Pre Zelda Quest 1: Link's Awakening Switch

Link's Awakening remains one of my favorite childhood Zelda games.  I used to love playing the game on my old chunky Game Boy on recess, discussing tips with my friends or showing off our progress and naturally, I was extremely intrigued with the Switch remake and bought it on release.

Immediately upon firing the game up, I was enamored with the art style, beautiful music renditions and hit with a huge nostalgia wave.  This game oozes charm and dspite being a weird one off style game with platforming elements, Goombas and a SimCity reference, this game was just awesome and I was severely disappointed when I 100% the game after a short 15 hours.

I love the atmosphere and updated graphics this game brought.  The setting being on an island outside of Hyrule and trying to collect instruments to wake up the Dream Fish is a unique and interesting plot, though due to the limited Game Boy hardware there's not a whole lot here.  Despite that, I loved Wind Fish Island and it's unique geography.

The dungeons were a lot easier than I remember them being however.  None of them proved a real challenge, even the Eagle's Tower (which I was thoroughly dreading).  However, they were quite fun, despite being more simple than I remembered and the tools you got from them were awesome.  I love blazing things with the fire rod or nabbing an upgraded tunic that increases my attack and it felt like there was a real sense of progression while playing this.

A lot more collectibles were introduced in this one but despite this, I found most of them easy to find, especially after getting the seashell tuner.  Still, I love that they fleshed it out more and increased your max health.  Plus the new Mario collectibles were fantastic and fun to go for.

However, the new Dungeon Maker was a huge disappointment.  Like many others, I was excited to have a "Zelda Maker" only to be vastly disappointed when I learned it was mainly just rearranging existing dungeon rooms together into one large one.  You couldn't even place treasure chests or customize the rooms!  This could have been an incredible feature and selling point but instead it's a novelty that wears off quickly.

All in all, this game is a fantastic remake, a bit shallow but kept me interested all the way.  Great remake but barely scratches the Zelda itch.  If you can pick it up for cheap, do so you'll love it.  Because the wife wasn't involved, her opinion won't be included yet.

OVERALL RANKINGS:

1. Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

WIFE'S RANKING:

N/A