Console: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Nintendo, Grezzo
Ah, 1993…where “Sleepless in Seattle” hit box offices, Saturday Night Live unintentionally (or maybe intentionally?) makes a meme the internet will eat up a decade in a half later with its trifecta of Will Farrell, Jim Carey, & Chris Kattan and their head-banging to “What is Love?”, and what would at the time be assumed to be the eternal war in video games of Nintendo versus Sega. And then we have me at the time, little fledgling eight-year-old Blizzard…without a Game Boy and wouldn’t even get the massive 8-bit, green-and-black screened brick of a handheld until at least 5 years later. To get my fix for games galore between the severely restricted time to play on the Super Nintendo due to parents, I indulged myself in Nintendo Power Magazine…at least, what remained of a magazine subscription that the previous tenants at the house I lived in at that time probably forgot about. Come Issue 50 with its front cover display of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
If eight year old me could only have imagined how much this magazine would be worth today. God, I’m an idiot…
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is the fourth installment of The Legend of Zelda series but the first one that would be on a handheld. For that matter, it’d also be the first Legend of Zelda title that wouldn’t have its titular princess or be held in the land of Hyrule. Originally, the Game Boy game wasn’t going to be what it is today, but instead it was going to be a port of A Link to the Past, the 1991 Super Nintendo game, namely to stress test just how much the Game Boy could actually handle. It instead got turned into a side project under the direction of Takashi Tezuka, who was already no stranger to the Legend of Zelda franchise, but also the Mario Bros. franchise, and would later supervise, produce, or direct games such as Star Fox, Pikmin, and of course other Zelda installments like Oracle of Seasons and Ages. The game would be a critical success and re-releases for the game would follow years later, starting with Link’s Awakening DX for (primarily) the Game Boy Color which utilized the Game Boy Printer and then eventually a Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console port.
Finally, come February 2019, came an out of the blue announcement trailer. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was coming to the Nintendo Switch. It was an odd move, I’d find, since we’re still relatively fresh off the heels of Breath of the Wild, and more perplexing, recently, there was an announcement that there is a sequel in the works for Breath of the Wild. I’d had the notion they’d have to do something pretty major to make Link’s Awakening stick out a bit on the Switch. Incidentally, I did have the urge to go back to Link’s Awakening, though originally I had intended on playing the game on my 3DS. Though my curiosity was getting the better of me so I burned the $60.00, downloaded the game, and plunged right on in the day it was released to see if after 25 years if the game still holds up. Is there enough to warrant purchase for newcomers and veterans alike? Find out.
The Story:
In a journey to find himself and bigger purpose in life, the Hero sets off on a journey. However, on his return home, he gets caught up in a raging storm and his boat is struck by lightning which very well could have costed him his life. However, he ends up washed ashore on a beach, on a lone island known to the residents as Koholint Island and nursed back to health by one of the villagers named Marin. Coming to, Link would soon learn that not all is that it seemed and in order to finally get back to Hyrule, he had to slay the creatures that guarded eight instruments that would wake the Wind Fish who is imprisoned in an egg at the top of the highest mountain of the island.
For you newcomers, you’d find that the story is pretty whimsical, if albeit pretty hammy, even in its apparent darkest moments, which there really is only one. Veterans, you’d see that…nothing has really changed here. Everything is intact, nothing lost or changed.
The Gameplay
Quality of Life is the name of the game here. At least for this remake. In the original game, because of the limited space both in memory and button combinations, you literally could only carry two items/weapons at one time during gameplay which left you pausing the game frequently to change items/weapons out from your inventory for whatever you needed. That even included your sword and shield. Need to fight, but maybe jump around too? Pull out the Sword and Roc’s Feather. Needed to blow open a wall. Pause the game, switch one of the items to use bombs. Need to run really fast with the Pegasus Boots? Pause the game again, switch one of the items. For the Switch version, you no longer have to do that. Your Sword is B, Shield is your R button, Pegasus Boots is L, anything interactable, such as talking to people or picking up rocks, is A. Anything else can be traded out between your X and Y buttons. Sure, you’re still menuing some, but it’s been drastically cut down from the original game.
More quality of life traits come in the form of just simple scrolling of the screen. Before, you were relegated mostly to one screen and to transition to another part of the area, you go the top, bottom, left, or right of the screen (provided of course if you were allowed and didn’t have some sort of obstruction in the way), to transition. No such issues here. Everything flows seamlessly and the game camera stays generally centered on Link the entire time. That even goes for the dungeons as well.
