually an improvement of almost 1.30mn compared to the previous one, which used the same glitch to reach Ganon’s room way too early in the game. That shows that it’s (almost) always possible to do more, and faster. Today’s TAS is also another proof of how varied TAS can be: finishing the game as quickly as possible is just one goal, and there’s many ways to do so.
It’s also something that cannot really be done by a human being, due to the sheer technicality of the glitches used… though, in theory, it can be reproduced on an actual console (just like all Tool Assisted Speedruns, actually).
We know that today’s TAS was a bit on the short side, so we’ve also included a second one: the “regular” version of the Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past TAS, where the player go through all the dungeons as “normally” as possible… well, as normally as in a Tool Assisted Speedrun, obviously!
Here’s the Tool Assisted Speedrun of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, done by the same person, actually (Tompa.):
For more information about this TAS, please click here!
Next week, we’ll bring you a very special TAS, of a very special “game”…
