Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Reviewed by iN008 ~ 03/08/2013

A Golden Franchise.
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most cherished franchises that Nintendo has ever created. Each game in the series brings something to the franchise and add more unforgettable memories into the mix, but of-course it had to start somewhere, the franchise grew from the first two games, the beginning of a great, The Legend of Zelda and the experimental, The Adventure of link, followed by the game changing A Link to the past. All of these stood proud and strong, where would the series go next but to the handheld system of the Game Boy and here it was, Link's Awakening.

The first of the handhelds.
Of-course it was released on the Game-Boy first however I decided due to the graphical and other changes in the game to review Link's Awakening DX. The original game was the first on a handheld system and was soon enough converted for the Game-Boy colour, it was this game that set the basic standards for all of the hand-held games to come, there was quite the gap between the next handheld release so I doubt I'll be able to make any comparison to the Oracle of ---- games.

Introduction.
You see, it was not until I had played A Link to the Past that I took interest in this game, for I had only really took notice to that of the more advanced games and the series origin. My first handheld Legend of Zelda game was in-fact Phantom Hourglass, it was upon remembering how much I enjoyed that game that I decided to give the game a go, I enjoyed it and thus a new love was sparked for the classic.

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Graphical Designing.
As many a gamers know, most of the time the key to success is how good the graphics and graphical design is. As in the case of Link's Awakening DX I have a lot to say, be it from the character design to the boss design, everything was presented well, don't want to take my word for it? Well let me explain in more detail.

Character Design.
It's a common fact that the Legend of Zelda games, each have a plethora of characters, many with distinctive personalities, this mixed with the character design generally was the key to making a memorable character. Link himself is known for being silent and thus his design is what most people would look for in these games. Link, has one basic design and three color palettes, green, red and blue. His design is like that of his previous incarnations a green tunic, boots, a pointed hat and brown-blond hair. His sprite in my opinion captures his character perfectly and is fairly well detailed for that of a Game-Boy / Game-Boy Color game. Well you know what they say, simplicity has it's own charm. Link of-course is the most "animated" of all the characters, bosses and enemies as he has a plethora of actions such as sword swinging, swimming, jumping, etc. Each of his "animations" are easy to identify and represent exactly what they intend to.
Enemy design within this game is rather basic, but of-course the system is partially to blame. Many of the enemies look exactly like they did in the original games, such as the Octo-rock, however more interestingly is that of the cameo enemies found within the game, such as the anti-Kirby, Goombas and spark from various other Nintendo franchises, many of which are easy to identify and are quite amusing to find, for example sparks from Yume K?j?: Doki Doki Panikku (Super Mario Bros. 2 outside of Japan) can be found in various locations and look generally good over-all.

There weren't just enemy cameos, for example Bow-wow was used as an assisting character and is probably the most known of the cameo characters, many of these non-enemy cameos are very easy to recognize and are a pleasure to find within the game. The villagers on the island are decently designed and are generally not to interesting design wise.

Of-course the bosses are one thing I hype about when it comes to Zelda, ignore the fact they are generally easy in this game, their designs are almost flawless. For example Moldorm makes his third appearance in a Zelda game and his second as a boss, he looks much like he did in A Link to the Past, however he was slightly modified body and color-wise. Façade, one of the more interesting bosses in the game is quite creepy in it's design most notably because he is a face in the floor, his eyes are somewhat alien like and his smile is generally creepy altogether. Finally, the interfaces are generally plain, black backgrounds with white text, not much to talk about at all.

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Sound and Music.
What's not to love about the franchises music? I can't even name one and this game is no exception to that rule. The music sounds great for a Game-Boy / Game-Boy Color game. The music does set quite the atmosphere, the standard is kept high in this game bring some of the old classic tracks back and keeping them recognizable. Many of the tracks only have a small lose in enjoyability being on the Game-Boy / Game-Boy Color platforms.

One of the most memorable aspects of this game is that of the of music, almost all of it is amazing and well composed. For example, Tal Tal Heights is an amazing piece of music, listen to it here. Music is just amazing, I can't stress that enough. The sounds effects are also generally good even though I didn't pay much attention to them.
My favorite track has to be non-other than this. I found it just so memorable, by far my favorite song in the game.

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Addictiveness and Re-playability.
Each and every Legend of Zelda game has it's own charm, depth, story etc. What makes this game so fun and special? Well it's enjoyable, that's why. This game is one of my favorite when it comes to the handheld Legend of Zelda games, behind Phantom Hourglass and my all-time favorite Minish-Cap. This game keeps the enjoyability of that of the original and A Link to the Past and it was portable none the less. The game was fantastic, I myself bought it on the 3DS's E-Shop and found great joy reliving the game wherever I went. This is one of the key benefactors of it's re-playability, due to being portable it was a great choice for when on road-trips, camping and etc.

