The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

This game's humility is its greatest strength. For all that we give Earthbound credit for, this game originated many of those elements. The surrealism and penchant for silly references and a sobering closer that packs a strong emotional punch while being incredibly simple in its execution - that's all Link's Awakening. Though it lacks some of the finesse of later Oracle games, it more than makes up for it with its engaging world made all the more wonderful by its transient nature. A core part of my childhood.

If I were to make criticisms towards this game, it would be that the bosses are fairly weak and that a select few moments are frustrating to deal with if you lack a guide. This was in the era before the streamlining of Zelda games where you might have had to spend several hours messing around before you got a positive result. Granted, I think the series took a turn into the wrong direction into the new millennium, where everything felt more streamlined than it should've, so a little bit of brow-furrowing is more than welcome even if it becomes excessive sometimes. The bosses are tremendously easy up until the very last part of the game - Angler Fish gets most of the backlash, but the rest of them aren't much better. This is where the "use the item on a boss" formula reached saturation in Zelda, but before the designers thought to change it up by requiring more complex strategies, so a lot of it is just "press A, press B, repeat". It's a shame, since the dungeons in the latter half of the game are significant improvements over those in the first, especially Eagle's Tower which was a series high point at the time.

The main joy of this game is exploring the overworld, which, like with most 2D Zelda games worth their salt, is built like a puzzle in itself, requiring the use of items and planning to traverse. I have to admit that I've always enjoyed the feeling of entering an overworld screen and seeing more than 2 exits into other parts of the map; it always feels like there's something further to explore in each direction, and it's up to my own central planning capacity to thoroughly explore them all. Even the greatest 3D open worlds can't capture the same feeling - it's just as grand there, but it's very, very different.

Link's Awakening was A Link to the Past's slightly more straightforward followup, continuing its meticulous program of cleverly arranged dungeons contained in a gradually unlockable overworld, although it occasionally veers towards cryptic progression. Its transition to portable is hampered a little by the Game Boy's limitations (visually, not the menu system), delivering much less memorable dungeons in the process, even though a few tools and sidescrolling areas nod to both Super Mario and the original LoZ. By far the highlight here is the multi-story labyrinthine Eagle's Tower.

Since this game is a bit older, I was expecting to play this and almost immediately get stuck, fail to progress, and give up pretty soon. While I did get stuck for a while at some parts, I was motivated enough by the excellent gameplay, engrossing world, and light but charming story to jump over whatever hurdle I encountered and continue playing. All in all, this is a great game with a lot of secrets, likable characters, and all the tightly-knit gameplay loops that every Zelda fan should come to expect from this era of the series.

Sure, it's bogged down by some poor UI decisions (only having two equip-able slots to choose items from, for example). Sure, things can often feel too vague to figure out how to progress. But these faults are well worth weathering.

No importa las veces que lo juegue... Ese final siempre me saca una lágrima.

Link's Awakening is a cool evolution to Zelda pre-1993 because it appears to earnestly appreciate the series as a whole and not just the smash SNES hit A Link to the Past. While the control scheme severely limits the functionality of Link's Awakening compared to that title, which fully utilized a 6-button controller, the game taken as a whole evokes more mystery by adopting the wide-open, sink-or-swim world structure of the original NES Legend of Zelda.

The combat is extremely responsive and even with some of the more esoteric subweapons, nothing felt harder to control. Link's sword reach is quite a bit longer than in ALTTP, making routine encounters a bit less tedious. However, the limited button layout of the GBC means that Link's sword and shield will be put away often just to swap to a needed bit of equipment. You'll find yourself pausing multiple times per minute just to equip the right tool for the task at hand. This is the game's biggest issue by a country mile and the fact that it's just a constraint of the hardware makes me quite optimistic for the upcoming remake for the Switch.

