He posts this video and then Nintendo announces it for the Switch four days later

I can't wait for you to cover Wand of Gamelon!

Your long form reviews like this are the best hidden content on KZfaq. Keep up the awesome work!

I played this so much 20 years ago that I memorized all the conch shell and heart piece finds. Now they are forgotten memories!

And don't forget that you can steal from the shop keeper by grabbing something, and running around him. This is the way you can get the Bow for free, but if you do, Link's name will be THIEF permanently. And if you go back into the shop, the shopkeeper will outright 1-hit kill you for stealing from him.

Just wanted to say that I really enjoy your videos, and I'm glad I was able to discover your content! Keep up the good work!

I love your videos, especially these recent Zelda ones 😍❤

sure you can bux healing potions. crazy tracey next to ocarina warp point sells it

Fun Fact about this game: it was originally meant to be a remake of A Link to the Past but was scrapped part way through and got developed into what it is today.

These 3 games, SEASONS, AGES and AWAKENING, are so engaging and so game that they make you forget that that are limited somewhat colored handled games. I wanna see a Link/Mario shared dream centered game franchise.

So glad I found this channel. You're videos are so insightful

I thought I played every zelda game made, I missed this one and I want to play it!

Great video! I enjoy re-visiting Link's Awakening at least once a year.

This is one of the best reviews I’ve seen on KZfaq. Well done.

Great video kris, this is one of my eariest gaming memories. Loved this game.

Dude, you have 6th sense.

All valid points. Kris, I would say that just about every detail expressed in this video very much mirrors the experience I just had with the game. In preparation for this review, I had _just_ beaten this game yesterday for the second time ever since I was a kid! The Color DX version, if you must know. And in these hours upon hours of revisiting Link's first truly surreal and deceptively melancholic adventure, it was a smooth, at times rough, sometimes dare I say even, eye-opening experience of puzzles, item-swapping, and slightly angsty, annoyance-ridden introversion. Throughout this quest, I found a decently well-realized marvel of design that only Nintendo in their heyday could develop so casually for their simple, green screened handheld contraption. To take this to be a mere Game Boy game is unflattering, as it defies expectations thereof. _Link's Awakening_ absolutely goes beyond that and forges its own identity beyond just another Zelda for the Game Boy. Like Genthe said, it could've just been _A Link to the Past_ in 4 shades of green, but for Nintendo, that would've been way too luxurious of an undertaking. The deep thought-provoking philosophy of the existential nature of this game's plot and setting surely reflects to me the company's brilliance and ingenuity throughout this era of gaming. Is it GOOD that the little green-hatted shoplifting castaway basically caused the island, a mere dream and by extension, its inhabitants to disappear for eternity, reduced to but a mere memory of the subconscious upon awakening the Wind Fish at last? We just will never receive a direct answer, and that's the beauty of it. It comes across as a very "Japanese" way of thinking and these existential sensibilities are present in quite a few games later on too. Not just in Zelda, either. In this way, I consider LA to be rather ahead of its time, where plot and symbolism are concerned. It very much is the first Zelda game to defy tradition, at least plot-and-setting-wise, and I love it. Very much the original _Majora's Mask,_ in that fashion, if you will. I will NEVER, EVER tell you that _Link's Awakening_ is perfect, or even a masterpiece, or EVEN one of the greatest games of all time, for that matter! I'm not sugar-coating anything: like the previous Zelda, this game's design decisions are starting to show their age. Whenever you do something as insignificant as walk up to a pot or green crystal thing an annoying text box will come up, basically saying "WOW look at this! Find the right item in order to get past it, stupid!" And like Kris pointed out in this review, I just made the EXACT SAME mistake of going through that annoying sign maze, talking to Wart _without_ the Ocarina in hand, and basically just wasting my time. The game does do a good job of directing the player _sometimes,_ but other times...ehh...it could've just done better in that regard. And the item-switching is as monotonous as ever, always demanding the player to press Start, pick another item in the menu in order to do something as mundane as jumping, perhaps only due to limitations of having only two buttons. Don't get me wrong: I love this game, just for what it is. It inspired me as a kid, it really did. The dungeons and bosses and even just the world in general are perhaps the best-realized up to this point. And the music. Is. Awesome. Especially the mountain theme and the Ballad of the Wind Fish! Just beautiful, touching moments this little Game Boy offered. It has some of the most heart in the series, I would argue, despite its obvious limitations. The ending is something that I cherish deeply. Just how Link smiles as he looks up and sees the Wind Fish flying majestically overhead is iconic. Even if at times it can come off as one of the most primitive post-NES games in design: This game is special. And may the Wind Fish fly again!

