After the series had seemingly lost its footing with the good, yet incredibly frustrating Zelda II, The Legend of Zelda had gotten right back to its roots with A Link to the Past, and it was all the better for it. It is still a really great Zelda game even to this day, with plenty of different things to do, dungeons to face, enemies to conquer, and treasures to find, while also establishing plenty of tropes that would become a staple for the series even to this day. The game was also pretty successful too, selling over 6 million copies to this day, and with this success in mind, Nintendo wanted to take it a step further. Sometime after the game’s release, development then started on a port of the game to be released on the Game Boy, but that project quickly got scrapped, and instead, transformed into an original game. One that didn’t have as many restraints on it as others, one that was aiming to be weird, and one that would successfully bring the series onto the smaller screen. After one and a half years of development, this new game would be released to the public as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

This was actually the very first Zelda game that I have ever played. I remember buying the DX version of the game on the 3DS eShop, and I remember thinking it was ok at the time. It did seem appealing, but it wasn’t something that personally interested younger me, who didn’t like any video game that wasn’t Mario, Kirby, Pokemon or Sonic. Then, later on in my life, I got to play the original Ocarina of Time, and I loved it, which led me to fall in love with the Zelda series, and to give this game a proper shot. After that, I ended up loving the game, so I figured since it has been long enough, I thought I should go ahead and revisit the game once again to see how it held up. And yes, I did decide to play through the original version of the game rather than the DX version. What does that version have over this one, COLOR? BLEH, GROSS! Nah, I want everything to be all black and white and boring, just like my soul. So anyway, after playing through it again, I would still say it is a pretty great Zelda title as a whole, and a great way of bringing the series to handhelds. Sure, it isn’t better than A Link to the Past, and there are some annoying aspects about it, but it is still a pretty solid entry for this series.

The story is a bit of a departure from your typical Zelda plot, where Link crashes onto the mysterious Koholint Island, and he must gather musical artifacts in order to make a wish to the Wind Fish to escape the island, which is a pretty interesting setup, despite the fact that it also takes place all in a dream (the game isn’t called Link’s Awakening for no reason), the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but they do manage to do a great job at making the game feel like a Zelda game, with all the typical types of enemy designs and series motives that you would expect, the music is pretty good, with there being plenty of great tracks throughout that not only remix previous themes, but also new ones that will stick with you after an initial playthrough, the control is basically what you would expect from a Zelda game, and it works out well for the most part, although there are some instances where it could be better, such as with the fishing minigame, and the gameplay takes everything that A Link to the Past did well and brings it onto a smaller console, and it manages to do so wonderfully, with it remaining fun to experience to this day.

The game is your basic action-adventure game, where you take control of Link, explore the many different locations of Koholint island, talk to many friendly faces that will either give you good advice, give you helpful items to aid you on your quest, or just say useless bullshit, fight many enemies of varying size and shape along your way, gather plenty of items to help you out along the way, and take on plenty of dungeons, where you will solve plenty of puzzles, take on much more powerful foes, slay a set of big bad bosses, and gather the musical artifacts that will lead you towards your ultimate goal. For the most part, it is pretty standard for a Zelda game, but it still remains pretty fun throughout, and for being the first game in the series to be placed on a proper handheld, the gameplay still holds up remarkably well. Not to mention, there are several elements that do make this game standout from other titles in the series.

In terms of new additions to the series, this would be the first game in the series to feature a trading side-quest, where you would need to go around to various places and talk to plenty of people, giving them specific items that allow you to get one BIG item at the end of it all. While I myself personally don’t like these kinds of quests, as I find it pretty tedious to go around and talk to multiple people just to get all of these random things, there is a reason why it has become a staple in the adventure genre, as what usually awaits at the end of that tunnel is worth it. Alongside that, there are also several sections that would diverge into side-scrolling sections similar to Zelda II, but unlike that game, these sections are actually FUN to traverse through. They don’t last too long, but there are plenty of them, and they are usually pretty well thought out. And finally, as I mentioned earlier, we now have…. fishing minigames. I’m not really a fan of fishing, both in video games and IRL, so I don’t really like these, but hey, I can see the appeal for those that do.