The island of Koholint gates itself off into naturally revealed sections as Link's inventory of equipment grows. There are dozens of optional secrets you might miss entirely on a really solid playthrough of the game, and that makes this a game that is both fun to shoot through and spend time in the world. Your general gameplay loop is to find out where the next dungeon is, make your way there and find out what you need to find the key and get to the entrance, complete the dungeon, expanding your inventory with a new key item, and returning back to the fields of Koholint to start again. This is pretty straightforward stuff but you'll be running errands all over the island and its mazelike structure will eventually start to wear on you. Additionally, a few of the "dungeon prep" tasks are completely incoherent and illogical, even with the in-game hint system, which can make a couple sections of the game feel frustrating, like the game doesn't really care if you continue playing. The dungeons themselves are old-school hard and VERY complex towards the end of the game, but the early game has a solid difficulty curve so it's just about always rewarding.

Aesthetically I think Link's Awakening is a definite success for the GameBoy. Link, his friends, common grunts, and especially the bosses are all well-drawn and their weaknesses are communicated really well visually without verbal/written hints. The tone is a bit more whimsical and dreamlike thanks to the frequent cameos of Nintendo characters from other franchises, making it feel like a lighthearted Saturday morning cartoon series or something - He-Man comes to mind as a comparison. The GBC "DX" remake takes it up another level by incorporating a full color palette, which brightens the island and offers a bit more charm with all of its soft greens and sunbaked orange-browns. Occasionally you'll even see some cutscenes which look fantastic and never overstay their welcome. The game has some really solid sound design all around, with some solid musical arrangements (if with the caveat of an unhealthy overuse of the original Zelda 1 theme on the world map).

Link's Awakening is certainly a recommended title for both Zelda fans and people that haven't gotten to it in their GameBoy backlogs, but with the caveat of some guaranteed confusion at certain points, a slightly tedious map layout, and some serious inventory swapping issues. Maybe the island of Koholint will charm you like it did for me.

This is a great followup to A Link to the Past, which has a ton of character of its own. They really put a lot of effort into differentiating this from a clone of that game, with this game having much more plot and a story that doesn't even feature Zelda or Hyrule (and only barely kinda features Ganon), and that also includes a neat twist, albeit one that has almost certainly been spoiled for everyone by now. The inclusion of unique gameplay elements like the Roc's Feather, the side-scrolling sections*, and the Piece of Power/Guardian Acorn, all of which have barely been featured outside of this game, add even more to the game's idiosyncratic feel relative to the rest of the Zelda series. There's some really clever item usage in this game (which is also a bit of a curse; more on that in a bit), and the graphics fit the game's more lighthearted, wacky atmosphere well. As is typical for the Zelda series, the music is fantastic.

While it is one of the very best Game Boy games, I do have to knock it a notch because certain parts are just really annoying. One thing is that because there are less buttons than on a SNES or N64 controller (just two face buttons, not counting the D-Pad or start/select), you only have two buttons which you can use for items. In this game, things like jumping or grabbing something to carry it require items, and many times you need a combination of two items. This means you'll be constantly going back to the menu to swap items, which is made especially more tedious since if you go over the Ocarina in the items menu, you can't move left or right on the menu screen after getting more than one song for it, which takes some getting used to. In addition, the overworld is more maze-like than ever before; they really went all-out with this one. Sometimes it can be really annoying getting around because of this. The dungeons are extra confusing, too, with the last couple in particular being quite perplexing and involving a lot of backtracking thanks to an overabundance of one-way paths.

While it can be quite tedious at times, it's still a great game. I really appreciate its humor, originality, and wacky "anything can happen" attitude, to the point that there are cameos of many Mario enemies, along with Princess Peach herself! I don't recommend it as a first Zelda game, but I do recommend it for anyone that liked Zelda 1 or A Link to the Past, especially those that thought A Link to the Past could've used a bit more puzzle difficulty and a bit less combat difficulty.

The DX version is the definitive release, so get that. It has a new dungeon with a sweet reward, and a cute little photography mode added in. Plus it's in glorious color!