2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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VideoGameCritic
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2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 29th, 2018, 10:43 am

This review has been a long time coming. Let me know what you think!

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ptdebate
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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby ptdebate » April 29th, 2018, 1:17 pm

Wow - I hadnt even realized this one was missing! Great review and I agree with the score. One other negative point for this otherwise excellent game is that the map feels a bit cramped - necessary, perhaps, because of the limitations of the Game Boy.

What did you think of the ending? I found it to be pretty bold for a Zelda game.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » April 29th, 2018, 2:17 pm

Another Gameboy review? Thank you!

Item juggling headaches aside, I loved this game for the storytelling. It's in the same spirit as Majora's Mask, even if not quite as dark.

At least not for most of it.

SPOILER WARNING:

I still can't believe Nintendo made a game where the villains are the ones trying to save the world, and Link is the one trying to end it. Even with all the dream logic, it's constantly implied that they have all lives of their own.

And the good ending even suggests one might have survived...

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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby Herschie » April 29th, 2018, 4:55 pm

For some reason, I just started playing Link's Awakening again, so it's quite the coinkidink that you just reviewed it. I'm not sure who had the typo: you spelling it "Fruit Loops", or Keebler spelling it "Froot Loops"? I hear they have to spell it that way because it doesn't actually contain fruit.

Anyway, this is an absolutely legendary game that I'll always have fond memories of! I completely agree with you about the annoyances though, how no matter how many times you come across certain obstacles, the text always pops up. Other than that, it'd hard to believe that they could squeeze a game this awesome onto the GameBoy, and GameBoy Color.

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nesfan
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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby nesfan » April 29th, 2018, 7:54 pm

I played this for the first time a few months back and I was blown away! It shot up the ranks of my favorite Zelda games. I don't love it as much as the Oracle games but Link's Awakening is now a very close second.
You actually can save without dying, it's just not easy to pull off nor is it obvious how you do it. You bring up the save menu by pressing start and select at the same time. And when I say "at the same time", I mean "AT. THE. SAME. TIME." If your button presses aren't in perfect sync, you'll end up bringing up the regular pause menu. Why they couldn't just put the save option in the pause menu, I don't know. But it is there.

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Retro STrife
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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby Retro STrife » April 29th, 2018, 8:31 pm

Nice! A great game to add to your Game Boy review list. I played this game a bit as a teenager, and finally went back and beat it last November/December. As I've mentioned in the past, I've never understood the mass obsession that Zelda games have gained over the years.. solid games for sure, but I struggle to understand why it's the most beloved gaming franchise on earth. Maybe the problem is me. Either way, I keep trying them.

Back last fall, we discussed this game in the Now Playing forum (I wonder if you were already playing it at that point, or if maybe our discussion piqued your interest?). Dipping back into that old topic, here's a quote from my assessment after playing through 3 dungeons:

I'm playing the DX version now and enjoying it. So far I'm only through the 3rd dungeon. I think taking the setting out of Hyrule is actually a benefit to the game, because Hyrule is rarely interesting to me. At least so far, I'd actually say this is better than Link to the Past and I'd put it at an A or A-. I'm sure I'll play it through til the end, and I'll keep you posted on my thoughts.


When I beat the game a month or so later, my opinion had diminished a bit, and I posted these updated thoughts:

This is now the 3rd Zelda game that I've beaten, along with Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. I feel the same about this one as I felt about those -- very solid games, but I have trouble figuring out what all the fuss is about. Each of the games is too long in my opinion, and really starts to wear out its welcome around the 5th dungeon. While I was enjoying Link's Awakening a lot at first, the game is just "more of the same" over and over. And I got tired of that eventually. I think I'd like Zelda games a lot more if they didn't stretch out so long, and instead did a more focused adventure. I don't understand how Zelda fans, for so many years, have put up with this "wash-rinse-repeat" formula of 8 lengthy dungeons and fetch quests interspersed in between. Having played through it, I would give Link's Awakening around a B score, which is also how I feel about Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time.

That said, I remain hopeful that Nintendo has finally interjected some innovation into the series with Breath of the Wild, and I will give that game a chance once I get a Switch.

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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » May 1st, 2018, 12:13 pm

For me, the fetch quests are part of the experience. It's about getting to know people, and helping them, without any obstacles getting in the way that I'm not capable of handling. And being rewarded for it, which isn't always the case in real life.

It's just the simplicity of it all. It helps me meditate.

And I love exploring each dungeon, and adding it to my knowledge of the world. Every new power up answering more of my questions. This formula, is just an overhead Metroidvania, but without the frustration of constant platforming, giving you access to more of the map at any one time.

But if length is what gets in the way, have you ever considered just spacing the experience out? You needn't complete it all in one go. Make these games a place you can return to, from time to time.

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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby CaptainCruch » May 4th, 2018, 7:24 am

This is the first Zelda-game I played, back in 1993, on the hard-to-see monochrome screen of the original Game Boy. I didn't have easy access to internet in that time, so I solved most of it myself (unlike most games nowadays, damn the internet and walkthroughs...). I always liked this one as one the best, maybe a bit out of nostalgia, maybe because it's really that good!

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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby Sut » May 4th, 2018, 3:41 pm

Sorry I just don’t get the fuss. I’ve tried playing this game got stuck, bored and gave up.

I’ve said it before I find it baffling how high North American based gamers rate Zelda. Of the Zelda games I’ve tried to play they have all left me feeling ‘meh’. Granted I’ve only tried the original, this and Ocarina but none of them have gripped me enough to want to complete them.

I said it in another thread either I’m not getting something or Zelda and Nintendo IP’s in general are sacrosanct in NA. I generally put it down to Nintendo being the only gig in town in America for a number of years.

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Re: 2018/4/29: Game Boy Color: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Postby scotland » May 4th, 2018, 7:01 pm

Sut wrote:Sorry I just don’t get the fuss. I’ve tried playing this game got stuck, bored and gave up.


I am just going to very quietly agree with my friend Sut.


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