The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX Review

After being released in 1993, and re-released in color in 1998, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX is now available on the 3DS Virtual Console. It is developed and published by Nintendo.

Unlike most of the other Legend of Zelda games, Link’s Awakening does not involve you finding or rescuing Princess Zelda. Instead, Link’s ship has crashed on an island after a storm. It’s up to Link to find the eight instruments of the sirens to wake the Wind Fish so he can escape the island. Little does he know, the island holds a secret…

Puzzle solving in the dungeon.
Puzzle solving in the dungeon.

If you’ve played any 2D Legend of Zelda game you know exactly how this plays. If not, it’s pretty basic. You start off in a main overworld and must find your sword. With sword in hand, you make your way to the various dungeons collecting the different instruments. In these dungeons you also collect a large variety of tools to help you along your journey, such as Roc’s Feather which allows you to jump, or the Power Bracelet which helps you move large rocks and pots. The dungeons are filled with puzzles and enemies with each one containing at least one mini-boss and one main boss. There are two main collectibles in Link’s Awakening, Pieces of Heart and Secret Seashells. The pieces of heart increase your overall health for every four you find and every time you collect a Secret Seashell it simply says, “If you find enough of them, something good is bound to happen.”

The DX version of the game includes and extra ‘Color Dungeon’, which if completed instead of rewarding Link with and instrument or Heart Container, gives him a choice between a Blue tunic (Cuts all damage Link takes in half) or a Red Tunic (Doubles all damage Link deals out). These tunics are extremely helpful.

It's out old pal, Boo!
It’s our old pal, Boo!

There are lots of references to other Nintendo games such as Kirby, a Yoshi doll, and a large variety of Mario’s enemies which are seen in wonderfully-done platforming sections.

The graphics are that of almost any Gameboy Color game. I found that this game’s visuals in particular still look simply fantastic and drew me in as much as the newer games.

If you enjoy Zelda games, or even adventure games at all, you owe it to yourself to play this game. The mystery of the story kept me wanting to play more to see everything unfold and captured me more than any other 2D Zelda. I can’t recommend this game enough.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening gets 5 opening chests out of 5.

(Link’s Awakening is available for $5.99 on the 3DS eShop and took me a little over 15 hours to complete.)

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Ryan

Ryan was raised on Nintendo and actually enjoys the Virtual Boy. Possibly too much. Main job at TBC is streaming and behind the scenes work.