Link's Awakening Conclusion: Link's a jerk, but the game is great.

Gameplay/Difficulty: 17/20

The diversity of items and equipment you collected through the game was awesome - items like the Roc's Feather, which let you jump, really added complexity to the gameplay. The dungeon designs were interesting and unique, every time. My favorite element of the game, though, was the side-scrolling bits - I really felt like Nintendo hit its stride, finally achieving what it wanted to do with Zelda II. The segments were short enough not to dominate the game; just enough to break the drag of some of the dungeons. My only real issue with the game was that the amount of backtracking in some dungeons meant that it was easy to forget what was going on and what you were doing if you took more than a short break from the game. Crystal switches, which change color in the other games, don't in this one - not a big deal, except that it's impossible to know whether or not it's in the right position until you trek all the way back to where you need to be. Overall, it made improvements over the already excellent gameplay of Link to the Past, while incorporating some elements from Zelda and Zelda II as well.

Music/Sound: 15/20
The music in this game is awesome. The arrangements are perfect, every dungeon has its own tune, almost none of it gets tedious. The track for Mabe Village is particularly catchy, and the Tal Tal Heights theme is probably one of the better video game pieces I've heard. My only real criticisms come from the unfortunate short loops in some of the dungeons, which occasionally offer as little as ten seconds of music. This gets really old, really fast, and it didn't take long for me to reach for the mute button. The other not-so-great sound element came in caves and underground sections. One very short, very simple and kind of crappy bleepy bloopy piece of music is all you get for these parts. It gets old. Sound effects are at a good volume and appropriate.

Design/Graphics: 17/20

Four of the many photographs you can
collect during the game.

I'm rating this as a Gameboy Color game (not the original,) so you have to excuse my enthusiasm, but this game is really beautifully done. Everything is clearly visible, easily discernible, and most importantly pretty to look at. Each dungeon is unique and has its own theming elements. Little additions like the fact that Link does a flip when he jumps add a bit of style and charm to the game. Rather than defaulting to the monochrome dungeon style, Nintendo used the color elements really effectively. The designers got around the lack of detail by offering animated cutscenes and photos, which gave a bit more depth to the graphics and let you really see what Koholint Island looked like up close. Taking into account the age and the console, there is literally nothing that I would change about the graphics in this game.

HOWEVER, I have to include map design here. I didn't love the random holes all over the place you could fall into - it didn't add anything to the game except frustration. Sometimes it was hard to place where you were in the map, which made it kind of time consuming and irritating to get around. The map itself was interesting and fun to explore, with diverse regions which all had something different to offer.

Link and Marin chat.

Charm/Nostalgia Factor: 18/20
Pretty much straight up, all Zelda games are going to get a really high mark in this score. Because the plot leaves you thinking about the ending and what it meant, I expect I'll come back and play this another time and look for more clues as to what is going on. The fact that it's a Gameboy game might have meant that it didn't have the exposure of the other Zelda games, but I think anyone who's played this one will probably love it forever. That said, as much as I hate to say it, you do kind of miss the "save Zelda, get the triforce" plotline - higher marks in plot, lower marks in nostalgia.

Story/Concept: 18/20

Oh, that zany Nintendo!

Is it an epic journey? No. Are hours and hours dedicated to plot exposition? No. Does this game have an amazing plot? Yes. Any game that leaves you wondering what the hell happened and what it all means is worth something, and this concept is absolutely and totally one-of-a-kind. Who else but Nintendo would put a multicolored flying whale in an egg on top of a mountain and make that be the basis for a game? It's ballsy, and it paid off. I really enjoyed it. I would have liked a little bit more plot exposition and conversation with NPCs, but this game did the job anyway. Link even has a hint of a love interest in this game, which is a level of development not even nearly seen to this point. He has conversations with NPCs, which has never really happened before. I see shadows of Ocarina of Time's greatness in this game, and for that reason alone it gets nearly top marks.

Overall: 85/100
This is a wonderful game, even though it's much less mainstream than it deserves to be. It's absolutely up there with the classics of the Zelda series in quality, and introduces many elements that have yet to be matched by later installments. Unquestionably worth a play. 


We're finally on to what is considered by many to be one of the greatest games of all time - the Ocarina of Time. As I've played Ocarina of Time well over a dozen times and it's not hard to find a detailed playthrough/review of the game, I'll be working my way through the Master Quest edition. First, of course, I have to beat Zelda II. Stay tuned - same geek time, same geek channel!

"Wind Fish? I woke you up! Can I get a tow back to Hyrule or something? Anybody? Hello?"