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Before Breath of the Wild (BotW) released in 2017, the Zelda series was heading down a rather linear path. Entries such as Twilight Princess and, even more so, Skyward Sword, provided linear, story driven experiences. Before Ocarina of Time brought the series into 3D, older 2D entries offered a more free and open experience. The adventure was yours to experience in almost any way or order. This included Link’s Awakening, originally released on the Gameboy, then re-released on the Gameboy Colour with additional content, and now remade for the Switch. Does this fresh paintjob deliver a competent old-school experience, with enough quality-of-life improvements to attract newcomers?
Open Your Eyes... Wake Up Link
After a brief but beautiful intro cutscene, featuring a young, anime Link, he awakens on a beach, his raft destroyed. The plot is light here, with no evil threat such as Ganon to vanquish and no Hyrule to explore. The game instead takes place on Koholint Island, a strange location even for the Zelda universe. This allows for some creativity, with normal enemies such as Moblins being joined by other Nintendo characters, such as Kirby clones and Shy Guys.
As a result, Link’s quest is to explore this strange world and awake the Wind Fish, facilitating his escape. To do so, Link must find and explore 8 dungeons, retrieving a musical instrument at the end of each. It becomes very clear early on that all is not as it seems on the island. Don’t expect any Shyamalan level twists though, as characters essentially explain the mystery halfway through the game.
Adventure Of Link
The gameplay loop is quintessential top-down Zelda – use a combination of your sword, shield and tools to defeat enemies and explore the overworld, finding dungeons, secrets, and McGuffins to progress the plot. Some enemies are best blocked with the shield, whilst others should be dealt with at range or dodged. It’s not deeply complex combat, with most enemies dying to a couple of attacks, but it’s not mindless either.
Puzzles make up the other sizable chunk of the experience, ranging from the simple, to a multi-staged item trading quest. For the most part, they are quite intuitive, and I only found myself getting stuck and consulting a guide when needing to find or unlock the next dungeon.
The games freedom means it’s entirely possible to miss items. For example, I missed collecting an item required to open a later dungeon, and an add-on for said item required for the same purpose. This back-tracking disrupted the flow slightly, but was not egregious. I also managed to complete the game without collecting the iconic Boomerang item. I see this as a positive, showing the freedom each player has to complete puzzles and combat in multiple ways.
2D Or Not 2D? That Is The Question
The most attractive feature of this remake is the visual fidelity, with some gorgeous, shiny, toy like aesthetics. This style won’t be for everyone, and follows Nintendo’s trend of theming a game’s visual style, akin to Yoshi’s Wolly World. Water shimmers and sheens, enemies wince when struck, and some settings like a haunted graveyard really stand out and shine.
It is a shame then that this visual fidelity comes at the cost of frame rate, with the game dropping between 60FPS often. I did not notice this too much, besides when the screen was filled with several enemies shooting projectiles. The other odd decision the art direction takes is to obscure, almost blurring, everything on the periphery. After a while I stopped noticing this, but it did take some adjustment.
One way in which the original Gameboy game innovated was to include 3D puzzles in a 2D space. One dungeon in particular focuses on falling down holes in the floor to reach inaccessible areas on lower floors. The transition to 3D doesn’t detract from this experience, but it would have been nice for said holes to show the below floor, rather than just a dark spot. The 3D visuals also breathe life into other mechanics, such as jumping over obstacles or dealing with swooping aerial enemies. All of this serves to make the gameplay more engaging.
The music of Koholint is as catchy and infectious as you could expect from a Zelda game. However, no tunes stick out particularly well in my memory.
Model Village
Mabe Village serves as a mini hub, and is where our hero’s adventure starts. Several side-quests can be initiated from here, and once fast travel is unlocked there is a portal not too distant. Annoyingly, the village isn’t quite centrally located, meaning that you will need to manually backtrack here a few times, especially if you find yourself in an area without a fast-travel portal.
A handy shop is also located here, selling shields, bombs and other useful items. Some of these items certainly feel over-priced given how stingy rupee rewards can be compared to other entries.
The Link's Awakening village also houses many of the extra features of the game. Firstly, there is a fishing spot, yielding rewards such as a heart piece and a fairy bottle. Despite there being a limited pool of fish species to catch, each one requires a different strategy to reel in. Secondly there’s the crane game, again yielding a heart piece, as well as some Nintendo themed figures that can only be displayed in specific locations each, throughout the world. The physics of this game are intentionally slippery just like real life claw machines. Again, with the low rupee rewards in the early game, this is certainly a post-game activity.
KohoHINT Island
I have dabbled in Link’s Awakening DX via the 3DS virtual console, but never finsihed the game. One reason for this was the previously mentioned item trading quest, centring largely around Mabe Village. Characters would request one item, and upon delivery would reward you with a different one. Find the NPC wanting this item, and rinse and repeat. This ultimately results in unlocking one of the mandatory dungeons, and I found myself consulting a guide several times before giving the game up.
Fortunately for the remake this process was a lot easier. I’m not quite sure what changes were made to streamline this, as there did not seem to be any additional hints. I only hit one point where I wasn’t sure where to deliver the next item.
On the topic of hints though, new to this game are hint houses, frequently dotted across the map. When the overall objective is unclear, Link can visit these for a hint on how to progress. Usually, this hint points out a location to visit, without giving away any further unlock requirements. However, on occasion they will just spell out the answer immediately. More irritatingly, unavoidable and unprovoked, an owl will often stop Link in his tracks to tell him the next location to visit, or where to locate a key. This does make the game a lot easier in terms of overworld traversal and puzzle solving.
Dungeon Trawler
Another addition that warrants mention is Dampe’s Chamber Dungeon creator. A few hours into the game, this feature unlocks, allowing players to collect tiles representing dungeon rooms. Placing them on a grid, players can create their very own challenge for themselves or a friend to attempt. Dungeons must be completed by their creator before they can be shared, stopping anything truly impossible from being generated. Unfortunately, the only way to share a dungeon is through an Amiibo. Therefore, unless you have said plastic lump and a physical friend, it’s unlikely you’re going to be using this feature.
Tiles are rigid in the enemies and items that they provide, so the only customisation is the dungeon layout and which tiles you actually choose. The incentives to participate in this mode are minimal, and it is not one that I engaged with much. A heart piece and other collectibles can be obtained, along with additional tiles, for completing challenges set by Dampe. These can include using a certain number of a type of tile or placing them in a certain configuration. The greatest reward is that you keep the rupees obtained in a chamber dungeon, meaning you could use them to farm money.
Conclusion
Whilst the Link’s Awakening remake does little to reinvent the wheel, it does provide a nostalgic experience for older Zelda fans. The quality-of-life additions make for a more accessible and well-presented game, though not a challenging one. If not focussing on side quests, the experience is also quite short. If you’re looking to introduce someone to the series, this can be a good starting point given its ease and brevity. Extra additions such as the dungeon builder probably won’t be enough for fans of the original wanting something significantly different. That said, even a mediocre Zelda experience is a pretty great gaming experience all things considered.
That concludes our thoughts on Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening today click here!
