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Gaming, In My Opinion
Zelda games have always been unbeatable classics. From the groundbreaking original NES version to the epic N64 episodes. Link's Awakening DX is a re-release of the 1982 Game Boy addition to the series, so you may think it is simply a portable cash-in. Luckily, you'd be wrong.
The story of the original was that during the events of A Link to the Past, the SNES installment of the saga, Link is shipwrecked on an island with rather familiar people. However, to tie in with the Ocarina of Time, the N64 epic out at the time of the DX's release, the manual says that Link was on a quest for more skills, should Gannondorf ever return. Regardless of which version of his arrival you get, the story is still the same. Link is washed ashore on a mysterious island and found by a young girl. Upon waking up, she explains that he is on Koholint Island and that his equipment is still on the beach. Your first task is to find your way from Mabe Village to the beach in order to retrieve your sword. When you do, an owl appears and claims that you are here to wake the Wind Fish. And so the adventure really begins. From then on, the trusty old Zelda engine comes into play. Explore the island, talk to villagers, find various items and gain access to the game's eight dungeons. Sounds simple, eh? For hardcore Zelda fans, it can be in parts. However, for those relatively new to the challenging series, it is quite puzzling. New players won’t receive training for the controls, but there is a library where each book will tell you how to do different things. This is very useful but Nintendo’s master programming results in a completely intuitive control system anyway, so you may not need this. The controls are so wonderfully simple and predictable that even the newest of players will be able to pick them up quickly. The weapons can be assigned to which button you choose so that you can decide how to control the game. There are two areas where you may get stuck: solving a dungeon puzzle and locating the next item/dungeon. Luckily, the latter is never too much of a challenge because, as in all Zelda games, the game gives you a gentle nudge in the right direction. Not so much that it simply becomes a case of going from A to B, but enough so that you find you are looking in the right place. Various telephone booths are spread throughout the island. Answer the phone in each one and Grandpa Ulrira will give a handy little hint to where the next dungeon is. The dungeons themselves are well designed. Each room contains a puzzle, revealing a key or item, and all of the are just as challenging as Ocarina of Time's. Some are even more challenging. The levels will really get you thinking your way through, which is one of the Zelda series' greatest achievements. Some of the puzzles can be more challenging than the N64's versions, which makes up for the obvious difference in size between the two games. Where the N64 has size, the Game Boy has challenge. Between dungeons, you will find a wealth of things to do. There are several mini-games, a long trading sequence, hidden items and weapon upgrades to find. Not to mention countless heart pieces to find. Even after you have woken the Wind Fish, you will spend months exploring through every inch of the island in order to find everything. The Seashell Quest in particular is extremely addictive. You only need twenty of the ingeniously hidden shells, yet you’ll still try looking for the other six. Added to all the sub-quests and mini-games, you’ll try exploring every nook and cranny of the island, just to open every square on the map and prove that you have seen everything. Also, you’ll talk to every character you see in order to gain as much knowledge as possible about your quest, or simply to find out what they have to say. Creating a sweet sense of nostalgia, those who have played A Link to the Past will recognize the characters. Also recognizable from the SNES masterpiece, the weapons are both varied and brilliant. Aside from the standard sword and shield combo, there are a host of other weapons, one in each dungeon. Each weapon you gain opens new areas, so you’ll find yourself straying from the dungeons just to find out what your new toy can do. Weapons such as the Hookshot, the Boomerang, the Bow and the Bombs make you feel that little bit more invincible against any enemy and creatures that used to make mincemeat of you will soon be falling before you. The monsters are likewise carried over from previous Zelda installments. They roam the island, giving you something to slice up on the way to your next destination, each different variety needing a different amount of hits. The most impressive foes are the Nightmares, the bosses of the island. You’ll find them at the end of each dungeon and then in the final confrontation. Each one is progressively more difficult to defeat and each one can only be defeated in a certain way. This can prove to be a problem, as sometimes you won’t know how to even damage them, let alone defeat them. Obviously, being a colour version of the 1982 classic, the graphics are coloured and more refined. Nothing can prove this more than the final cut-scene. Watching Link is like watching a cartoon series. But the colour has also been put to a better use. Those with a colour version can experience the brand-new Colour Dungeon. Though it is a relatively simple dungeon compared to the fiendishly challenging main dungeons, it is an excellent level, displaying the true colour that the Game Boy can give out. If you complete the level you get a very handy price, but I don’t want to spoil that for you. The sound, too, is a cut above the rest. Nintendo have really got as much as they could out of the small plastic cartridge. Along with wonderfully atmospheric music (including, naturally, the original Zelda theme) and sound effects identical to those in other Zelda games, they have added various other sound effects to make the environments more real. You will hear the waves washing on the shore, water gushing over the waterfalls and the impact of immense boulders falling from above. Unfortunately, no game is perfect, though this is damn close. Sometimes, the puzzles can be too much to bear and you will look for the answers elsewhere (be it a magazine or the Internet) so that you can progress. This doesn’t spoil the game too much, though it can be disappointing to find out how close you were to the answer. Also the fact that you have to do the levels in order can make the game disappointingly linear, but because you can explore in between dungeons this doesn’t matter much either. So why bother with a re-release of a twenty-year-old game? Well for a start, it’s an episode in the world famous Zelda series. If you don’t have a version of this, or any other Zelda title, in your collection, you’re missing out on phenomenal gaming. Just because this is a portable, 8-bit edition of the saga, this doesn’t mean that it is any less of a challenge. In parts, Link’s Awakening DX, can be even more addictive than Ocarina of Time. If you don’t have the 1992 version, you must get this version. This is an essential purchase, be you a Zelda fan or not. |