Now Playing: Link’s Awakening (2019)

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was originally released on the Game Boy in 1993. I don’t believe I played it until a few years later, perhaps around 1996, and I later played the Game Boy Colour DX version. It was, I believe, my first Zelda game and it is, in many ways, kind of an odd entry in the series in terms of its story, location and characters.

Although it’s a game I have fond memories of I can’t honestly say I recall much beyond the opening few dungeons. Spin on 20 years and here I am playing a Switch remake of Link’s Awakening. So is it a good remake? And how does Link’s Awakening feel to play now?

Visually, the remake replaces the 2D graphics of the original with a charming and colourful 3D world. I am, however, kind of torn on this visual ‘upgrade’. It certainly looks lovely but there was something so appealing and timeless about the 2D visuals of the original that I feel has been lost a little in the transition to 3D.

I have similar misgivings about the upcoming Advance Wars remake. Advance Wars was one of my favourite Game Boy Advance games and its 2D visuals were glorious. I’m just not sold on the transition to 3D based on the videos I’ve seen. Maybe it’s just misplaced nostalgia speaking. It does, I admit, have a charm all its own, but I do think I just prefer the original 2D graphics over these slightly too shiny, ‘toy’ like 3D interpretations.

I also don’t recall Link’s Awakening being so damn easy. Maybe I’ve just gotten better at games. Maybe it’s the controls with easier access to more tools. Maybe it’s the seamless overworld, or the map on which you can now mark points of interest so you don’t lose your way or forget locations you need to return to later. Maybe it’s the improved range and ease of movement that makes all the boss fights entirely trivial.

I breezed through Link’s Awakening much faster than I expected to. Having watched some comparison videos I have to say it’s certainly a faithful recreation of the original. Every dungeon. Every room. Every enemy. But it does feel a hell of a lot easier than I recall. I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing, as such, but it did mean I found the game lacked any real challenge.

The dungeon designs are all fun, as are the boss fights, but I wouldn’t say any of them are particularly memorable. I do still love exploring the overworld though, meeting the weird and wonderful cast of characters and hunting down the various collectibles and optional items. That’s as fun and engaging in this remake as it was in the original.

This remake has a new ‘build your own dungeon’ mode which I thought was a little pointless. You’re not really building your ‘own’ dungeon, you’re just stringing together assorted tiles from the existing dungeons in the game. You can’t customise those tiles. You can’t really be creative to any degree with it. And you can’t share your own creations or download others.

Technically, this remake isn’t great. I experienced frequent and noticeable frame drops, particularly when exploring the overworld. And it felt far worse when I played docked than in handheld mode. And a game like this really shouldn’t suffer from such a problem. The fact that none of this has been fixed so long since its original release is pretty disappointing.

As a game, Link’s Awakening remains a very fun and unique title in the Zelda series. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much now as I did back in the day, but I still had a good time with it. As a remake, I’d say this version is decent, but not great. I’m not totally sold on the visuals, but that’s really a matter of personal preference. What’s not a matter of personal preference though is the poor performance. I expected a lot better. The new dungeon building mode is also shallow and pointless. The improved controls are welcome, but they do make the game feel significantly easier as a result.

It’s also a shame this remake doesn’t include the original and DX versions of the game as unlocks upon completion. That really would have been great and added more value to the package. I kind of wish the new Advance Wars remake offered the same, but I know it won’t.

Overall, if you’ve never played Link’s Awakening I can’t say this remake isn’t a good way to experience it for the first time, but a part of me just feels like it’s missing something, some timeless quality that the original version possessed and something that can’t really be replicated here.

7/10