Link's Awakening DX (Played on 3DS)

[Grazza]

It's 1993, I was a mid-teenager and eager to play the follow-up to probably the best game I had ever played - Zelda: A Link to the Past. Link's Awakening did not disappoint. Played on my original Game Boy (and later the Game Boy Pocket), it was like entering another world.

 

Fast-forward to 1999. Link's Awakening DX arrived, which I did not buy as I still owned the original. Approximately half a decade later I borrowed my friend's Game Boy Advance SP and the game but, somehow, I wasn't enchanted. It's not that it had suddenly become bad; more that I wasn't in the mood. Furthermore, I did not think any of the new features enhanced the experience, even the colour. Not on the side-lit (stay with me on this...) GBA SP anyway which, unless I'm mistaken, was the last machine that could play the original cartridge.

 

Fast-forward to 2012. I have played Ocarina of Time 3D, I have played all my Ambassador Zeldas and I'm trying to send Nintendo the message that I would like more! What better way to do that than to buy Link's Awakening DX from the eShop?

 

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Review

(Sorry to be grandiose!)

 

The first thing I noticed was the colour. It is absolutely stunning on the 3DS screen. The Game Boy Micro, DS Lite, DSi and 3DS have all had fantastic, back-lit screens, but this is the first time Link's Awakening has officially graced them. Furthermore, I have it on the 3DS XL, which is surely the best way Link's Awakening has ever been presented.

 

Zelda IV (as it used to be known) starts just as well as Zelda III. It's not long before you've got a handful of items and are heading to the first dungeon. This one, like a few of the others, is appropriately short. Link's Awakening was made in the days when Zelda games were allowed to have short, introductory dungeons, as opposed to everything having to be long and epic! That's not to say it's easy, as the first boss is one of the biggest difficulty spikes (you only have three hearts, after all). Generally speaking, Link's Awakening is firmly "16-bit" in its attitude to difficulty - that is to say, there are moments where you meet stiff challenges, but it's never frustrating. Once you've worked out what to do, you're fine.

 

The more I progressed through the game, the more I liked it. This was the Link's Awakening of my teenage years, just made more vivid. The overworld, dungeons and bosses are all perfect. Of particular note are the items and weapons. Not one of them feels superfluous, with the Hookshot and a particularly powerful version of the Boomerang being highlights. Not only that, but many of them can be upgraded, marked with an unpretentious "L-2" by their side.

 

You might think someone had thought long and hard about how to make the perfect Zelda, but I rather suspect it was just sheer instinct.

 

So what of the DX version, specifically? Well, I still think the extra content doesn't fit perfectly into the game. The Photographer is all very well, but sometimes the scenes he sets up are quite out-of-character, eg. Link being scared of Bow-Wow (after he's taken him for a long walk) or Richard sending you on an errand then catching you up momentarily just to pose for a photo! No, I rather suspect this was implemented just to support the Game Boy Printer - how unlike Nintendo!

 

The other addition, the extra dungeon, also feels out of place, although the Legend of Zelda NES music is nice, and who's going to refuse a Blue Tunic? (I think the Red one probably makes you too powerful.) At the end of the day, these are bonuses that purists can feel free to ignore.

 

The most important thing is that this is Zelda - real Zelda - and in my opinion, only the second truly good entry in the series. Link to the Past and Link's Awakening absolutely defined my idea of what Zelda should be... until 1998, of course, but even the mighty Ocarina of Time can't render those two games obsolete.

 

Link's Awakening is rightly praised for its haunting story and, as the credits roll, it's hard to know which is sadder - that, or the fact that they really, really don't make 'em like this any more.

Edited October 1, 2012 by Grazza

[Dcubed]

Well said. LA is one of my favourites in the series and it's partially because it's so compact. It has a tighter focus on each individual moment than any other game in the series and features some of the most brilliant level designs in the series!

 

At times it feels like a parody of Zelda, while feeling like a perfect personification of what Zelda is all about at the same time.

 

A truly timeless classic and one of the most touching games in the series

 

As for the DX extras, I like them - but I think they're best experienced only after you've played the game normally as in the original B&W version. It's fun seeking out the extra stuff and messing round with them, even if the colour dungeon tunics arguably break the balance of the game (though in a fun way for S&Gs )

 

That being said, it's only really Twilight Princess that has ridiculously huge dungeons. The other games in the series (including the DS Zeldas and Skyward Sword) feature much shorter dungeons.

Edited October 1, 2012 by Dcubed

[EEVILMURRAY]

Don't forget the nice photo you get taken when you steal something from the shop. Then everyone calls you THIEF from then on.

[Jonnas]

Link's Awakening is brilliant, and it's pretty clear this is not because they tried to do anything epic or sublime, they probably came up with the plot/concept on the fly and had so much fun with the setting and design, they figured they could do anything. It just feels like they wanted to try anything cool that came to mind, and it all worked (even that lame door that needs a pot to be opened has traces of this)

 

The design is brilliant, too. Must've been the same team from LttP, working with the crazier ideas they hadn't had opportunity to use.

 

I just love the little touches, like Marin's comments when you escort her, or the way you save her with the hookshot, the trading sequence, changing the enemy buzz blobs... Lots of quirky stuff that simply worked.

[Dog-amoto]

I played this a while ago on the SP, but never finished it. Same with OoA and OoS.

 

I should really get to it.

[flameboy]

Links Awakening was my first ever Zelda game and as such my favourite besides OoT. I remember the Saturday after it came out making my parents take me to Norwich to find it as we couldn't find it anywhere in Great Yarmouth (where I lived at the time). We eventually found it in some indie store having checked a ton (tandy, woolworths and the like). I feel in love instantly the graphics for me were above anything else on the gameboy. Also helped that I helped that I shared the experience with a friend at school who picked up the game as well. I do miss those types of conversations and how they've largely been replaced by online chating and forums.

 

You know what I'm taking a trip this weekend I may have to replay it...

[are1981]

One of the best Zelda games!

 

I finally bought the DX version via eBay, owning only the original previously, and I look forward to having an entire evening free, so I can insert it into my GCN-GBP and play undisturbed!

[Rummy]

The beach/sword search music always springs to mind, there's just something about it that really sort of expresses the whole game for me.

 

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