I beat Link’s Awakening on the switch. I’ve never finished the Gameboy version, although Darnell, who’s played the game multiple times, assures me that the Switch version is very faithful the original.

Link’s Awakening is odd because there’s no Zelda, no Ganon, no triforce, no master sword. The premise is Link’s ship was destroyed during a storm, and he’s knocked out, so this whole game is his dream as he lies on a plank in the middle of an ocean. If he wakes up, the wonderful world he has imagined will be destroyed, but he has to move on. That sounds horribly sad, but the game is so charming and engaging that you forget the bittersweet end and focus on the task in front of you.

Considering this was a Gameboy game, it’s pretty impressive how vast the island is and how varied the dungeons are. My first Zelda was A Link to the Past, and this game was made by the same team so it has the same great feel I got from my first experience. The characters are fun, like Old Man Ulrira who boldly instructs you were to progress over the phone but is super shy in person, or Prince Richard who was thrown out of his own castle but wants his leaves back (why??).

Dungeons are fun. They brought back the 2D sidescroller that was prevalent in the first Zelda but dropped in A Link to the Past. The midbosses have great personality, like that boxer or the hinox that throws you around the room. To be honest I find newer Zelda puzzles to be a lot easier, so I got treated to that old-school feeling to searching every crevice and corner, trying to figure out what I missed.

It’s not the longest Zelda game, but man they packed a lot into a small Gameboy cartridge. Full stars for both the original developers and the team that remade it.