A Link Between Worlds oozes with quality. Extremely solid dungeon design, fun bosses, and a brilliant wall-merging mechanic that re-contextualizes the familiar map of Hyrule. It's no secret that it borrows heavily from A Link to the Past and it's not always successful at that in my opinion. Compared to the SNES classic, the difficulty curve is mostly flat, almost all of the dungeons reuse themes, and the two overworld maps are practically identical. The item rental system was also less punishing than it was probably intended due to the abundance of rupees. It is for these reasons that I consider A Link to the Past the better game, but A Link Between Worlds is still great. It is paced just as well, if not slightly better than its inspiration, and its more nonlinear structure would serve as a great warm-up for fans and Nintendo as the latter prepared to overhaul the series' formula after 25 years.