"Adventures on an island, and mysteries behind an Egg!"Storms, something that is both good for the environment and sort of bad for travelers; just like our young hero whom was traveling on boat to a land known peaceful as Hyrule. However, the tides of the sea wouldn't be so lenient on his journey as the rain continued to fall as if he were trapped in a whirlwind of water and suddenly lightning strikes his boat knocking this boy off-course and unconscious. This hero luckily arrives on an unknown island and is seen & helped by one of the locals who cares for him in this state, when he awakens he told about this peaceful island and about a strange egg that rest on the peak...what will happen on this hero's adventure?...Will he be able to find another way off of this place?...And what's everyone's fascination and suspicions about this mysterious Egg? Only one way to find out *Grabs sword and shield* we need to adventure around ourselves the thing is...are you ready to travel to Koholant...hoot hoot "Time for us to begin our journey"!
Graphics: 7 out of 10
I'm not sure if I'd say this games graphics look the best on the system but I know for sure that they definitely aren't the worst, and you can't really blame the game either since it was ported from the original Game Boy either which isn't an easy task by all means. The landscape of the island and features such as it getting darker in the Faron Woods or getting darker when entering a Dungeon/Cave that doesn't have a torch which is a pretty nice touch and you may think well all they really did was just put the game into color so not many changes are made here well that's not exactly true since this game did add two new area's into the game which I'll go into greater detail later, anyway I think it's best if we start naming some examples of places that show off my points about this game. First off let's talk about the main Island location named Mabe Village which has a nice atmosphere surrounded by a village and a sea as well which gives you the actual feeling of being on an Island, Lastly; there is the Tal Tal Heights Area which in a sense is kind of like Death Mountain in someways since you keep climbing up higher in order to reach the Egg resting upon the Island which I think fits perfectly as an idea for this game. Also there's one tiny thing I might want to mention and it's that all the ruppies in the game are colored blue since there was no specific color for them in the original release (with the exception of one area where the ruppies are colored dark green) so looking back on everything I'd say a 7 out of 10 seems pretty fair and justifiable for this game.
Sound: 9 out of 10
Honestly since this is a remake of an older Game Boy game no changes were made to the sound so instead of judging this game based on the GBC I'll base it on the GB sound department, Some say that this game takes the most advantage of the GB's soundchip or they say that Pokémon sounds the best for this system so that basis is kind of all formed on opinion so moving I'll just be looking at this games soundtrack/effects. One song that I wish was played more so and one that I don't think people give much attention to in this game is the main theme that plays the first time you leave Marin & Tarin's house, it gives you a sort of happy exploratory theme as you venture around this strange but yet very peaceful island. The second theme I love hearing in Link's awakening has to be without a doubt the theme that plays when you enter a villagers house since it's such a calm and relaxing tone sort of like Dire Dire Docks in a sense, where you just want to get a chair sit down and just enjoy the music to your heart's content. The final theme I'd like to talk about is the main theme that you'll be hearing about but never actually have it played to help you out until later on in the quest in which this song is known as "Ballad of the Wind Fish" which you can hear from Marin by talking to her when she's standing by the Super Cucco statue it's a song that has become a famous melody throughout many games in the future times like: Majora's Mask. With everything considered I'd say a 9 out of 10 is a very acceptable score for the Sound of Link's Awakening.
Addictiveness: 9 out of 10
If you haven't tried out Link's Awakening VIA GB/GBA/or even 3DS then it's definitely recommendable to any fans of the Zelda Series, since not only is its story interesting and takes a unique approach but there are a few more features added into the DX version to which I'll talk about a little bit in this section. One of the main things that makes this game more lively and beautiful in my opinion to look at and play is having it being in color instead of black and white as it adds kind of an extra layer of detail within every aspect to the game. Secondly there is now a new residence know as the Camera Shop (which used to be just a vacant lot on the original release) and it can be found near the tal tal heights area and I know it looks like "well what's the big deal all you do is get your picture taken as Link?" that's not exactly true because you don't get to choose how to your picture comes out (Minus the very first Photo) and there are 15 different ones to collect some with funny images or very cute images. However; there's one detail that you must keep in mind and that's when you get a choice between a picture that's the only one you can get for the rest of the game, meaning you can't choose the other photo you could've possibly gotten until you start a new save file...this can also happen if you progress too far into the game as some events can't be repeated again. Most people would complain about that fact but I actually prefer it that way since it helps you realize how nice and rewarding exploration can be. This game is quite long for Game Boy standards with it having 8 Dungeons that of course not including the final boss room a secret area within this game so I think we can all be in agreement that with everything included that this game is deserving of at the very least a 9 out of 10.