Text Boxes back in the original game were pretty intrusive as well. Accidentally bump into a rock before getting the Power Bracelet? “Wow! This thing is really heavy! You won’t be able to lift it!” You get that message every time if you bumped into something. Now, they are cut down and won’t show up unless you tried interacting with it with A. Another reprieve.
The game as a whole still remains true to what it was back in 1993. Again, as stated, it was a top-down adventure that remained pretty linear from start to finish. Get told to go to dungeon at some location, go to aforementioned dungeon, get important item to kill boss of dungeon as well as to progress beyond dungeon once you’re finished, kill boss of dungeon, claim plot trinket (which in this case is one of the eight instruments to wake the Wind Fish), wash rinse repeat seven more times. It doesn’t deviate from that formula at all and to do any side quests, for which there are one primary one which part of is mandatory, you’d have to just break away for the time being.
That being all said, the game retains its difficulty…or rather…lack thereof. Despite the annoyances in the original game boy version, rather it be with its interface or actual enemies you encounter, the game at a whole is generally easy; arguably one of the easiest in the entire franchise, and that hadn’t changed in the remake. Oddly enough, continuing the trend since Skyward Sword, the Switch remake of Link’s Awakening provides Hero Mode, and you won’t have to beat the game first to unlock it. It’s available right from the start. Hero Mode makes you take double damage from the start and recovery is super limited, usually restricting it to the heart containers you pick up and fairy fountains you find on your adventures. That said, most enemies only deal a half heart of damage (sans choice exceptions), which only means 1 full heart of damage for Hero Mode. Sure, pretty punishing super early on in the game, but turns out that its just another day later on, especially when the enemies themselves take no more or less damage as they did in Normal Mode. Worse still, drops from enemies specifically which debuted and stayed within this game, the Guardian Acorns and Pieces of Power, drop seemingly more commonly than even money, making your adventure that slight bit more trivial.
Seriously, I got these roughly within 15 seconds of each other, and this wasn't the first nor the last time this happened in this playthrough.
Audio and Visuals
Come a brand new console potentially means brand new art styles to toy with and admittedly, while I was a bit off put at first of the look, it grew on me a little. The look is almost as if the Zelda franchise and a Fisher Price playset had a lovechild and this is what you get.
Though I have to admit, this look grew on me better and faster than Wind Waker's cell shading...
However, as nice as the game looks, it apparently does seem to be a little too intensive from time to time, even in docked mode. Looking it up, like most games, the game is supposed to run at the smooth 60 frames per second, and there were at times, like if I’m dashing through a whole field of thick grass with its accompaniment of enemies, like the one east of the starting village for example, namely the picture above, it stutters ever so slightly. It’s not what one would call jarring or outright terrible, but somewhat easily noticed.
The audio takes the minimalist approach. Its not a full-blown orchestra like you would see in other major titles, but instead only takes a couple of wind or string instruments at a time and on occasion dips into MIDI tracks in mid score to harken back to its Game Boy days. Regardless, the developers taken the time to make it sound as whimsical and pleasant as the game looks.
The Side Notes
And just as the game eventually takes a dark turn, as does this review. Truth be told, nearly one for one, this game is identical to both the original Game Boy game as well as the Game Boy Color game, more specifically the Game Boy Color game since there is an extra dungeon which debuted on there to show off the Game Boy Color’s prowess which in turn got carried over to the Switch version. That said, as true to form this game tends to be, it doesn’t…quite…hold up in 2019 as it did back in 1993 (or 1998 in the case of the Game Boy Color version).
Allow me to explain: While yes, there are TECHNICALLY things added to Link’s Awakening, they are minor at best. In the original game, there were only 14 whole heart containers you could hope to achieve in total, three of which of course are the ones you start with. This game adds in enough heart pieces to actually go up to 20 Hearts, being what would otherwise be known as the Zelda standard. Furthermore, the Secret Seashells, which for those not in the know are this game’s collectable to get other rewards, have been increased in total. From 26 to 50, to be specific. And the prizes at certain threshold counts have been adjusted to compensate. Speaking of prizes, the couple of mini-games provided in this game, the Trendy Game and the Fishing, also have been expanded upon so you should TECHNICALLY have some reason to return to them at a later point in the game.
Though because of which I got REALLY good at the Trendy Game
From the starting gun, you are offered Hero Mode right off the bat. No need to complete the game to unlock it or is it put behind some variation of a paywall. So there is SOME possibility of replayability if you decided to play normal mode first (which I did for the sake of this review).
