The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

by Nintendo

Developed by Nintendo

A high-seas voyage takes a dangerous turn when Link's ship is destroyed by a furious storm, and he washes ashore on the mysterious island of Koholint. Link learns that the only hope he has of returning home depends on awakening the mythical Wind Fish, who slumbers within a giant egg atop the island's highest peak. But who is the Wind Fish? How do you wake it? And what will happen when it awakes?

Lead Link on an incredible adventure as you explore uncharted lands, meet amazing new friends and foes, and unravel the mystery of the Wind Fish.

We took some recent gaming news, put it in a pot, and let it simmer for a while. Come hear our early thoughts about Apex Legends and our favorite news from the most recent Nintendo Direct, Tetris 99, Super Mario Maker 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake!


I've been wanting a Mario Maker port on the Switch for a while now, but a sequel may be even better! Coming this June, Mario Maker 2 brings more features and more things to do, with each iteration of Mario as expected.

But the big surprise for me was. the Link's Awakening remake! The 1993 Gameboy masterpiece was my favorite Zelda game for quite some time, so I'm glad to see it reimagined. The art style is very charmingly cartoony, like everything's made out of plastic. We don't know much about any potential gameplay changes, and we know nothing about a release date yet, except it'll be in 2019. The little teaser at the end will have to hold you over.

In addition to... Read All


Ty Anderson is remaking the gameboy classic Link's Awakening with original art assets using the Ocarina of Time 64 game engine.

"I work tirelessly for hours at a time every moment I can, building temples, creating new actors, animating them, writing scripts, designing puzzles and relentlessly studying the possibilities of the old Nintendo 64 Ocarina of time ROM. My aim: to create a completely original version of The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening in the Ocarina of Time Game Engine. "

This kind of project is interesting in that if it comes out could bring the game to an entirely new audience. With that, I wonder how well the game translates to 3D? The small 2D nature... Read All


After recently completing Link's Awakening i've been watching some Speedruns and found this great run from 2004's AGDQ charity run. Guiocob expertly runs this and uses all manner of wall clips, text skips and shenanigans to get the run down to one hour and seventeen minutes. There are two speedruns in the above video and the first one runs a couple of rules such as no save and quit making it so you can't glitch out the game to get a much faster and also they don't allow out of bounds. The second run allows save and quit and out of bounds and drops the run to 6 minutes.

Link's Awakening is a retro classic and watching these people break the Wind Fish is fun.


Everyone has a handful of games that they love more than others. For me, one of those games is The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening. It's an interesting game that builds on it's Super Nintendo predecessor Link to the Past and in many ways improves on it. The story is tighter, the gameplay is often tighter and the music and graphics are great. Link to the Past might have a better control scheme due to the extra buttons of the SNES controller but Link's Awakening has a more immersive story and tighter gameplay.

From the start of the game you are tasked with finding all the instruments of the Sirens to wake the slumbering Wind Fish. I am not going to spoil anything but... Read All


I play through Link's Awakening every couple years and each time I am really floored by the Ballad of the Wind Fish. This time I decided to take a 4K video of the song playing on my handheld.


http://i.imgur.com/FRhei9Q.png
Link's Awakening is my most beloved Zelda game. During last years Portland Retro Gaming Expo I finally broke down and repurchased it as our family copy was lost to time or sold. I have it on my list of games to replay and hopefully I can do it this year. That said I found this Imgur album of a few collected facts on the game and though I would pass it along.

http://imgur.com/gallery/CXPIw

And for extra credit, here is the ballad of the wind fish on YouTube. That song is still one of the saddest songs I can think of from the 8 bit era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhzm7HJiMA


The Easter Egg Hunter brings us another great video, this time cataloging his top 10 Gameboy games. I can't say I really disagree with him on much here as the games he lists are great. His number one is no surprise as that would be mine as well. Link's Awakening is not only the best Gameboy game but it tops my list for Zelda games too. The more I think about Zelda games the more I realize, yeah, for me it's the best one.


http://i.imgur.com/W3GNotS.gif
Someone awesome person decided to create a map of the entire overworld of Link's Awakening. Looking at it all in its Gameboy pixel glory is pretty awesome to behold but I also realize how small the overworld really is. That said, it takes quite some time before you have the ability to go everywhere and in the game it really does feel larger than it actually is.

Hand's the best part of the overworld in Link's Awakening was Animal Village. I also had a pretty high appreciation for the part where you collect leaves to enter the slime dungeon.


If I had a list of games that impacted how I think about art and life, The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening would be on my list. I come back and play this game every three years or so simply because the story is absolutely stunning. I plan on writing more during my next playthrough on Cheerful Ghost, so expect more at some point.

I was never moved more by any video game ending than this one. Plenty of games brought me to thinking about life in certain ways, like Final Fantasy III and how frail humans really are. But this game sticks with me as a game that really made me feel invested in the world and I cared what happened to it. Being that the game was on the Gameboy... Read All