CLASSIC GAMING
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Developer:  Nintendo
Publisher:  Nintendo
Genre:  Adventure
Year:  1993/1998
System:  Gameboy/Gameboy Colour

No matter where she goes, Zelda has this childish magic that illuminates almost anything she touches, or so you would think.  Consider the first Zelda game that DIDN'T have Zelda in it at all, or wasn't even set in Hyrule.  This makes you realise that it was all about Link, the title has always said it's Zelda's legend, but we must ask ourselves, is it the legend of herself, or is it the one who is a legend to her?  I'm going with the latter by the start of this review, into the colourful re-release of Link's first handheld adventure, and first non-Hyrulian one too.


Story - The story begins with a small raft in the middle of vicious maelstrom, Link desperately clinging onto the meager boat against the fury of the sea, but soon lightning blasts him head-on, and he arrives washed-up on Koholint Island, a strange somewhat peaceful island until the recent awakening of monsters all over the land.  Aided by a sweet local girl named Marin as well as a mysterious owl, Link sets off to discover more of the island only to find many strange parallels and truths, discovering that in order to escape from the island, he must travel to the various dungeons, gather up their sacred instruments and awaken the Windfish, whose egg rests at the very top of Koholint Island.

Gameplay - Link's Awakening is exactly like Link to the Past in terms of its gameplay, which you may or may not consider a bad thing.  You have your beginning sword and shield, an array of weapons and items you find later throughout the game, as well as a variety of dungeons and puzzles to solve, seven dungeons in all, as well as a cast of characters to help and learn from.  The few differences in gameplay compared to Link to the Past is that:
1.  It's much shorter, of course being on the Gameboy but don't let that stop you enjoying one of the longest games the Gameboy had before Pokemon popped up a few years later.
2.  You can use two items at one time, assigning them to the A and B buttons.  Even your shield which usually had to be hit just right to actually defend you, now does a much better job of defending if you equip and press the button it's assigned to, allowing you to barge your way through enemies for whatever reason.  Your inventory is also smaller than in Link to the Past due to less necessary items but they're all there in the game.


Another thing of note is there are two versions of this game.  The normal monochrome original and the charmingly colourful DX version.  The DX version had two additional features of gameplay.  An extra eighth dungeon to test your skill, and the Camera Shop.  The camera shop is an extra fun sidequest where a photographer takes pictures of you during special moments of the game, whereby you can print them out if you had the Gameboy Printer accessory.  Completely optional but it's something extra to try and find out.

Graphics - Firstly let's get the version differences out of the way.  The original has all the charm and humble graphical power of a true Gameboy, the DX version has the splendid colourful mixtures as good as the Gameboy Colour can do.  Whichever version you prefer, you should let the gameplay not the graphics sway you, for there really is no graphical difference other than the additional Camera sidequest.  The characters all look as rounded and smooth as Link to the Past, as well as the world being as simplistic and large feeling even for the Gameboy.


Music/Sound - Link's Awakening delivers with one of the finest soundtracks the grey handheld brick could ever churn out.  A range of wonderful tunes will be remembered from the sad song of the House by the Bay to the epic pacing of Tal Tal Heights (yes that is a lame name, and yes I only just realised 3 months ago why it was called that).  The dungeons even have their own individual themes which make for a less repetitive feeling experience to compensate for the shorter length of the adventure.
Another thing of note is that annoying LOW ON HEALTH sound.  If you ever played a Zelda game, you know this sound, and this is way worse than Sonic's ABOUT TO DROWN music because it is SO FUCKING CONSTANT, urging you to keep finding health before you DIE!  Link to the Past had the worst one, a shrilling beeping noise that sounded like a cellphone being raped by a pistol.  Link's Awakening succeeds in making it less annoying by sounding like a sonar, which while still irritating is not OH MY GOD PLEASE GIMME A HEART TO MAKE IT STOP annoying.


This game just goes to show that Zelda, as much as she's in the title of every game in the series, isn't the one out there making legends and delivering the magic where it should be.  It's all about the green-tunic kid.  Of course it's an obvious point to make but this is the solid evidence of it now.  You have to admit though, The Legend of Link isn't as catchy, isn't it?  Guess it's for the best she gets to have top heading, even if she isn't in it.  Fuck who are we kidding, does anyone even LIKE Zelda?  She's not even that hot half the time with ears like that.  Anyways title notwithstanding, it is a fine member of the flagship series of Nintendo and while not as long as the other games it is by no means any less satisfying an adventure to partake in.


Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 2
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 4

my favorite gameboy game. nice review. I never played it in color though.

Glitchy? How so?

I only played it through once, but I don't think that I encountered any glitches.

Hilarious yes but the novelty soon wore off.  I guess it's the fact that it's the only store on the entire island and you'd deserve to be called that EVERY TIME BY EVERYONE to steal from the ONE STORE on the island.

....I guess that's why the guy was allowed to kill you if you returned.  But seriously, who pays that much for a BOW???