In the Game Boy Color version, originally there was a Photographer Rat that shows up in certain locations that captures key moments during your adventure. No, he doesn’t ask you to say ‘Fuzzy Pickles’ while he is at it. But it did allow you to use a peripheral, the Game Boy Printer, which linked up to your Game Boy via link cable and printed out pictures from your game just as a thermal printer would…or otherwise, most cash receipt printers you see at the register in stores nowadays. In the case of Link’s Awakening, you’d be able to print out the photos the rat took. For the Switch, all of that got cut out and instead got replaced by a new gimmick. Dampe, the Gravekeeper, returns and allows you to actually build various dungeons. You might be saying at this point “Oh Cool, they gave us a Legend of Zelda Maker like they did with Mario Maker!” And I will say to you “Do you think it’s EVER that simple?” No, the Dungeon maker isn’t anything like that at all; though if it were, I’d wouldn’t be talking negative about this and furthermore probably ask the question why did we get Link’s Awakening in the first place and not just this.
The Dungeon Maker tasks you of arranging the various dungeon rooms on a grid. The rooms in question are pre-made, specifically based on rooms you completed already in Dungeons. You don’t get to adjust what’s in these rooms or how they’re completed. You just put them in on the overall grid, make sure all of the rooms connects correctly, then adventure through them. Dampe will have twelve different objectives for you to complete, but otherwise, you could go free-form yourself and just arrange whatever you want. Clearing the objective based tasks Dampe has for you will eventually net you a couple of heart pieces and seashells, and any money you find when you traverse your Frankenstien’d up dungeon you get to keep…which usually isn’t much. If it weren’t for the fact that you’d have to do these if you are out for 100% completion for the sake of the hearts and shells, this place would be outright useless. More so if you go make your, lack of a better term, free-form dungeon. The dungeons you make yourself can only be transferred via any Legend of Zelda Amiibo. You do not get to upload them online like you would a Mario Maker stage; in fact there is no online component at all. Long story short, the Dungeon Maker is a heavy waste of time that doesn’t feel fulfilling at all.
Unfortunately that is it for it. There is nothing else to tell here. The culmination of all I have said in this section of the review only artificially padded the game for probably…an hour at best, two if you decide to tackle Dampe’s dungeon maker objectives to get those hearts and seashell rewards. No other dungeons, no post game, no expanded main game, no nothing. In 1993/1998, it was relatively excused because you were dealing with the limitations of the Game Boy. It couldn’t be a vast adventure like Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past where you could sink a lot of hours into back then. But here, however, the game feels…rather hollow and short, to the point where one would probably be easily excused for saying “This is a cash grab” and probably not be wrong despite what improvements there are.
The Final Say:
Let me make one thing painfully clear: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a good game. I will stand by that fact until the end of time if I got to. I will not deny this. The fact is, as far as the Switch version is concerned, nothing really changed apart from aforementioned quality of life changes and the new look overall and the so-called main attraction, the Dungeon Maker, comes in and out on a rather sour note. It’s actually a little frustrating when I look back at games such as Pokemon: Fire Red/Leaf Green, remakes of the original Pokemon: Red/Blue and see that it actually had an expanded post game in that of the Sevii Islands. Or for that matter, Metroid: Samus Returns, the remake of Metroid II, which had been overhauled so much that it was arguably a completely different game entirely. I can very well understand in some regards wanting to stay true to the original source, and it very well shows, and it’s nice to see. But when the price of admission is $60.00 on the Nintendo E-Shop, maybe $50.00 if you see it in Wal-Mart, that’s…just too much, especially considering when you could get the Game Boy Color game on the 3DS Virtual Console for vastly cheaper. You wouldn’t be missing anything other than the prettier colors and the quality of life improvements. At least until the Virtual Console goes the way of the dodo, anyways. Until then, I cannot honestly justify anyone getting this game unless this game suddenly goes on sale for cheaper.
Veterans will find a familiar place and newcomers would probably find Link’s Awakening interesting, but end up finding out the game probably a bit on the easy side and by extension too short for its own good, even if the newcomer gets ‘ballsy’ and makes their first run a Hero Mode run. Both groups will probably find the price of admission isn’t going to be worth it either way which is what hurts this game more than helps, in my opinion. All versions of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a good game. That there is no doubt. The Switch version’s severe lack of extra things to do beyond what the original game provided and the price tag as of this review, however, is not. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Nintendo Switch nets a 6 out of 10.
Keep dreaming.