Alongside all of this, there is one other aspect of Link’s Awakening that stands out from other Zelda games: how fucking weird it is. For the most part, it is your typical Zelda game through and through, with no real strange gameplay elements or anything of the sort, but there are weird things that you will be seeing throughout your entire journey, such as inhabitants that are just big ol’ animals, some of the items that you can get that can allow you to jump, and even the Wind Fish himself, who is pretty odd for being an all-powerful god. Not only that, but there are also a lot of elements of this game copied over from other Nintendo series. Since there weren’t that many restrictions placed on the development of this game, they were able to place plenty of enemies and characters from Mario in here, such as with Goombas, Piranha Plants, Chain Chomps, and Yoshi. Hell, even Kirby and Gordos makes an appearance in this game at several instances, which is bizarre to see, but they somehow fit right in alongside everything else.

Now, despite how much this game has going for it, the game isn’t perfect. As I have mentioned already, I am not really a fan of the fishing minigame or the trade-sequence sidequest that you can take part in throughout the game, but then again, both of those things are optional, so they don’t really drag the game down entirely for me. But there are one or two other elements that do. First off, there is the bigger issue of the item system in the game. With all of the major items in the game that you obtain, such as dungeon items or even your main equipment, you have to equip them to the A and B buttons, but you can only hold one item in those positions at a time. Needless to say, having to constantly stop what I am doing in order to switch out these items can be pretty tedious and annoying at times, which does kinda suck, especially when two of the items you have, AKA your sword and shield, should just be part of you already, and not something separate. Thankfully, the remake fixes this, so it isn’t that big of a deal. And secondly, while I didn’t mind it too much, I will say that Eagle’s Tower isn’t really that fun of a dungeon. Having to constantly find your way around it while getting these big balls to knock into the towers to bring it crashing down, I will admit, is a creative approach to a Zelda dungeon, but one that I just personally am not a fan of, and I don’t typically look forward to it whenever I come back to this game.

Overall, despite a tedious item equip system and some annoying parts here or there, the original Link’s Awakening is still a great entry in this series, and it is still fun to go back to to this very day. While it wasn’t the game that led me to loving the Zelda franchise, I am glad that it was the first one that I ever played, as it is unique enough to stand out, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of the Zelda franchise, or for those who have already played through the remake of the game, because while it may not be as visually appealing, it is still a great time all the same. Just, you know, stick to the DX version if you are, because it is the definitive version of the original game. And also, while you’re at it, make sure to not steal anything from the shop, alright? You don't wanna be a dirty scummy THIEF, do ya?

Game #392

(This is the 85th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

In this challenge I'm doing, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past or 'Zelda 3' is still my 2nd favorite game I've played up to this point. Knowing that its sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, was released on the Game Boy, I didn't have too high expectations because I've come to realize that most games on the Game Boy have not aged well due to the handheld's capabilities. Looking at Super Mario Land 2, I expected this to be one of the better games on the system though, and after having played it for a good while, I can confirm as much. It's absolutely one of the best games on the system. Unfortunately, I didn't have as much fun with this game as I would have liked, and it mainly has to do with the slow pace of it at all, mainly due to one issue.

Story-wise, Link's Awakening starts off as a follow-up to A Link to the Past in that Link travels by ship to other places and, on his return home to Hyrule months later, has his ship destroyed by a storm and washes ashore on a place that is not actually Hyrule, which makes this game the first Zelda game to not play in Hyrule. The island he is on is called "Koholint Island", and he is taken home by a girl called Marin, who tends to him until he wakes up. When he wakes up, Link can talk to Marin's father, Tarin, who looks suspiciously like Mario (and also likes mushrooms) to recover his shield. He makes his way to the beach to recover his sword, where an owl tells him that he needs to wake the Wind Fish, which is in an egg crowning the large mountain of this island. Only this way can Link escape the island. To do this, Link needs to collect 8 instruments out of 8 dungeons.