Re-playa-lot.
As stated above, this game has a great re-playability factor, being one of portable / handheld games allowed it to be played when not at home, it was a great choice for the Game-Boy Color as it had the themes of adventure within it. The story itself is completely different from that of other Legend of Zelda titles, in-fact it's set in a whole different location. This time on Koholint Island. This made it quite different from the other titles and made it just as fun to relive.

Play-time period.
I myself found that I played the game for 1-1.5 hour periods at a time, for a hand-held game this is quite a lot and that's probably thanks to how much I was enjoying the game at the time. This and all made it's addictiveness all the more enjoyable, hence the high rating.

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Depth.
Be it how well the characters are developed to how long the game is, Link's Awakening has quite enough depth. The games length is about 7 hours+ if you go without a guide, short? Not really, ignore games such as the Harvest Moon Franchise, it's quite long for a game that first appeared on the Game-Boy. Heck due to the re-playability the game the length of the game isn't really that big a factor in it's depth. The main choices within the game lie with the side-quests, you can go for 100% completion if you want or you can just enjoy the main story, it's up to you. Overall I didn't expect much depth for a Game-Boy / Game-Boy Color games so I'm not that disappointed in the game in that aspect. My experience was enjoyable and thus I feel the game was overall good.

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Story.
Generally the plot of a Legend of Zelda game is this : Link wears green clothes > Ganon is revived... etc. > Princess is captured or imprisoned... etc. > Link does stuff in Hyrule > Ganon is defeated > Zelda is saved. However the formula is changed almost entirely in this game. The game starts off with Link our hero, sailing across the ocean until his vessel is struck by waves and lightning, you are washed ashore onto the island of Koholint. There you are discovered by Marin, unconscious. You soon awaken to find yourself in Marin and her father Tarin's house. Tarin proceeds to return Link's shield. You set out to the location you were found to retrieve your sword. After which a giant owl swoops down to inform Link, that to escape the island, he must awaken the Wind Fish, a deity of the island whom is in slumber within the giant egg. Only once all 8 of the Instruments of the Sirens are found from each of the eight dungeons, will the Wind Fish be awakened. This is the main plot, and quite a oddity when compared to the other titles in the franchise. It seriously wasn't what I was expecting, maybe my first though of dinosaurs set me up for disappointment, but really I think this plot was a good one, well unique one to say the least.

There aren't that many characters of key note in this game. Sure you have Link, Marin and DethI but beside that there really is not many characters. Link as usual is a silent protagonist so really his personality is within your head alone. Marin seems to fall in love with Link, but that's really they only thing. What I'm trying to say is that the characterization really lacks in this game and is probably it's biggest flaw. The atmosphere stays quite consistent in this game, really only changing when within a dungeon or in a boss battle. Overall the story is quite good and enjoyable and is a nice change from the rest of the franchise.

SPOILER
The ending is kind of anti-climatic, that in the fact the events may not have happened at all. This was the thing that ruined the story a bit for me. After you defeat the final boss Dethl / Nightmare, you play the Ballad of the Wind Fish once more, this time awakening the Wind Fish. It takes Link away and the island disappears. He tells link that Koholint Island must disappear and must remain only as a memory. With that Link wakes up upon a raft floating on the ocean.
SPOILER

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Difficulty.
The game itself is not that difficult, one of the easier games in the series. Although I could be wrong, I've played it on emulator and the 3DS, however I have not played it on a Game-Boy Advanced nor Game-Boy Color thus I have no idea what it would have been like with those systems. However since I can only judge this from experience I would say that the game is easy overall.
The design in which used as layouts for dungeons and the over-world were easy to understand, you could quickly figure out what you had to do on each screen simply by looking around. Enemies were of reasonable difficulty however early game through mid game was extremely easy. Bosses are the major flaw with this game, many of them are extremely easy to beat, for example the first boss Moldorm, is the hardest boss for the first half of the game and it only takes 4 hits to kill.

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Overall, I would say The Legend of Zelda : Link's Awakening DX is a very enjoyable game, it has it's flaws but is still fun to play, it brings me joys when I replay it and it has it's own charm, having a unique story and some of the best music for any Game-Boy Color game. Definitely worth the rating in which I gave it in my opinions.

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References :
chuggaaconroy : Game Length.
zelda.wikia : Boss information.

iN008 :

This review is amazingly good!  It is detailed and incredibly thorough!  

Overall, what impressed me most was the way you contextualized the review both in the Zelda series but also autobiographically.  Well done indeed!  

Whoa, hey, awesome review, iN008! Lots and lots of information and detail, I'd say you pretty much covered everything! I also like how you added subsections for sections like the addictiveness. Very well done!