Link’s Awakening Review

So I got this game for Christmas 2019 and I decided to play it since I started it a while ago. It’s pretty much one of the only Zelda games I haven’t played, I think Oracle of Ages and Seasons, Zelda II, and the CDI games if you really count those, which I don’t, so this is on the very short list of Zelda games I haven’t played, until now.

Link’s Awakening is a 27 year old game that plays like a classic Zelda from back in the day where you go around, beat dungeons, and clear the game. It was remade back in September 2019 for the switch which is what I played. It has all of the classic items like the boomerang, hookshot, bow and arrow, etc. You talk to an owl that helps guide you in order to hatch the wind fish and get off the island by collecting the eight instruments and playing the song of the wind fish.

So I really liked this game. I think that the game’s artstyle is really cute and fits the more goofy feel of this game. The characters are all very cuteish(I don’t know what else to call it, sorry if that’s wrong) in dialogue and look. Some are Mario characters(Goombas, Pokeys, and Wart) and also a lookalike Kirby enemy. The dungeons are well made, openish, but also closed enough to make sense. It’s semi open world, so you can go anywhere as long as you have the right item. So after you clear a dungeon, some of the world opens and you can go to the next one, like most Zelda games. It’s all put together nicely on a small map cause that’s probably all the Gameboy could handle back then. My only complaint is that sometime it was hard to figure out where to go, but that’s my own fault since there is a place that you can get hints all over the world.

Overall, my experience with the game was very cheerful and happy. Even when the game was trying to be gloomy and sad, it just couldn’t be because of the aesthetic of the game. At the$60 price tag, $55 pre owned, I can’t say it’s worth since I got it as a gift. But I think at $40, $45 if you are stretching it, it is a great purchase and a fun game to play. I give it a 4/5, very fun experience, but very much a game of it’s time, which can be a good or a bad thing.