The Legend of Zelda has a strong case as the greatest overall gaming franchise, so much so that its a victim of suffering from success at times. That is to say, this series has so many incredible games that even a great classic entry like Link's Awakening can easily go overlooked, in part due to its advanced age, but also on account of at least a handful of Zelda games considered even better still. In a vacuum from the greater franchise however, what we have here is one of the very few remaining Game Boy games that still holds up well in the present day, a remarkable feat.
The most striking aspect of Link's Awakening to me is just how impressive it is for a game of such high quality to exist on limited and primitive hardware. In development, this game began as a side project to port A Link to the Past to the handheld Game Boy, but soon grew into its own unique game with an island setting completely independent of the Hyrule we'd come to know. While measuring up to its legendary console predecessor may have been an impossible task, Link's Awakening carved itself a distinct identity all its own, even introducing some series staples that would carry over into the N64-era 3D games to follow.
Link washes up on the shore of Koholint Island, and is informed by an owl that in order to return home, he must awaken the Wind Fish, encased in a massive egg atop Mt. Tamaranch. This entails an Earthbound-style quest of collecting eight melodies, or in this case eight magic instruments, needed to play the song to awaken this mythical creature. This island setting is of a smaller scale than usual, but the classic Zelda dungeons are here, and they're mostly pretty good. The only dungeon I found to be especially annoying/confusing was The Eagle's Tower. Collapsing pillars of the dungeon to render higher areas accessible is a cool dungeon concept, but in practice its convoluted to understand just how the dungeon changes each time, and lugging around iron balls to accomplish this is pretty tedious in itself. The typical Zelda gameplay loop of finding a new item in each dungeon that must be used to solve puzzles within returns, and while most of this equipment existed in A Link to the Past, jumping around with the new Roc's Feather is really fun. Combining this with the Pegasus Boots allows Link to travel super quickly across the small screen.
Koholint Island itself is lighthearted and cozy, also notable for the unexpected presence of Mario enemies like Chain Chomps and Goombas. It's fun to see this rare crossover, but these guys don't seem like they belong in the Zelda universe at all. And that is because they aren't. Yes, as Link collects more instruments it is progressively revealed that Koholint Island and everyone on it is actually a dream. The "it was all just a dream" ending is typically a cheap narrative no-no, but in Link's Awakening its framed in a bittersweet way, the player burdened with this knowledge ahead of time means that by completing their quest they'll also be essentially removing the Koholint community they've come to know from existence. Realistically though, the only character that will truly be missed is Marin, she's the sweet and spunky girl who initially finds Link shipwrecked, and helps on his quest several times throughout the game. My favorite of these is easily her journey to the Animal Village. Featuring all-stars including the Chef Bear and the Sleepy Walrus that only Marin can sing to wake up, this is an all-time Zelda location just for how delightfully cartoony it is alone.
There are other quirky product-of-the-time things with Link's Awakening, like taking in-game pictures meant to be printed out with the Game Boy Printer, kinda wish I was there to experience that when it was new and cool. Any further complaints with the game are fairly nitpicky and fall under the subjectivity of puzzle-type games being either too cryptic at times to figure out how to progress, or merely the player's fault for being unable to solve it. There's an old man Link can phone for hints, but sometimes his advice basically just amounts to "idk just figure it out yourself lol." I found the final boss underwhelming as well for what its worth, and deciphering the path to reach this final confrontation felt unnecessarily obtuse.
The Game Boy was surely bursting at the seams trying to fit a substantial full-length adventure in that clunky cartridge, but Link's Awakening found a way. Even the music is pleasant, despite playing from speakers that often were a headache simulator, "Tal Tal Heights" and "Ballad of the Windfish" stand out especially. This game has a strong case for the best on the original Game Boy (Color), and holds up better compared to the rest of its franchise than I ever could have expected, an exception where it's okay to be just a dream.
4.0/5.0
The most striking aspect of Link's Awakening to me is just how impressive it is for a game of such high quality to exist on limited and primitive hardware. In development, this game began as a side project to port A Link to the Past to the handheld Game Boy, but soon grew into its own unique game with an island setting completely independent of the Hyrule we'd come to know. While measuring up to its legendary console predecessor may have been an impossible task, Link's Awakening carved itself a distinct identity all its own, even introducing some series staples that would carry over into the N64-era 3D games to follow.
Link washes up on the shore of Koholint Island, and is informed by an owl that in order to return home, he must awaken the Wind Fish, encased in a massive egg atop Mt. Tamaranch. This entails an Earthbound-style quest of collecting eight melodies, or in this case eight magic instruments, needed to play the song to awaken this mythical creature. This island setting is of a smaller scale than usual, but the classic Zelda dungeons are here, and they're mostly pretty good. The only dungeon I found to be especially annoying/confusing was The Eagle's Tower. Collapsing pillars of the dungeon to render higher areas accessible is a cool dungeon concept, but in practice its convoluted to understand just how the dungeon changes each time, and lugging around iron balls to accomplish this is pretty tedious in itself. The typical Zelda gameplay loop of finding a new item in each dungeon that must be used to solve puzzles within returns, and while most of this equipment existed in A Link to the Past, jumping around with the new Roc's Feather is really fun. Combining this with the Pegasus Boots allows Link to travel super quickly across the small screen.
Koholint Island itself is lighthearted and cozy, also notable for the unexpected presence of Mario enemies like Chain Chomps and Goombas. It's fun to see this rare crossover, but these guys don't seem like they belong in the Zelda universe at all. And that is because they aren't. Yes, as Link collects more instruments it is progressively revealed that Koholint Island and everyone on it is actually a dream. The "it was all just a dream" ending is typically a cheap narrative no-no, but in Link's Awakening its framed in a bittersweet way, the player burdened with this knowledge ahead of time means that by completing their quest they'll also be essentially removing the Koholint community they've come to know from existence. Realistically though, the only character that will truly be missed is Marin, she's the sweet and spunky girl who initially finds Link shipwrecked, and helps on his quest several times throughout the game. My favorite of these is easily her journey to the Animal Village. Featuring all-stars including the Chef Bear and the Sleepy Walrus that only Marin can sing to wake up, this is an all-time Zelda location just for how delightfully cartoony it is alone.
There are other quirky product-of-the-time things with Link's Awakening, like taking in-game pictures meant to be printed out with the Game Boy Printer, kinda wish I was there to experience that when it was new and cool. Any further complaints with the game are fairly nitpicky and fall under the subjectivity of puzzle-type games being either too cryptic at times to figure out how to progress, or merely the player's fault for being unable to solve it. There's an old man Link can phone for hints, but sometimes his advice basically just amounts to "idk just figure it out yourself lol." I found the final boss underwhelming as well for what its worth, and deciphering the path to reach this final confrontation felt unnecessarily obtuse.
The Game Boy was surely bursting at the seams trying to fit a substantial full-length adventure in that clunky cartridge, but Link's Awakening found a way. Even the music is pleasant, despite playing from speakers that often were a headache simulator, "Tal Tal Heights" and "Ballad of the Windfish" stand out especially. This game has a strong case for the best on the original Game Boy (Color), and holds up better compared to the rest of its franchise than I ever could have expected, an exception where it's okay to be just a dream.
4.0/5.0