Released on the Game Boy two years after the Super
Nintendo masterpiece that was ‘A Link to the past’, ‘Link's Awakening’ was the
first time our intrepid hero had dared to cross onto the handheld games scene.
With the Game Boy not being able to able to handle anything the size of ‘A Link
to Past’ Nintendo set Link in a whole new world, far away from Hyrule.
The story goes that while Link is sailing back to Hyrule from a far off
land his ship encounters a huge storm. During the storm Link is thrown
overboard, awakening on the beach of Koholint island. He soon learns he must
find the eight instruments of the ‘Sirens’ in order to wake up the legendary
‘Wind Fish’ in order to return to his homeland. Well, it was obvious wasn’t it!
Surprisingly enough these eight instruments are located around the
island in eight dungeons, all of which must be searched and explored to succeed
in your task. Then once the eight instruments have been collected they must be
played in front of a big spotted egg on a hill where the ‘Wind Fish’ resides in
order to wake it. The dungeon featured in the Gameboy Colour version of the
game is also included for completeness and there is also a dungeon designer
included for added longevity. The designer allows any rooms visited from the
various dungeons to be collected and used to create custom maps. It’s a nice
idea and a welcome addition.
Graphically the game has changed a lot from its routes. Now everything
is bright and cartoony and the characters have an almost toy-like appearance.
It’s something that we never really got used to when playing as it seems a bit
out of place when looking back at the original design. A lot of the little
touches and details seem to be glossed over with the new approach and as such
it does lose some of the character that made the original such an impressive
achievement. When you consider how good the Wind Waker remake was a keeping the
original games style it’s a little surprising to see something so different in
the transition from Gameboy to Switch.
Like all Zelda games though the gameplay is where the game really
shines. As always the dungeons are excellently laid out needing clever thinking
and good swordsmanship to complete. Also two things have been added since ‘A
Link to the Past’, the ‘Roc’s feather’ and a new way of using the shield in
order to block attacks. This shows that while the game couldn’t hope to match
the scale of its Super Nintendo counterpart there is still some progression and
development in terms of gameplay.
If there was one problem apparent with the original it’s the difficulty
of the game. This has been toned down dramatically in the remake. Save points
are more generous and the fact many items are now assigned to specific buttons
makes enemies at lot more straight forward to deal with. Some puzzles remain
truly bizarre but at least there are helpful hints on hand in terms of phone
rooms spread around the map. As a result the game becomes a much faster paced
and breezy affair.
However, there are a few issues we can’t ignore. The game often drops
its frame rate when the screen gets busy which is simply bizarre. We’re all for
mimicking older systems but slowdown is really something we can do without and
hopefully it’ll be patched out in the future. The focus effect on Link is also
odd. Link moves as if under a magnifying class with the areas on the periphery
of the screen blurry. This seems to us like a way to mimic the idea of having
to move between screens (like with the original game), but it can be really annoying
when you are trying to see what’s ahead of you. Also, not having an on screen
map that’s easily accessible is an oversight.
When all is said and done though it’s clear to see ‘Link's Awakening’ can
still stand up as an quest worth undertaking. There are some obscure puzzles
but on the whole it’s an excellent and consistent adventure that makes clever
use of a limited number of ‘screens’. It’s also a little bit of a shame that
the Gameboy and Colour version of the game weren’t included to give a ‘complete’
feel to the package. That said, the dungeon design is strong throughout and it
serves as a great introduction to new players, a nostalgia trip for long term
fans and an example of how remakes can be done in creative ways to fit new
systems.
Overall 8/10
