The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy) review "CONTAINS: The best Zelda soundtrack since Link 182."

If I ever want to be scoffed at online (and I do; who doesn’t love being subjected to a good scoffing), I’ll generally admit that Link’s Awakening remains, by some distance, my favourite Zelda game. Zelda, as a whole, was something I always struggled to connect with; I never got into how initially obsessed the series was with telling a very similar tale (a princess has been kidnapped: grab your green tunic/floppy hat ensemble and go bloody rescue her!) through the exciting medium of never-ending fetch quests. Awakening was hardly free from these limitations – do-gooding forest sprites just gotta fetch quest – but it did work hard in providing a new narrative. It’s just that this new narrative happened to be subtle mind-wrecking nightmare fuel.

But I was content with my less-celebrated GameBoy game, the way it made the most of its platform’s rudimentary abilities to still build a world very different from Hyrule. Perhaps, in an attempt to flee his never-ending obligations to constantly rescue the titular princess, Link finds himself trapped on Koholint Island. He’s there because he’s stolen Ys’ shtick and survived a shipwreck only to wash up on a beach, sans any equipment and missing big meaty chunks of his memory.

Considering literal wristwatches now have more processing power than the original GameBoy did, it’s worth dwelling on how well defined Koholint Island is. You catch your first glimpses of this on the beach. Lazy tendrils of sea lap rhythmically against a sandy surface, strewn liberally with bits of washed up debris and seashells. The odd palm tree sits serenely in the background as aquatic wildlife frolics merrily in the surf, crustaceans gathering in tight places. Everything is clean, well defined and containing subtle details that are lost on Link, who’s casually downing.



He’s eventually rescued by the island’s inhabitants who, in an effort to really grind in all that Ys thievery, just so happen to be in dire need of an adventurer type who’s handy with a sword. You soon learn that you've been deposited in a once peaceful place that has recently become plagued by monsters; coincidentally, around the same time you showed up. Devoid of your equipment, you are directed back towards the beach your sea-soaked body was found not so long ago. You washed up there, so it's reasonable to assume your stuff did, too. There, you are mercilessly attacked by murderous crabs.

Normal Link, a pointy-eared slaughterer of all angry crustaceans, would consider these a slight inconvenience before stabbing them a few times and hoping they drop some rupees. But it’s not normal Link you currently control. It’s amnesia Link. And he doesn’t even have a sword; the only thing he can find is his shield. But that’s okay! It’ll dissuade the pesky crabs for the meanwhile, and is the perfect tool for nudging aside the obtuse spiny urchins that prevent you from further exploring the beachfront.

You’ll eventually find your sword. You’ll eventually rediscover your memories; but you’ll have to figure out the nefarious nature of Koholint to do so. There’s something not quite right about the oddly idyllic island, sudden monster infestation aside, which you’ll soon learn has something to do with the inconvenient slumber of the Wind Fish and the arrival of a massive egg sat atop the island’s highest peak. After navigating the deadly beach, you’re told all this by a very chatty owl. Just to make sure you’re in no doubt of his owlishness, he starts every sentence with “Hoot! Hoot!”. Owls are many things, but never subtle.



Odds are, he’ll be the driving force behind your exploration, finding your way through confusing forest mazes and unexplored swamps to take part in eight dungeon crawls that often smugly deviate from the Zelda norm. There’s a strong music motiff running throughout, which won’t surprise many people considering the series’ long running ocarina obsessions, but many puzzle solutions revolve around the small collection of instruments you slowly assemble. It’s happy to try out some new ideas, too; the Rok’s Feather gives Link the then-unheard of ability to jump over stuff. You can use this to dodge various attacks, or gain access to enemy weak spots things like the boomerang and/or bombs struggle to reach. You’ll also need to use it to bypass the game’s infrequent side-viewed platforming stages where Link stops being Adol for a little while and has a little go at being Mario instead.

I don’t mind his forays into, ahem, homages, because it’s these little explorations away from the beaten track that combine to make Link’s Awakening a bit of a series oddity. With most of the usual cast completely absent and the all too familiar foundations purposefully muddled, Nintendo gave themselves a rare opportunity to deviate from the script; to produce something different.

They delivered. In between the chatty owls and giant-nosed, rosy-cheeked islanders, there’s something considerably more sinister lurking. Link may think he’s being of help, trying to poke around in the shadowy underbelly, but there’s a chance everyone involved might come to wish they’d never bothered rescuing him at all.

Staff review by Gary Hartley (May 25, 2019) Gary Hartley arbitrarily arrives, leaves a review for a game no one has heard of, then retreats to his 17th century castle in rural England to feed whatever lives in the moat and complain about you.