You need more subscribers, man! These videos are amazing! I'll wait with baited breath for the next videos!

Great video, as always. Keep up the good work, friend.

Keep this coming it's absolutely sublime.From a 4 year subber.

The power up theme is practically burned into my brain. I practically hear it in my dreams at night.

Love your videos

My favorite game of all time! Thank you. Thank you so much

Excellent review to one of my childhood's most favorite titles.

Magnificent work thanks 😍

I really like the ghost. It is another memorable islander with which to create a connection and memories, just as we help him revisit his.

Fantastic commentary on a fantastic game. Really enjoyed it, many thanks.

The gameboy is full of lite versions of NES titles. Link's awakening proved that it didn't have to be. The gameboy was fully capable of making large, thoughtful and compelling titles in its own right. Nintendo did a better job of this on the Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance. Titles on those systems dont have the same LJN cash grabby feel as most of the Gameboy library.

I just want to say after this review I was super interested in this game and now I can finally play it. This game is a little short but was amazing. Thanks for the expoure

Nice spot...right on the beach

This game surprised me by how much game they crammed into the little cart. They did so many things in it that were unique to the series, making the game feel like a Zelda "Gaiden" or side story, which I guess it is. The dream thing was fairly obvious from the start and the fact that Wart and 3 or so other characters from SMB2's Subcon universe were there, really made it clear. Best overview of this game on the net. Great job!

This is the only channel I allow notifications from.

Excellent video brother!!!

Dude, you're a psychic. Fantastic video BTW.

This is what I first played. I love this game to death.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who avoided the power ups because their crappy tune.

Yay. I was waiting for this one

Keep up the good work! New follower but really impressed with the quality of your videos.

Love your videos so much

I’m here from a few days in the future to say, I can’t wait to play this again on my Nintendo Switch

Also, impeccable timing with this review! I am genuinely surprised Nintendo plans on doing a remake for this, and it looks super charming to boot

I'm currently playing Link's Awakening via an emulator on my phone and i'm enjoying it immensely. Great video bro 👍

Year after year and this one remains firmly in my top 3 LoZ games. High praise considering most entries in the franchise are excellent.

3:34 - The Witch and Crazy Tracy are two separate people.

Amazing review and retrospective! I hope you can do the Oracles as well!

I played the DX version of this game a few years ago and fell in love with it. It wasn't my first Zelda game by any means but it's up there with the favorites. Looking forward to playing the Switch version sometime.

My very first Zelda game I played. Thanks for the review and it is interesting that you are using the Gameboy footage instead of the Color one

good timing! with the switch remake

You and gaming historian are the absolute BEST🖖😄😍

I think the reason why this game is cherished aside from it's story of course which is kind of heartbreaking and dark when you think about it. But from gameplay the level of progression. As Link's inventory grows the puzzles, enemies, and traps become more elaborate. As such no dungeon item is under utilized when it's introduced and the use of the items carry over. This makes future dungeons increasingly more elaborate and complex until you get to the final dungeon where everything comes full circle and you have a very massive and elaborate labyrinth that combines everything. While this game isn't all that hard when you know what to do the progression sense is still there and that's probably what I like most about this game.

There’s a shop near the graveyard where you can buy the secret potion whenever you run out.

I know a huge part of my feelings for this game are rooted in nostalgia but nevertheless this is still my favorite Zelda game. Followed by Zelda 1, Zelda 2, then ALTTP. Those early games are some of the best games of all time. I still play them all at least 3 or 4 times a year. Thanks a lot for these videos! They're G-R-R-R-REAT!

GREAT JOB :D

Jeah mate. This game is something else. It started as a side project by some devs over at Nintendo without any backing or approval at all (which explains the Mario baddies). It brought a fresh spin and quickly got adapted as a main title. Furthermore the Title was so good it went on to inspire Aonuma to pretty much every key aspect of Ocarina Of Time, arguably THE Zelda game todate, key elements have been transferred like a focus on musical instruments, an idea Eiji apparently liked that much, that he created an entire game around it, basically. The remixed Zelda main melodies in this title, albeit being gameboy chiptunes, which I particularly only like fairly few of as they tend to get noisy and beepy all the time are stellar! (My favourites on the top of my head would include The Red fight theme in Silver Gold and Platinum, the boss battle theme from Dragonball Z Legendary Super Warriors and some tracks from Super Mario Land 2, alongside this games music!)

