Playing the new remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a slightly surreal experience. I never thought this would be the Zelda game Nintendo would choose to remake, not because I don’t think the game is great, but because there’s just so many other beloved games in this series that also deserve a remake with this much care and attention to detail. However, with recent remakes/reimaginings of Game Boy games such as Metroid 2 and Pokémon Yellow, the writing was on the wall.
When people talk about the 2D iterations of The Legend of Zelda, the clear standout that most people think of is the SNES title, A Link to the Past. That game is often credited for making Nintendo’s epic adventure series into what it is today. However, one title whose contribution is often forgotten is the fourth entry in the series, Link’s Awakening. Beginning life as a Game Boy port of A Link to the Past, it quickly developed its own identity and became something more.
It was the first game in the series to really focus on the surrealism and strangeness that would later come to define some of the best games in the series, such as Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. The dreamlike scenario, goofy characters and cameos from other Nintendo games set this far apart from the other Zelda games. Even today, it feels like a much more understated and intimate experience than its SNES counterpart, befitting of its home on Nintendo’s old handheld. Full spoilers for a 20+ year old game will follow.
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