An extremely cool version of Link's Awakening. The four inventory slots and the overall faster inventory managment is nice in itself, but the ability to zoom out the game and be able to see several rooms at a time tremendously helps in making the game more navigatable. Sometimes, after playing so many Zelda games where getting lost is the point, it's nice to play a version where it's easy to know where is progress, and where it isn't. It's one of those things where once you experience it here, you wish every top-down Zelda got something like this.
Some minor nitpicks include the pacing of certain cutscenes being more rushed than the original was, so if you care about preserving the original "tone" of the game, the way this version of the game wants to hurry things along may be a slight turn-off for first-time players. I would've also liked there to be a toggle between the original and the Switch version of the music, as the original's OST can get repetitive here and there, and I think the Switch remake massively improved things on that front.
Regrettably, there's more than just nitpicks to be found here, as I'm hesitant to say that this remake was properly tested. Keyboard bindings reset everytime you quit out of the game, and I've noted that there's something a bit off about your sword's hitbox. Whereas in the original I was able to hit enemies diagonally, the range in this version does not seem good enough to risk doing that without getting hit yourself.
By far the worst issue are the random softlocks that may or may not happen after you collect each instrument. The first time it happened, the game saved my progress right after I defeated the boss, so getting back to the instrument was no big deal. The second time, it was not so generous, and all of my progress on the dungeon was completely reset, forcing me to do it again. I lost my motivation to continue playing by then.
Seeing as Nintendo took the game down as of writing this review, I'm not sure if we'll be seeing any patches come in. (Edit: The creator did leave the source code for it though, so maybe somebody else will pick up the slack??) Huge shame, though. We were so close to getting the best version of Link's Awakening to play, with just a little bit more fine-tuning. Now, who knows if it's gonna happen?
Some minor nitpicks include the pacing of certain cutscenes being more rushed than the original was, so if you care about preserving the original "tone" of the game, the way this version of the game wants to hurry things along may be a slight turn-off for first-time players. I would've also liked there to be a toggle between the original and the Switch version of the music, as the original's OST can get repetitive here and there, and I think the Switch remake massively improved things on that front.
Regrettably, there's more than just nitpicks to be found here, as I'm hesitant to say that this remake was properly tested. Keyboard bindings reset everytime you quit out of the game, and I've noted that there's something a bit off about your sword's hitbox. Whereas in the original I was able to hit enemies diagonally, the range in this version does not seem good enough to risk doing that without getting hit yourself.
By far the worst issue are the random softlocks that may or may not happen after you collect each instrument. The first time it happened, the game saved my progress right after I defeated the boss, so getting back to the instrument was no big deal. The second time, it was not so generous, and all of my progress on the dungeon was completely reset, forcing me to do it again. I lost my motivation to continue playing by then.
Seeing as Nintendo took the game down as of writing this review, I'm not sure if we'll be seeing any patches come in. (Edit: The creator did leave the source code for it though, so maybe somebody else will pick up the slack??) Huge shame, though. We were so close to getting the best version of Link's Awakening to play, with just a little bit more fine-tuning. Now, who knows if it's gonna happen?