It's a pretty neat setup for this game and it's nice to see it be different from the typical save Hyrule from Ganon plot, which is by no means bad, but from there, the game plays exactly like A Link to the Past, but on the Game Boy. This is luckily also not a bad thing, as the concept put forth by A Link to the Past is rightfully praised all over. It is, however, on the Game Boy, so it just plays like a smaller version with fewer features. In addition, I want to say it is designed for children in terms of its difficulty, but one constant issue that "pops up" (pun intended) makes me think this was designed for 6-year olds, though even 6-year olds are unlikely to need this much help on this front.

What I am referring to are "message pop-ups" that constantly, and I mean constantly, interrupt your gameplay, to the point it drove me to near-madness and made me end my playthrough, as it just made the game straight-up unenjoyable. The way these games are set up is in a Metroidvania-style where you lack all abilities at the start and therefore can't enter certain areas until you find suitable items elsewhere. For example, pots and stones can not be carried unless you equip a "Power Bracelet". This presents the two main issues I had with this game. First, there are many items in this game (just like in 'A Link to the Past') but here, instead of having them be passive skills, you need to constantly manually equip the items you need at a given moment, with two items equippable at the same time. You need to switch a lot, which slows the game down too much for me and has led to many annoying deaths over the time I played. Second, which is the worst part, EVERY time you accidentally run into any item that you cannot interact with, a message screen pops up telling you that you cannot do that. I KNOW. And it's not like the message goes away once you have the Power Bracelet. No, every time you don't have it equipped, you get the message again. Why? For whom? You also get the same message about the same items you pick up in each dungeon explaining their functions. It takes so much time to constantly have to wait to skip through them and just felt so odd throughout.

Perhaps my fixation on these pop-ups was exacerbated by the fact that I found the puzzles in this game to be less clever (and more annoying because of the constant item-swapping) and "whimsical character wants an item to trade" as puzzle-solving multiple times didn't really translate to enjoyable content to me at some point. I think overall, it just felt like the worse version of A Link to the Past that it is and it couldn't really excite me enough to see through the story, which hadn't really moved along at all at the time I stopped playing apart from the Owl constantly sending me to different dungeons to collect instruments. It definitely didn't help that all of this was happening on my computer screen instead of on a handheld like initially intended, but I'm also not a kid anymore, haven't played this game back in the day and after thousands of games, both by and not by Nintendo, that copied Zelda's charm, as well as the monochrome graphics, I just couldn't really get excited about most of what I was seeing and playing.

OVERALL | 66/100

To call The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening a competent game would be my way of saying that it is not a bad game at all, and if you love Zelda games, you will really enjoy this one as well (though I'd opt for the remake at this point). But calling it competent is also my way of saying that the game did little 'wrong', however the things it did do wrong (message pop-ups, item switching) hampered my enjoyment of the game a lot. It doesn't help that this game follows the same rigid collect a certain number of things to beat the game like seemingly all first-party Nintendo Game Boy games (which I presume is due to the limitations of the Game Boy), so even though it had the Zelda coding on it, I couldn't help but feel unimpressed from an enjoyment-perspective. From a technical perspective, it is undoubtedly impressive how much the devs were able to get out of the Game Boy with this game.

Links Awakening is stunning. To imagine this game coming out on the Game Boy blows my mind. Back when I was a kid I had a grab bag of all kinds of Game Boy games that I’d haul with me everywhere, so I’m fairly familiar with the limitations, tropes, and patterns that era of gaming emits. Around every corner of Links Awakening I was surprised at the level of detail, the depth of the mechanics, the sounds, the sprites, the MINIGAMES. It is beyond impressive to me that this pocket-sized RPG was able to fit on a Game Boy cartridge all those years ago. The “adventure” that I had here, rivals every other Game Boy experience I have ever had. I’ve got a soft spot for Pokemon Yellow as my favorite game for the Game Boy (it was my first portable game EVER), but after playing Links Awakening, I have to say… it has been dethroned.

