The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
1993
- puzzle
- adventure
- action
- fantasy
- single player
The story
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is the first title in the series to be released on a handheld system and the only Zelda title on the original Game Boy. The gameplay is mostly similar to its predecessor with a top-down perspective, however there are short sections in dungeons where the game switches to a side-scrolling view with platforming elements. For this new adventure, Link must go onto each of the 7 temples to retrieve a musical instrument that will help awaken the Wind Fish. Along the way, he must search the land and uncover hidden treasures and items that will allow him to progress on his journey. Since its release, Link's Awakening has been popular among fans and critics.
What it’s like
Four shades of green on a small handheld screen, with tiny pixel-art sprites moving across a top-down island that feels like a dream sketched in a notebook. The limited palette makes the world read as drawn rather than rendered: sleepy villages, shallow blue-green seas, grassy hills, and dungeons shaped like toys or strange creatures. The chiptune score is soft and melodic, with a wistful, lullaby-like theme that loops through quiet moments and turns eerie and minor-keyed in caves. Pacing is unhurried and exploratory, built on wandering, collecting, and backtracking, broken up by puzzles that reward patience. The mood is whimsical and faintly melancholy, a dreamlike cosiness that suits a slow evening on the sofa, a long train journey, or a quiet hour in bed. Combat is light and cartoonish, with skeletal and slime-like foes in the dungeons. Deaths are brief and non-graphic; there is no gore and no sexual content. The emotional arc follows a stranger slowly finding a place in a strange, kind world. It is for players who want a gentle, curious adventure with a bittersweet storybook feel.
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