Zelda: A Link to the Past Famicom is one of the most interesting Famicom pirates I have ever come across. It is certainly the most faithful to the game from which it borrows (ie: rips-off). You wouldn’t know to look at the anime-flavored artwork, but this is indeed a complete 8-bit remake of the famed SNES Zelda title the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Referred to often as “Chinese originals” because of their country of origin, there are many pirates similar to this floating around. I myself also own a Chinese original Famicom remake (demake?) of the Game Bot Advance game The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, although the game play is much more dissimilar to it’s source content than this game. The Minish Cap is actually a pretty terrible game, but this; this is solid gold.
Zelda: A Link to the Past Famicom was of course created by none-other-than the famed Chinese pirate company Waixing Science and Technology, who are also renowned for their 8-bit rendition of Final Fantasy 7, among many others. This is certainly an interesting pirate, and it actually plays pretty well. I haven’t been all the way through the game myself, but from what I understand the game ends where the dark world begins on the SNES title; which is understandable, considering that this is only a Famicom cart here.
From what I have played the game is pretty close to the SNES game, understandable limitations not with standing. I ked up on Ebay for around $60 about a year ago. The seller had multiple copies for BIN’s within the auction, but it was shut down by Ebay shorty after I payed for my copy. Since then, I have several copies crop up now and again on the Racket Boy sale forum and especially Famicom World. This is certainly a pirate that is actually worth the hype it gets. Highly recommended for Zelda fans of all ages.