Zelda 4 - Link's Awakening (Original)
This is the first Zelda game
I got, and it's probably one of the best games ever made in my opinion.
In fact, Nintendo did such a good job, I bought Zelda
3 - A Link to the Past when I finished
it. Anyway, here's the review :-
Story (note: read at your own risk - the
booklet of this game slightly ruined Zelda
3 - A Link to the Past for me when I didn't
have it, as this section may for you if you haven't got it)
The land of hyrule had many
myths such as the Triforce. To say this quickly (read the booklet of Zelda 3 for this info and more) the Triforce had been placed in the "Golden Land" by the Gods. It was powerful enough to grant the holder any wish. This legend was slightly forgotten over years. The "Book Of Mudora", which held a collection of Hylian (People of Hyrule are Hylian, like Link) legends and lore made the Triforce desirable and helped the people to slightly remember it. One bit of it said this: "In a realm beyond sight, The sky
shines gold, not blue.
There, the Triforce's might, Makes mortal
dreams come true."
Everyone started to try and find the Triforce,
but no one, not even the Hylian sages, knew it's location - too much had
been forgotten over time. People then gave up, except for the greedy.
One day a group of thieves
skilled in the black arts accidentally opened a gate to the Golden Land.
The leader - Gannondorf ran ahead of his gang, killed them and laid his
blood stained hands on the Triforce..... From then on, for
some time evil power began to take the greedy to join Gannon and become
his army. Dark clouds were permanently over Hyrule and disasters happened.
The Lord of Hyrule sent seven wise men and all of the knights to seal the
gate between the two worlds. The Triforce doesn't know which wishes are
evil, so it granted all of Gannon's wishes. The Hylian decided to forge
a sword resistant to even the power of the Triforce. This sword was named
the blade of evil's bane and the Master Sword. Only a pure - hearted and
strong of body person could wield it. As the seven wise Hylians tryed to
find someone that could wield it, Gannon's evil, greedy army attacked the
castle. Many died, but the seven wise men managed to seal the gate. The
war was known as the Imprisoning War. After many generations, these memorys
faded....
No one was ready for the new
disasters that happened from evil powers. No magic could stop them so the
king wanted an investigation. The seal was still intact, so rewards were
offered to anyone who could find out the problem. A bloke called Agahnim
came and made everyone find out that the disasters were made by a previously
unseen form of magic, and got the reward of getting a position of chief
advisor. He was made out to be their hero. Everyone had thought that Hyrule
was now safe. But was it?....
This is the point where Zelda
3 - A Link to the Past is placed.
In Zelda 3 you fight many of your own soldiers - they have been possessed by evil powers. First, to stand a chance, you must get the three pendants out of three nasty caves that have lots of puzzles, so you can take the master sword. this gets you into Agahnim's room - the door was protected with a spell that formed a laser thing in front. After getting into a fight, you go to the Dark World to recover seven crystals holding relatives of each of the seven wise men. When you have them, you get into the big fight inside the giant (I'm not telling you!) in the Dark World. If you win, you get to the Triforce! That is the end of Zelda
3 - A Link to the Past.
Even though you did all that,
the land of Hyrule enjoyed only a precarious peace. Everyone worried about
what problems may still happen. You then decide to journey away from home
to find help, and more stuff. You succeed and set back to home, but guess
what? A lightning bolt strikes your can of Safeway cola splintering the
ship to little bits. When you wake, a voice is calling you. That voice
sounds like Princess Zelda! But when your eyes focus, you see a scutty
looking woman in a silly dress. When you got to her house she told you
that her name was Marin and she also told you that you and the wreck of
your ship had landed on the island of Koholint. Also, something quite hard
to miss was the giant egg in the middle of the island. This is where the new story begins...
Game
The game starts with a large animation
(a screenshot is at the top of this caption) showing your ship getting
struck by lightning and you ending up on a shore. It then shows the egg
and the title screen. When you have made a save game (you use your name
and people say it when they talk to you), you begin in Marin and her fathers
house. When she's finished talking, talk to Tarin and get a useful item.
Do as Marin says and heres a tip - use what Tarin gives you to push the
urchins. Also, trust the owl all of the way through.
Gameplay
Wow, this is quite big! When
and if you get the eight insruments (one of them is in the screenshot
below) and all of the special items that weren't in the last game, you
must defeat Gannon! The controls for both Zelda 3 and Zelda 4 are quite similar and easy. Most of the puzzles were medium and fun, but some are so difficult that I tried
to get tips on the game. Getting into this game is too easy - unless you
die and you havn't saved in ages, you wont come off. As for the question
" Is it likely that I will come back", you have to come off first!
This is so fun, it gets the full 10/10! Legend
of Zelda 3 - A Link to the Past got
the same score too!
Graphics
Okay. It's pretty bad in comparison
with today's stuff, but it's very well detailed for the original gameboy. It gets a nice high 8/10.
Sound
SFX slightly lacks in both
Zeldas, but interesting music tracks keep it going. This gets 7/10.
Originality
Zelda was the first (as far
as I know) to use this fantastic idea. Many later games have copied
(eg. Alundra
(which made good use of this idea) and many more for the Commodore Amiga) but I don't think Nintendo have copied anyone. Until I find out about
anything like that, Zelda gets the big 10/10!
Price
The price of this is was normally £15.
This got 9/10!
This was last updated 24/4/1999. I'll
try to update it often.
Back to RPG section
Back to main page
