So you’ve stumbled across my blog which is amazing and thank you for getting this far. I’ve been wanting to find some way of channeling my intense love of gaming into something creative, so what does any self respecting gamer with no real qualifications do? That’s right, they start up a Twitch account. However, due to a distinct lack of money for the proper equipment and a lack of space for a proper set up anyway, I decided to start up this blog. Which you are now about to read and (with any luck) enjoy
So now that I’ve got that bit of self indulgence out of the way, The Legend of Zelda : Link’s Awakening. Yes, yes, I’m aware I’m over 5 months late to the remake of the Zelda game that is (checks notes) the most reissued handheld Legend of Zelda title to date. Not sure if that’s because the game still holds up or if its down to the fact that the original was released nearly 30 years ago.
This version of Link’s Awakening is not just a reskinned reissue of the 1991 original however. Nintendo have gone back and rebuilt the game from the ground up. There were murmurings of mutiny around the games announcement over the fact Nintendo were going to charge full price for another HD remake. But let’s not kid ourselves here, if Nintendo had actually slapped a new coat of paint over the GameBoy version we would have paid whatever Nintendo wanted, such is the impact that Link’s Awakening had on more than one generation of gamers.
The main reason why so many people hold Link’s Awakening in such high regard is that, at its heart, it’s a very fun game to play. Thankfully there weren’t too many drastic changes made to how the game itself plays.
First off, in the off chance you’ve never had to play any of the early handheld Zelda games, the Switch has more buttons than a GameBoy, a lot more. This means things like the shield and the Pegasus Boots are mapped to shoulder buttons once collected, and there are two open slots for any of the multitude of items that Link picks up along his quest. I tended to keep Roc’s Feather mapped to one of them because jumping is a necessity through a lot of the game.
Aside from these additions there isn’t a lot more to be said. It is really a handheld Zelda at heart which means combat is fairly simple, press button to slash, hold button to spin, kill the things trying to kill you. It’s kind of beautiful in its simplicity.
As I mentioned before this is more than just a HD reskin of a 28 year old game. The handheld Zelda games have always been quite distinct compared to the home console titles; with the GameBoy titles all having their own style and the GameBoy Advance and DS titles taking some cues from Wind Waker (A Link Between Worlds is a bit of an outlier here but shh you never noticed that).
It’s interesting then that Link’s Awakening somehow manages to be sort of a hybrid between handheld and home console style. It has the overall polish that you need when playing it on a TV but is quirky and has the kind of chunky feel that the GameBoy titles have. Link feels like he’s about half the size of the trees so despite the scale being a little off, when played handheld it never feels like you need to strain to see anything displayed on the screen.
The character design is cutesy without feeling overdone, each of the inhabitants of Koholint feel unique and although their faces are relatively basic everyone feels expressive and part of a bigger world. Nintendo have this knack of making games that look like they’re made from real world textures, both Yoshi’s Wooly/Crafted World are prime examples of this, and Link’s Awakening falls into this bracket. For me it feels like the entire game has been made from porcelain, there’s almost a shine to everything in game; the people, the plant life, the buildings, the pottery all glisten in Koholint’s soft sunlight.
Now if you were to ask anyone what they love most about a Zelda game, I guarantee you the most popular response will be “stop bothering me, I have no idea what a Zelda is.” However if you ask someone who has devoted a considerable amount of time on the series, many will wax lyrical about the music. Link’s Awakening has taken a page from Breath of the Wild’s book and kept the music minimalist without feeling non existent. There’s no full orchestra blasting out the main theme (think violins, cellos, and piano) but the music that is present sticks in the memory.
The sound effects have had an overhaul too but it’s pretty standard Zelda fare here. This isn’t a criticism, there’s only so many times you can here Link shout “hyah” without it kind of becoming white noise.
I’ll preface this with a SPOILER ALERT but at this point the Switch version is almost six months old and the original was released back when everything Bryan Adams was doing he was doing for you . While it’s not the weakest story (I’m looking at you Legend of Zelda), it is a little light on plot. The ending is something that’s always bothered me, the whole *does dreamy voice* it was all just a dream thing in anything always feels like a little bit of a cop out. However when the game is this charming and enjoyable it is forgivable.
For a game that is approaching its third decade, Link’s Awakening is still as enjoyable and engaging as it was nearly 30 years ago. I will most definitely be firing it back up in the very near future for a second (and no doubt third, fourth, fifth, twenty-ninth) playthrough. As I stated before I am biased because the series holds such an important place in my life as gamer, but honestly if you are looking for a gateway into Zelda you would do a lot worse than Link’s Awakening.
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