The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | SuperPod Game Club

This month, SuperPod Game Club finds themselves washed ashore on a mysterious island—Koholint Island! As chosen by Dave, we all played through The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, either on Game Boy (original), Game Boy Color (DX version), or even Switch (the cool remake).

“Someday, thou may recall this island…That memory makes the dream world real…”

Released in 1993 for Nintendo's handheld behemoth (in terms of the handheld's size, the game library, and its marketshare) the Game Boy, Link's Awakening is often heralded as one of the best games in the entire series. It was re-released in 1998 on the Game Boy Color as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, featuring a new dungeon, fully-colored graphics, and functionality with the Game Boy Printer. In 2019, a 3D remake of the game was released on Nintendo Switch.

Did we enjoy cruising through the island, clubbing bad dudes in dungeons, and trading bananas to crocodiles? Let's take a look and see!

MuddButt

Good Morning/Afternoon/Night, it is I again Shark or if you prefer my online name MuddButt, bringing you another post about a wonderful time I had playing the SuperPod Super Game Club pick for the month of February, Link's Awakening DX. I went with the old school GameBoy Color version since it was easier for me to play and I can’t get over the nostalgia that comes with GBC games I grew up with.

Alright picture this, game starts, a storm in the ocean and a small raft carrying your boy Link, thunder and doom and gloom, some sweet music comes thru and onto the title screen, next thing you know you’re being woken up by Marin and her father about how you’ve washed up on shore and off you go onto your adventure as your boy Link. Straight forward I’m biased on this one cause it’s been one of those weird games of my childhood that I loved playing but it’s been a very long time since I’ve replayed it. Overall I don’t care it’s another radical game in the franchise.

Trying to not get spoiler heavy on this cause of the off chance YOU as a reader might not have played this or the Nintendo Switch version.

So once you’ve obtained your trusty sword again you’ll be greeted/stalked by an owl and it’ll tell you that you’re the chosen one and now it’s your responsibility to save the island from the doom that’s happening. So there’s dungeons and a specific items you need in order to progress thru the game, like oh you to this dungeon cause you need the magical instruments in order to wake the Wind Fish (I know I know but the story is crazy good trust me) and after a little bit of talking to the citizens of Koholint Island and some good ol venturing around the island you’re finally getting yourself into said dungeon, but there’s a stopping point blocking your path in order to progress in the dungeon, well venture forth and around, find and beat that sick mini boss and BAM you got yourself a sick new item in order to progress. And after you’ve defeated the main boss of the dungeon you get the sweet instrument and now with this new item you’ve obtained you can explore some more, repeat the process and it’s such a good time. That’s like the slimmest/easiest playthrough synopsis I can think of for now so you should just play it.

For the more review heavy nerds, music is always a huge deal to me and this doesn’t disappoint, even with the limited capabilities of the GBC there’s still many memorable notes and amount of love that’s been put to every little bit of the game. I remember coming into a few areas and just a slap of nostalgia hits me and I do a “Oh yeah” and do the toe jiggle. Gameplay is Legend of Zelda gameplay, go on your grand adventure with your sword and be good guy, go thru multiple dungeons and help people along the way, which this game does a great job on advising you where to go when you’re lost and don’t know where to go. I’ve gotten lost on many occasions and just went to that sick telephone that’s pointed me in the right direction.

There are obviously some issues I had with the game after a while, I spent roughly 14 hours playing this bad boy trying to get the most of that sweet meat of a game, but these are all minor issues that only affect me like repetitive scenarios or random drops of info and a “go find it” like situations and with my busy life I didn’t have the time or the patience to pay attention to these things, like just play the damn game, even if you’ve played it before it made me feel the love of playing games again go slow with it.

Don’t just try to beat the game for the sake of beating it, play it so you can experience what makes games and exploring great.

9/10 Fairies babyyyyy

Thrak

As some of you may already know, I am not the biggest fan of the Zelda series. Over the years I have played numerous installments and have rather mixed reviews on them. This game, however, is one that I ended up really liking. My review is going to be based on the Switch remake released in 2019.

What I like about this game is how compact and intriguing it is. You start sailing on a boat during a thunderstorm. Link is desperately trying to hold on and make it to…where ever he is going. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hits his boat and everything fades to black. Link washes up onto the shore of Koholint Island and the game starts as you Zelda your way through various dungeons and puzzles trying to assemble the eight instruments to summon the Wind Fish who can get you off this island and return to Hyrule.

Development of this game started as a way of porting Link to the Past to the original Gameboy but they instead went in a different direction, making a game that favors the handhelds limitations and emphasizing the dream-like atmosphere the game envelopes the player in, being influenced by Twin Peaks.

This is what really hooked me into the game. The surreal like atmosphere is very unlike any Zelda game before or even since, pushing the boundaries of storytelling for even a Nintendo game, much less Zelda. There is no Ganon, no Zelda, nothing of the sort you expect. It comes off rather experimental for the series and that is always something I can appreciate. The gameplay is rather simple but effective. You get various new abilities like being able to jump (new for the top down 2D style) and the game takes advantage of it with Mario-like side scrolling sections where you get to jump on Goombas and Koopa Troopas. I can only imagine the various children’s minds being blown back in the day seeing this type of crossover. Outside of that, it is rather typical for the series but I do enjoy the top down 2D Zelda games for their simplicity.

