The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, first released in Europe in 1999, is the first Game Boy Color game to arrive on Nintendo’s eShop. It’s priced at £5.40, which is a little steep for a twelve year old game, so does this game deserve a place on your SD card, or would you be better off with a more modern Zelda instalment?

The game is a departure from others in the series, taking place outside of the kingdom of Hyrule and leaving behind the typical rescue-princess-Zelda storyline. In Link’s Awakening, Link washes up on an isolated landmass called Koholint Island, where he discovers he must wake the island’s guardian — the Wind Fish — in order to return home. In order to do this, Link needs to collect eight musical instruments from eight dungeons, all filled with monsters and challenging puzzles.

The game looks surprisingly good considering its 8-bit origins, and Koholint Island is a large well-made location. The island’s inhabitants are always happy to stop for a chat (and the dialogue is pretty sharp), and do different things at different times in the game. Presentation-wise, the only real problem is flip-screen: when Link reaches the edge of the screen, it scrolls across allowing you to see the next area. There were plenty of Game Boy games with smooth scrolling, so it’s annoying to see flip-screen on such a classic.

If you want to stay sane, you'd better learn to love this screen.

I’m always a little cautious when it comes to the Zelda franchise, as it’s traditionally been quite a hardcore affair. The two DS games, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, made the Zelda franchise accessible to everyone and in some ways Link’s Awakening does feel like a step backwards.

For the most part, monsters — and even bosses — don’t pose too much of a challenge, but you are thrown in at the deep end and expected to know what to do. For example, a clue in the second dungeon tells you to defeat the Pols Voice first, and the Stalfos last, in order to open a new path. Long-time Zelda fans would have found this easy, but I had to put my 3DS down and do some googling before I could carry on.

The game isn’t very forgiving when you do mess up, either and if you hit the Game Over screen (right) you’ll be sent back to the dungeon entrance. Warp pads do appear once you’ve defeated each dungeon’s mini-boss, but that usually happens quite close to the end of the level. Basically, unless you make good use of the Virtual Console’s restore points feature, you’ll often find yourself retreading old ground.

Another problem is that, like in most RPGs, the overworld is built on an invisible grid — but the developers bravely allowed Link to move freely. This freedom gives you the impression your sword swings will hit anything they come into contact with, but you really need to be in line with enemies before you can attack them. It’s not a major issue once you’ve got used to it, but it did trip me up at first. Item-switching is also needlessly cumbersome, especially considering how often you’ll need to do it. To swap Link’s gear around, you have to press Start, equip the item you want, and press Start again to return to the game — I understand Nintendo wants to stay true to Virtual Console games’ roots, but I wish they’d have moved the item menu to the Touch Screen.

I actually found the game’s side-scrolling areas — which feature cameos from some of Mario’s enemies — the most fun. They’re too short and too rare, but I found the familiar feel of platforming more enjoyable than top-down adventuring. They also mesh well with the rest of the game, despite being so different: they’re filled with typical Zelda puzzles, so you just feel like you’re viewing a cross section of part of the dungeon you’re in rather than a completely new area.

The Verdict

3 ¼ - Good

Overall, Link’s Awakening is a fun, humorous, and very charming action game. However, clumsy swordplay, constant item switching, and a disregard for Zelda newcomers might make it frustrating for casual gamers.