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Also, I noticed that you said you were gaming back in the NES days. That's good. Otherwise, I'd actually recommend you don't start with A Link to the Past, or just avoid it altogether. *Takes breath and gets ready for the mob with torches an pitchforks*
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's a bad game. It's just not as easy to appreciate if you've grown used to modern gaming. This is coming from a guy who can recall waking up to Super Mario Bros. every morning at the age of 4, and who knows the very definition of "NES-hard."
I've owned every Nintendo console except the SNES, so I missed out on ALttP until about three years ago (even though playing it a short time at my cousins is what kicked off my interest in Zelda in the first place). I played a whole bunch of others in the series before that though, so I got used to some of the series' tropes. If I hadn't had an idea of what to expect at times, I would have found the game more frustrating. It's light on story and exposition compared to later Zelda games, and it does little to remind you where you're supposed to be going, what you're supposed to be doing and how to return to where you've been. These things aren't inherently bad and you may not mind them, but I did. I played in infequent spurts, and a guy like me needs an aide to help me remember what's going on. You get that in later games, but not here. It's overworld is also missing the grid system implemented in the 2-D games that came after it, like Link's Awakening. This made is WAY more convenient to navigate and keep track of where everything is. That is my single biggest gripe with the game. I realize it's not the game's fault though. That would being mad at the original SMB for not having a hub world and save points. But again, it's something that you're used to from modern gaming.
However, there are plenty of things to like about it. Outside of Zelda 1 and 2, it is the most difficult game in the series, and that is a good thing. When you beat a boss and survive a dungeon, you come out feeling like a real man, like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. When you solve a puzzle, you feel like a genius. Everything that happens is because you earned it, not because someone held your hand and dragged you down the obvious path. It's not "NES-hard," it's "challenge without ever being cheap" hard.
ALttP is what Seinfeld is to sitcoms. It was some groundbreakingly brilliant stuff, and is still excellent even today, but you can see its age. And if you weren't there at the time, then it's harder to appreciate it, because you don't have the nostalgia goggles or you can't put your 16-bit hat on. But again, you've been gaming for a while now, so maybe it won't be an issue for you.
