Link’s Awakening DX

Developer : Nintendo R&D2

Publisher : Nintendo

Platform : Gameboy Colour

Release Year : 1998

Was it all a Dream?

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of the first games I got for my Super Nintendo back in the day. I lost myself in Hyrule and Link’s quest for countless hours, enjoying every moment of it, and so when I found out that there was a Legend of Zelda for the Game Boy, I knew I had to play it. While I never had a copy of the original Link’s Awakening, my good friend did, and we both played through Link’s handheld adventure over and over. It blew our young minds that Nintendo was able to pack so much adventure in such a small package, and it really showed how much potential the Game Boy had.

With the release of the Game Boy Colour (GBC) five years later, Link’s Awakening was updated and released for the new colour handheld. The game was given a full colour pallet, as well as a new dungeon that you could only explore if you were playing the game on the GBC (the aptly named, Colour Dungeon), and support for the Game Boy printer (you could get your picture taken at certain spots in the game, and then print out those photos, because why not?) It was a great example of what the new Gameboy was capable of, and seeing the island of Koholint island in colour was a real treat. Even now, almost thirty years later, Link’s Awakening is an amazing game, and one that I was more than happy to play again on my Miyoo-mini+. It was a blast from the past, in all the best ways.

Portable Fun and Adventure

Link’s Awakening starts with our titular hero sailing across the seas, looking for new lands and new adventures. Link’s journey is cut short when his boat is caught in a storm, and despite his best-efforts things don’t go his way. With a flash of lightening and a boom of thunder, his boat is blown to pieces, and our hero’s fate is left to the whim of the ocean. This is the little cinematic that plays out before the title splash appears, and it lays the groundwork for the dream like adventure we are about to take. It’s very Robinson Curuso meets Gulliver’s Travels, and I love it. I don’t know if that is what the original team was going for, but I can’t shake the idea.

The adventure proper starts when Link is found washed ashore by a young woman named Marin, who then brings the unconscious boy back to the home she shares with her father, Tarin. Once Link wakes up, Marin tells him he is on Koholint island, and that if he wants answers he should head back to the beach where she found him. What follows is a sprawling adventure across the island as Link searches for the eight instruments of the Siren’s, the mystical treasures that are said to be able to wake the Wind Fish, which Link finds out from the wise owl, is the only way he will be able to leave Koholint.

This adventure plays out much like A Link to the Past, with you taking control of Link in an action/adventure quest to leave the island. You explore the island screen by screen, finding secrets, helping the island’s inhabitants with their troubles, battling monsters, and explore the game’s eight dungeons in your quest to defeat the Nightmares (what the game calls the dungeon bosses) and wake the mythical Wind Fish. This is the first Zelda game to introduce the trading sequence quest/minigame, which has gone on to be included in numerous games in the series. It is also the first appearance of the wise owl that guides Link on his journey with his constant cryptic riddles, hints, and clues.

While Link’s Awakening is a game of firsts for the series, it is also a game of call backs and cameos. These multiple references to other Nintendo franchise and characters lend themselves well to the game’s dreamlike quality: the side-scrolling sections harken back to Zelda II (and is a mechanic that will be seen again in the Oracle games), and the multiple cameos from the Super Mario cast (Peach and Wart, just to name a few) along with a few other appearances from Nintendo’s catalogue of characters (Dr. Wright from the SNES version of Simcity), reinforce the feeling of Link’s island adventure being a fever dream. Is any of this real? Or is this what is floating through our hero’s mind while he is adrift? It is these question that you will be asking yourself as you explore Koholint, and especially after the credits roll.

The game’s dungeons and boss fights are pretty good. While definitely not the best the series has to offer, they are also definitely not the worst. I feel for the series’ first portable outing, they are a good length and not too puzzle heavy. This leads the dungeons well to the bite-sized “pick up and play” idea behind the Game Boy. When I was younger, I thought the dungeons were a whole lot bigger, and it was just another thing that made this game so mind blowing to me.

If This is a Dream, Then I Never Want to Wake Up

Even after all these years, Link’s Awakening is a joy to experience again. It had been long enough that I had forgotten some things, and I was pleasantly surprised with how well the adventure holds up. That should be no surprise really, because even on the Game Boy the Zelda name is a mark of quality (we don’t talk about the CD-i games here), and that quality will shine through again in the Oracle of Ages and Seasons games, and especially the Minish Cap on the Game Boy Advance.

Playing through the adventure on my Miyoo-mini+ was a fantastic experience. This little device is great and being able to replay these classic Game Boy games on new hardware while I’m on my breaks at work, or laying in bed, is awesome. I cannot recommend this little unit enough, and as an entry level emulation system, it is great.