Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages: It's like Pokemon, except without the Pokemon.

Titles: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Fushigi no Ki no Mi: Daichi no Shou, officially translated as "Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of the Earth") and the Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Fushigi no Ki no Mi: Jikuu no Shou, officially translated as "Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of Time and Space")
Original Release: February 27, 2001 (in Japan); May 14, 2001 (in North America)
Game #: 7 and 8

Chronologically: Unknown, but theorized to take place simultaneously on each side of the timeline. (One happened in the Child Link timeline, one happened in the Adult Link timeline.)

At least the cutscenes look good.

In the spirit of getting out as many Zelda games as possible in as short a time as possible, Nintendo released two handheld Zelda games in 2001, hot on the heels of Majora's Mask. These games were Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Like the games in Nintendo's other powerhouse series, Pokemon, the games were designed as counterparts to one another - not as entirely unique entries. If a player was keen enough to pass both Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, he or she could "link" them together with the use of a password and see the "real" ending of the game.

The Gameboy Color hasn't
changed much since Link's Awakening.

Originally, the games were planned as part of a trilogy (each game would have represented one part of the triforce,) but the concept was scrapped late in development and neither Japan or North America ever saw the release of the third game; this would have been known as "The Mystical Seed of Courage" and would have featured Farore in a leading role.

Farore, the (would-be) oracle of the third game.
Is it wrong of me to be grateful it never came out?

Both of the games start identically to one another. An unknown incarnation of Link rides towards a castle (presumably Hyrule castle) on horseback. He enters the castle and approaches an altar, on which the three pieces of the Triforce are resting. Suddenly, the Triforce pieces come together and resonate with Link, who begins to float, and is teleported by the pieces of the Triforce to what is either an alternate Hyrule, or simply another part of the kingdom. It's not blatantly specified.

Din, official damsel of Oracle of Seasons.

In both games, Link lands in never-never land (or wherever he is; in Seasons, the land is known as Holodrum and in Ages, the land is known as Labrynna) and meets either the Oracle of Seasons (Din) or the Oracle of Ages (Nayru). While these women are named after the goddesses in Ocarina of Time and share many of their characteristics, they are not the same people. In any case, both of them are kidnapped by the forces of evil very early on and it becomes Link's quest to save them and restore order to the land. Din's capture results in the seasons being disordered; Nayru's results in time being disordered. Pretty straightforward.

Nayru, official damsel of Oracle of Ages.

 In many ways, both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages are to Link's Awakening what Majora's Mask was to Ocarina of Time. The engine, gameplay, and graphical styles of both games are nearly identical to Zelda's previous Gameboy entry. This is partially because of a lack of handheld console innovation - by 2001, the Gameboy (in one incarnation or another) had been around for over ten years. While (to their credit) Nintendo did manage to greatly improve the color and cutscene quality in the two Oracle games, they were basically dealing with obsolete technology.

Nonetheless, both games were both critically and commercially successful, selling to the tune of four million copies a piece. These games are some of the very few entries in the series that I've never played, so I'm really looking forward to enjoying them myself! I'll be playing through Seasons first, followed by Ages, so the first review will be slightly more in-depth than the second.

Stay tuned for more fun and frivolity with Link!