I will refrain from spoiling any of the story elements because it is worth going in blind and experiencing for yourself. The Switch remake gives the game a totally new art style that looks like dioramas and emphasizes the original story in new ways. It includes the Gameboy Color specific color dungeon (my least favorite) and includes a rather half-assed dungeon maker that people clamor for a fully realized version of. It also can hotkey some of the major items and abilities you get which cuts down on the swapping you had to do on the older version since there were only two buttons to work it. Outside of that, it is the same game and easily the one I would recommend over the original.

Overall, this game is a truly a masterpiece of the series and I agree with the general conesus. It was something truly unique for the time and still stands today as one of the higher tier Zelda games and one I recommend people check out. See you all next time!

Tony

I've always been a big fan of The Legend of Zelda ever since I first play the original on the NES way back in the day, but for whatever reason I never ended up getting a copy of Link's Awakening for my GameBoy and only briefly played it on an emulator sometime in the early aughts. So I was pretty excited when it was chosen as February's SuperPod GameClub game, since it was the kick in the ass that I needed to finally complete one of the few games in the series I never saw to the end.

The version I played was the Remake for Switch that was released a few years ago and it includes updated graphics, the bonus dungeon from the DX version released for the Gameboy Color, as well as some much needed QOL changes that make the game much more playable by today's standards. In the original and DX version you could only have two items equipped due to the limited buttons on the Gameboy, which meant you had to constantly go into your inventory to flip flop between items and it's definitely something that would start to get tedious the further you go into the game. In the remake things the Sword and Shield have their own dedicated buttons, up to two sub items/weapons can be equipped and the Pegasus boots and power bracelet become permanent abilities as soon as you get them. 

The story follows Link waking up in a cottage on Koholint Island, a secluded island he washed ashore on after a nasty storm destroyed his boat. In order to return home, Link must find the Instruments of the Sirens and wake the Wind Fish that sleep on top of Mt. Tamaranch mountain. The game is very similar to A Link to the Past, everything from the gameplay to how you progress through the dungeons, which was pretty impressive considering it was originally released on the GameBoy. While Link's Awakening may have been a bit of a technical marvel for the GameBoy, I honestly couldn’t imagine going back to play the original version nowadays. I'd definitely recommend going with the Remake over it, since these QOL changes alone make the game a much more enjoyable experience. Whatever version you end up going with, it’s still an adventure worth having.

Dave C.

It’s Dave C., and WE BACK!  Last month, I wrote that The Legend of Zelda series has meant a lot to me throughout my life, from the Super Nintendo classic A Link to the Past being “my” Zelda game as a child, all the way through taking a 5-day weekend in 2023 and reserving an AirBnB in the woods to devote dozens of hours to Tears of the Kingdom in the days directly after that game released.  But for whatever reason—and much to my own detriment, I now realize—I had avoided playing Link’s Awakening until this month’s Super Game Club.

I played Link’s Awakening DX on Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy service, and my Switch OLED let the color graphics of the Game Boy Color version shine.  I was charmed by the music, especially the backing track of the game’s main settlement Mabe Village.  My heart grew three sizes at the presence of certain items, attacks, and puzzle-solving techniques that have long aided Link in our travels together.  I was pleased to see the Ocarina, the Pegasus Boots, the Boomerang, the Hookshot, and a slew of other items make appearances for Link to utilize.  A trading minigame makes its first series appearance, and the importance of music as an in-world mechanic comes to the forefront for the first time in the series and would remain important in later games.

I enjoyed everything this game had to offer, from charging up the Spinning Blade and fending off a dungeon room of flying tiles to laying a bomb alongside a wall that has no indication of being destructible, but well-learned video game senses tell the player, “Just do it anyways and see what happens.”  The Legend of Zelda games bring joy to me, and I’m glad I finally experienced Link’s Awakening DX, and I’m even happier that in the future I still count a few Zelda games that I have yet to experience or need to give a second whole-hearted chance.

Story Spoilers This Last Paragraph

I appreciated the steady escalation of the story with the two main signposts revealing themselves to me as 1) if Link continues his quest to awaken the Wind Fish, then the entirety of Koholint Island will disappear along with its lovable, non-aggressive inhabitants, but 2) if Link doesn’t continue his quest, then the Nightmare leaders and their monster servants will consume the island.  The feeling I had near the middle portion of the game where I thought, “Is Link the baddy?” eventually gave way to, “Well, Link has to do what he has to do, I suppose, especially if he’s trying to get home.” The difficulty of the dungeons remained breezy until the seventh dungeon, an escalation I’m fairly certain any Link’s Awakening veteran would recognize, and the final boss offered some resistance that resulted in a couple Game Over’s before Link eventually won the day.  Speaking of my heart growing as I mentioned earlier, when one of the final boss’s forms presented the tradition of Link batting an energy ball back at the caster, I knew I was in my happy place!

**Spoilers Over**

There ya have it! Be sure to let us know in the comments what you think about the game (any version) and what you thought about our reviews.

Make sure to check out our reviews of next month's game, Policenauts, at the end of March. It was made by Hideo Kojima, so you know it's going be absolutely insane.

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