It’s incredible how Nintendo was able to pull me in so quickly to the world with their brief animation of Link in a storm, then waking up on the beach. From there, you’re let loose on the island of Koholint, where you eventually begin on your quest to wake the Wind Fish. No Gannon, no Triforce pieces, no Zelda… As a fan of the Zelda games that I have played… Ocarina, Link to the Past, Ocarina 3D, Breath of the Wild, and The Original on NES… it was kinda fun to not see some of the major defining tropes. To me, that made it immediately interesting, as I couldn’t predict where I’d go or what I would do. Even still, its identity still felt like a Zelda title through its gameplay and execution. Was absolutely hooked from the beginning to the end.

Along your journey, you’ll find that you won’t be able to progress to other areas of the map which require certain items, almost in a Metroidvania kind of way. Totally different thoughts here but uh. Were original Zelda games just top-down Metroid games with a fantasy setting? Or are Metroid games just side-scrolling Zelda games with a sci-fi setting? Huh… Maybe the defining difference beyond the setting and perspective is not having to fumble with so many items in Metroid. Weird thought. Anyway.

The game world is so perfectly designed that the items you need and the activities you do have to be pretty linear in order to get to the finish line. But if you’re stuck and don’t know what to do, you can check in at these locations with a phone in them where an NPC will give you a really on-the-nose hint about what to do. This was honestly such a nice inclusion, as sometimes I’d completely forget what I was doing before I had to turn the game off. So I’d come back, feel completely lost, find a phone booth and get back on track. I suppose they acted like a modern quest log more than anything. A nice, creative way to give you clairvoyance no matter how confused you might be on the road. I liked it.

I really enjoyed the dungeons. I think some of the early dungeons were a bit simple in their designs and puzzles, but near the end in the final 3 dungeons, I had some genuine moments of complete confusion about how to proceed. Had some real head-scratchers in there, and I really appreciated that! It’s not a super difficult game, but I was happy to experience something a little harder in the end, truly testing how well I knew the mechanics and my gear.

Definitely a huge fan of all the items, and the clever boss combat puzzles. Big fan of the incredible sound work on display here as well the music was lovely, and the sounds were perfect as far as GameBoy standards go. I also think it’s really fun to see the Mario enemies visit this world (not to mention a surprise appearance of Kirby). It’s just such a fun, cute game, everywhere you go on Koholint, every NPC you talk to, every little secret seashell you find, you can just tell that the team who worked on Links Awakening put their heart and soul into every tile of every screen. It is incredibly well done and it was impossible to not feel that as I played through the game.

I still don’t think it can beat a Link to the Past as my favorite 2D Zelda. At least… not yet. After this, I can’t help but be interested in the faithful remake of Links Awakening that they released for Switch a year or two ago. I would love to jump back into this game with its fresh coat of paint (and the DX inclusions). I would love to experience it all over again. I think that’s just a testament to how incredibly rich of an experience it is. Sure, it might not have the scope or scale of future Zelda games. But that’s only because of the limitations of the hardware. They crammed everything they could into this original game cartridge and it shows.

I would wholeheartedly recommend The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening to anybody! I think this is the perfect 2D Zelda game for anyone to jump into because I feel like it’s a jam-packed game full of incredible moments, and your journey is excellently paced. You may start on the beaches of Koholint lost, dazed, and confused. But by the end of your journey, you’ll feel like you’re truly well-equipped to complete your quest, even if you’re not emotionally prepared to do so.

If you enjoyed my review, consider "re-reading" it on my website to support me and my work. Thank you!

