Oh man, the hits keep coming.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was Nintendo’s first attempt at bringing their uber-popular Zelda franchise to their even more uber-popular Game Boy. It was a match made in uber. Over 5 years after its original release, a “DX” version for the Game Boy Color was released – that’s the version we’re talking about this week. This version has colorful sprites, an extra dungeon, and compatibility with the Game Boy Printer, one of the dumbest things in the world. It lets you print out images like this:
Ugh. Anyway, here’s a thing I didn’t know about this game until today – from the get go, it wasn’t meant to be a new Zelda game at all! During their off hours, some Nintendo developers were quietly working on porting A Link to the Past to the Game Boy. That plan didn’t work out, but it eventually evolved into the portable classic as we know it today.
The game’s story is actually surprisingly different than a lot of other “main” titles in the series. For starters, it’s not set in Hyrule, but on Koholint Island, a place whose name I swear I didn’t just make up. It also doesn’t actually feature the character of Zelda, which almost feels like a weird oversight. The game begins with Link, our usual protagonist, waking up on the island’s shore (this is, you could say, Link’s awakening). He is tasked with collecting a set of eight magical instruments, which can then be used to wake up something called the Wind Fish, after which he can go home. You’re given explanations and story tidbits by a weird owl, who seems to know a lot about this stuff and could maybe just do all of this himself. I’m just saying.
All of the essentials of the franchise are here – cool dungeons, interesting puzzles, mini-games, stabbing chickens, and so on. While it’s a bit short compared to other games in the series, Link’s Awakening still captures the essence of what this amazing series is all about (and, perhaps more importantly, what makes it great). The music you know and love is still there, the cool items are still largely present, and the dungeon design is top notch, complete with cool bosses and hidden treasures and so on.
As if that weren’t enough, the series also dares to innovate a bit – it was the first Zelda game in which Link can jump – a surprisingly big innovation! This also allows for a cool few side-scrolling sequences, some of which are just straight up Mario-y:
Link’s Awakening often appears close to the top of rankings of Zelda games, and with good reason – Nintendo did a remarkable job of shrinking the concept down to the Game Boy’s size without sacrificing much of anything in terms of functionality. Any Zelda ranking is going to be crowded at the top, but this game truly deserves to be in that discussion.
If this article has piqued your interest, I have incredibly good news! The Retro Roulette wheel has developed excellent timing this week, as a remastered version for the Switch is hitting shelves *this week* – whether you played the original or not, it’s gonna be a must-buy. No Game Boy Printer support, but nothing’s perfect, you know?
Next week, our impressive run of 90s classics comes to end, as we go back to before I was born. Is the game good? I have no idea. Probably not. See you then.