There was a great nor’ easter this weekend so I was stuck inside throughout it. I decided to play through the Link’s Awakening remake and it was fun as hell.
I had played the original when I was younger and obsessed with Legend of Zelda. They were my favorite games for the longest time. When I picked this up, I realized that most of it was still fresh in my memory. I started gathering rupees because I knew one of the big things in this game was that you needed money. It was kind of like being a character in a movie with amnesia. I was doing things that I knew I had to do but I couldn’t remember why. First up was the crane game. I know I needed to get the Yoshi doll. I gathered my rupees and started trying.
In the original, the issue was trying to figure out where the hell the Yoshi would be gripped amongst the few pixels you had on the Game Boy. This one, the Yoshi doll just keeps jumping out of the crane like it knows it’s going to its death. I got that doll and remembered it was supposed to be part of the trade sequence. So, I got that going.
What does that mean for the overall quality of the game? Not much. But considering the trade sequence runs through most of the game, it feels important to let you know about it.
The story is a simple one, Link washes up on a mysterious island. He’s told that he won’t be able to leave unless he goes to the giant egg containing the Wind Fish and wakes it up with the eight siren instruments. The Wind Fish must be into indie rock because the eight instruments are as follows, a cello, a bell, a triangle, a drum, an organ, harp, marimba and conch horn. The sonorous nightmare that must come from all of those being played together is going to be discordant to say the least. Anyway, it’s the usual Zelda format where you have to venture to the eight dungeons to get the items and gather your usual equipment, boomerang, bow and arrows, flippers and the rest.
What’s changed? First, the controls. Because of the limited buttons on the Game Boy, you had to set each item to either your A or B button. Sword and shield? Both buttons. Any other button you were lacking one of those two mainstays. The Switch 2 has many more buttons and thus they make the wonderful decision to utilize them. Sword, shield, pegasus boots and two separate items. This made it feel mostly like A Link to the Past, perhaps the greatest if not one of the greatest Zelda games ever made. So, with that change, it made playing the game so much easier. I want to play the other two Game Boy Zelda games but I hesitate because I would have to go back to that old control scheme. This update was immaculate.
Graphics? Beautiful, of course. The cartoony visuals work with the lighthearted and dreamlike nature of the story. Nothing too out of the ordinary but it all works.
Of course, we updated the chiptune soundtrack of the first one. The Animal Village soundtrack is still kind of annoying so I didn’t spend that much time in there.
The main issue I had with the games is that two last dungeons. Maybe I’m old and my brain isn’t working the way it used to but I found myself getting confused and lost in those dungeons. They’re darker than any other dungeon and more confusing. The seventh dungeon has some of those infuriating multiple level/switch puzzles that were made famous by the water temple from Ocarina of Time. Those could have used a redesign and less complication.
The whole thing took me about twenty hours to complete. I had fun the entire time, besides the last two dungeons, it never felt like a drag or sludge to get through. I would definitely check it out if you were looking into getting into Zelda or were a fan of the original.