You know, I have a history of WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS disliking zelda games since I was a WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS little kid. Maybe part of it WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS is because I had all sega stuff growing up, but WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS going back to link's awakening once I WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS finally acquired a taste for zelda and saw everyone say this game is WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS one of the best in the series only to discover WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS that it plays it's little fucking "you cant do this yet" message every WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS fucking WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS time you even so much as touch the WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS thing you can't use yet that I just cant help but think my old point of view was just a little bit WOW THIS LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY YOU WONT BE ABLE TO LIFT IT WITH JUST YOUR BARE HANDS justified.

This is the second LoZ game I've completed after the NES original. I didn't like this one as much! I'd heard really good things but I actually prefer the original to this one. A lot more open-endedness and non-linearity. The sequence of events in Link's Awakening is very linear by default. Every item you get allows you to progress in each successive dungeon. Some people might like that constant upgrade drip feed, slowly building an arsenal of helpful tools and gadgets to solve more and more puzzles – I wasn't feeling it here.

For the first few hours I was really into it. The monochromatic, hazy Gameboy visuals really do contribute to the surreal, dreamlike feeling of playing the game, to great effect. The Overworld theme is legendary, genuinely surprised at the quality of music in a Gameboy game of all things.

There was a few dead ends, at first; then, even as I started to make progress through some dungeons, I started running into more and more dead ends. More and more areas where progress would be halted by items I didn't have yet (hundreds of textboxes worth of "come back when you find this item, idiot"). This wasn't annoying until I'd walk into a dungeon or something only to learn that I needed another item that I didn't have yet. Don't even get me started on the trading sequence. It's relatively inoffensive if you complete it in the right order, but if you don't, you're kinda left traveling across the world map to figure out who needs what and where and it was very tedious.

Probably not a terrible experience if you're playing with a walkthrough pulled up, but like, where's the fun in that?

I spent weeks, sometimes months, where I wouldn't pick this game up, and by the time I'd get back to it, the whole island was completely foreign to me again. There's a map that helps sometimes, and Ulrira's hints do give you some direction as the story continues, but...

For me, and what I believe is the main problem, is that Link's Awakening doesn't play like a Gameboy game, for better or for worse. It's not a pick-up-and-play experience. It's a long, sprawling adventure across an island! This one took me forever. By the time I was finished, I was more than ready to put it down.

There are a hundred little gripes I have with this game. Gripes like, for instance, how many times I softlocked myself by picking up an object too fast (playing this on the original Gameboy, I expected some amount of glitches but this was always so annoying); the bow and arrow becoming useless as soon as you get boomerang; there's a boss that sends you back to the start of the dungeon when he hits you once (!!!); and a hundred even more granular little gripes that are neither here nor there but, at the end of the day, man, I guess this just wasn't for me.

This game had no right to be as good as it was. Back in the Game Boy days, you were lucky to get anything resembling the home console experience on the go. Clunky ports, clumsy sprite retooling and departures from series staples were the norm, with concessions having to be made to cram things into that tiny cartridge and monochromatic screen. The biggest successes of the platform were games like Pokemon, which took full advantage of the quirks of their hardware, or games like Tetris which simply accepted their place in the market and embraced the idea of being addictive timewasters. Link's Awakening said nuts to that and offered the full Zelda experience, and even managed to buck some series trends way before it was the cool thing to do. Taking place on a mysterious island, the narrative is completely divorced from just about any previously established characters or concepts, save for Link himself and a single name-drop of Zelda at the beginning. The twist at the center of the game isn't a particularly revolutionary one, but it is a twist, and one that was surprisingly emotionally affective for its time. There are minor gripes, of course - the dungeons are a bit simpler, only having two buttons for items (including your sword) means constantly having to jump to the pause screen to swap things around, and you will never want to see another acorn again for as long as you live by the time the credits roll, but otherwise, it's the genuine Zelda experience in the palm of your hands. I love this game and I will happily pick it back up to play it any time I have a long car ride ahead of me. Arguments can and have been made about whether or not this is the best 2D Zelda, but as far as I am concerned, it's the best got-dang Game Boy game ever made, and that's a title it gets to keep forever.