Extremely ambitious in terms of size, storytelling and aesthetics. It is indeed a significant achievement in software development and game design that something like that even existed on the Game Boy so early in its lifespan. The black and white graphics are absolutely gorgeous--they fit the "dream" aesthetic wonderfully and leave a lot to be imagined by the player. Dungeons get extremely complex and labyrinthine near the end of the game, and the final boss fight is one of the coolest and most difficult I've ever experienced in retro gaming. Really well encapsulates the quintessential "frustrating and confusing, but satisfying and engaging"

Some of its structure frustrated me a bit; the overworld is filled with random cul-de-sacs and can be extremely frustrating to navigate even w/ the map and warps. Imagine Dark World in ALTTP but twice as difficult to navigate. At times this made me disconnect from the game and brought me significant frustration as there is so much backtracking and getting lost. Some puzzles in the dungeons are pretty dumb too, i.e. there is some Zelda 1-esque "go bomb this random wall that has no cracks" bullshit in some dungeons, which is unforgiveable in my mind for a game released after ALTTP.

Yet, Link's Awakening is indeed a statement in story telling for Zelda, it's difficult, and it's one of the most beautiful Game Boy games I've seen. It's a great game in many regards, and I definitlely want to try playing the remaster in the future.

Doesn't do anything new; It Takes Two ports pre-existing ideas from some of the best video games games in history to a cooperative context and massively succeeds in doing so. It indeed clearly takes significant inspiration from Nintendo games, especially Super Mario Odyssey's transformations and its aesthetics is sometimes comparable to 3D Zelda dungeons, sometimes to Pikmin, sometimes it plays like Mario Kart, sometimes it plays a bit like Metroid... it's extremely diverse in its playstyles and inspirations, yet surprisingly, it succeeds in everything it attempts to do. The beauty of its environments is jaw-dropping (especially for an Unreal Engine game), the gameplay (incl. 3D platforming movement, which isn't an easy thing to master) is smooth, and everything it tries works so well with co-op. My girlfriend and I felt engaged from the beginning to the end, and I especially fell under the game's charm in the latter half.

Its ultra-linear progression sometimes make the levels feel rather hollow, giving not much reason to explore new environments. Furthermore, its fast pacing and perpetually changing gameplay makes it feel a tad unfocused and elusive at times. Writing is also extremely cringe-worthy at times--although Dr. Hakim's incredible personality completely fixes that. I would have hoped for each section to be a little more fleshed out and to have more collect-o-thon elements in it.

Despite that, It Takes Two is an essential short game to play with somebody--whether it's your significant other, a good friend, an avid gamer, a non-gamer--it has something for everybody and I was pleasantly suprised by its quality. Never knew EA were capable of publishing an actually fun and innovating game.