Story: 10 out of 10
This is probably my most favorite thing about Link's Awakening since it take a far more different approach than any other entries into this fascinating series (at the current time 1993) so many people assumed "well it's just going to be the same old Princess is Kidnapped and there's an evil King known as Ganon, Vatti, or Ganondorf right?" Nope that's all wrong because their is no princess in this game and no real "humane" villain throughout the entire game either, I'll try to explain to you in the best way possible the story *ahem* let's begin. You're Link of course a hero who's traveled through many dark trials and faced many hardships throughout his life and he was recently informed to head to Hyrule by the one and only Princess Zelda, although; the tides of danger didn't want to spare him a nice fate and struck his boat with an unwarming welcome and throw him into the cold and soaking sea of danger as our hero lies unconscious just waiting to become washed onto the shore of an Island. He does land on the shores of an island known as Koholant and he's welcomed by a kind female Villager known as Marin whom had taken you into shelter when she say you laying on the beach, just as you're about to find a way to leave this place a certain owl comes to warn you about a horrible danger on the island continually saying that the wind fish is
sleeping in his egg because of the evil lurking on the once peaceful island. As you go along your journey you start to realize the significance of what this games plot idea takes place as, which is both being a child and remembering having nightmares that would usually frighten you so you'd hide like the wind fish is doing in an egg and if that's not believable enough then why is the Boss's Key/Big Key in this game renamed to the Nightmare's key? It seems like some pretty definitive evidence if you ask me, so don't let this game fool you into thinking it's not going to be that great because it'll have you hooked onto it more so than a fishing biting the lure of a rod so I can't think of any better score to give than a 10 out of 10!
Depth: 9 out of 10
As you've read previously you have many different additions to this game including the 8 dungeons present from before so you'll most likely be playing this for a few days depending on how good you are at these type of overhead adventure based games, not to mentioned that you can spend your time trying to collect as many photographs as you can during your adventure (this was mostly added so you could print out the images use the GBC printer) with images like I described in the addictiveness section earlier. Now onto one part that I said I would mention later into my review which is the fact that their is a hidden Dungeon/Mini-Dungeon named the Color Dungeon which you can find by going to the graveyard and finding the spot that has 5 tombstones and by reading the book in the village you must push the stones in this order (If counted vertically it goes like this: 4th stone = down, 2nd stone = left, 1st stone = up, 3rd stone = right, and finally the 5th stone = up.) or (If counted horizontally it goes like: 5th stone = down, 4th Stone = Left, 1st Stone = Up, 2nd Stone = Right, and finally the 3rd Stone = Up) this will t hen take you to the dungeon with some hidden stairs. I know that was kind of stretching things a bit long but for those that don't know or are just stuck trying to find out how to get there that this would help out. One thing alot of people may not know is that this is the 1st Zelda game that really uses the Ocarina for both openings and transportation similar to Ocarina of Time and although A Link to the Past had the same thing it was only really used to warp to different area's and wasn't really a HUGE part of the major gameplay like in this game. Moving onto the last thing I'd like to talk about which is the point of the Secret Seashells hidden throughout this game and the whole point of them is to give you a special upgrade for your sword which makes it 2x stronger which happens when you collect 20 seashells and one tip I should give you now is that you should go back to the manor when you've collected 4 so you can get a gift which is another shell (this will make it easier so you will have an easier time getting 20 out of the 25.). Either way Link's Awakening has alot to offer in depth wise so a 9 out of 10 sounds ok here!
Difficulty 6 out of 10
Normally I would rate this a 7 or higher but this particular version of Link's Awakening is made even more so easier than the original version because after beating the Color Dungeon you receive a gift which is basically a change of your tunic color with the two different ones both having different effects wherein basically: Blue = More Defense and Red = More Power alongside mixing and matching that with the LV 2 Sword really benefits you in the outcome not to mention you can always go back and change it if need be. Ok so you have that one thing right, so there must be other reasons why this is one of the easier entries into the series correct? You've hit the arrow right on the moblins head as in this game enemies can randomly drop either a Piece of Power or Guardian Acorn which basically gives you the same elements of the tunics minus the fact that you lose the ability after taking to much damage. Lastly if you ever feel lost in the game since your map is only filled out to the places you've visited, but there is a Atlas/Map of the entire island inside the library which is available to look at during any point in the game so this also makes the game easier for both old and new players of this game. This game does still maintain the great puzzle action that you would expect from the Zelda collection and I think it's definitely a great starting point for beginners due to these helpful additions to the game, besides when you look at things is it really all that bad to have a game not be that difficult I don't see why every game would need to have a high difficulty? But that's a point for another time so let's end this off by giving my score for this section which would have to only be a 6 out of 10.
It seems like our adventure on it's island has reached it's conclusion, as we've just sealed away the darkest of nightmares from the wind fish's peaceful slumber. Now as we are flushed out of this land by the fish's powerful strength and returned to our boat while we see the island fade away from our sight, however our memories of this perilous journey will remain with our hero for many years to come especially with a great girl and friend he met named Marin. Even though this trip was unexpected we sure had a great time and I guess this is where we must end our travels together, this is one game I'm glad isn't a dream and instead is a huge step into our reality!
*Sails away from Vizzed*
(Balled of Vizzed Plays)
*Looks up at sky and see's NintendoFanKimmy*
Sonic57 & NFK Tm (Erick Davis 2014)
Graphics
7 Sound
9 Addictive
9 Depth
9 Story
10 Difficulty
6