How is there not a reference to Super Mario Bros. 2? This game made me think of how SMB2 ended with it being only a dream... Not to mention the character references such as the Chain Chomp, Yoshi, or a giant egg on an island! Hell, I swear that the SMB2 boss made an appearance in some of your footage... Otherwise I see some resemblance to Star Tropics. Maybe I should check this game out sometime, it looked pretty decent and you made it very compelling with your commentary. Keep up with the solid work, your videos are definitely enlightening and I am enjoying the highlights of lesser known games from my childhood! Thanks.

Is link actually the one that is asleep? I thought it was just the Wind Fish, and Link had to wake it up to escape the island. Yes, there are parts of the game where Link is in bed sleeping, but I thought the island was the Wind Fish’s dream intruding on reality. Granted, the Wind Fish does say they will wake up together, but that could be metaphorical for Link. I’m probably over analyzing this, but the game does kind of encourage that.

It's absolutely a must play. Looking forward to the remake later this year.

My brother has the GBC copy of this game. Unfortunately, he never finished it probably it was too cryptic to him when he played it years ago. I downloaded this game on my 3DS VC and had to stop playing it during that time because my START button stopped working on the original 3DS. 4 years ago, I found my brother's old copy in a container filled with old games (PSX, Sega Genesis, GB, etc.) and I played it while watching a walkthrough of ZeldaMaster's videos for the overworld. The first 6 dungeons were pretty easy to figure out on my own. As for the last two, I had to watch Luke's (ZeldaMaster) videos or go to Zelda Dungeon website. It's a great game. As of this day, I now play it on my 3DS XL.

Some of the most in depth analysis on games are on this channel

Looking forward to the remake :D

You HAD to have known about the Nintendo Direct today when you first posted this! lol

Loving these Zelda videos! Keep doing them! (I mean, there's plenty of Zelda games)

My first Zelda game as a little kid with a Gameboy Color. :) man I miss it.

Heh, kinda funny how close your review came out to the reveal of the remake

Oh wow! I honestly just never thought of it this way. growing up I did enjoy this game, but I kept getting stuck and it felt like I was getting stuck a lot more so than I ever did in A Link to the Past so I ended up not liking this game as much, but I would like to go back to and give another chance. I believe I still have the cartridge of the original Link's Awakening for Game Boy.

The dungeons in this game are indeed pick and choose to a certain extent you can screen wrap here is an example. When going north open your map during a screen transition if done correctly Link will stay on the tile most north which skips some travel events and obtain some powerful items early on. This glitch was patched on the DX color version. Great video!

I don't find the end of the trading sequence obscure at all. When I was on the library the first time, I saw he book that you couldn't read, setting myself up to come back there. And of course I was going to go see what the mermaid was about after I saw her. And I dived one every screen since it's the only thing you can do in deep water, and removes your hitbox. I also adored the boomerang, as it felt a proper reward by the time you get it, without really breaking anything since you're almost finished with the game. I also never found I kept the acorn or triforce long enough to care about the music: you lose them after a number of hits. Still, I'll admit I only beat the game with the help of the color dungeon item, which you can't remove.

And with the remake coming out, I'm truly happy to be part of Zelda again.

Sequence breaking is possible in this game, using the Pegasus Boots to dash past the fire you're supposed to block with the Mirror Shield in dungeon 7 allows you to skip dungeons 6 and 7 and go straight to 8 (you'll still have to go back and beat them to enter the Wind Fish Egg)

You really ~should~ go back and try the bow, I won't give it away but if you equip it in one item slot and the bomb in another you can create a combined secret item! *Edited to say: I also recommend you play the Dx version to play both the Color Dungeon and collect the 12 pictures (even if no longer useful with the Gameboy Printer).

You actually can sequence break the dungeons in this game but only the seventh dungeon, a friend showed me this way back in the day when I had this when I was like 10 years old. You can do the eighth dungeon first and get the fire wand and it makes the seventh dungeon and boss way easier.

Not to mention the super Mario characters being a cool touch and a mention of the extra level in the DX version should have been mentioned! Maybe the other features and add ons from that version

I never knew the boomerang was so op, I jusr used it foe cutting grass and retrieving items.

The secret medicine is not that secret, you can get it from Crazy Tracy. She's right at the pond you warp to when you play the second ocarina song.

Litle know fact about the hammer in LttP: if you use it to breake frozen enemy, it's aninstant kill and you get frozen enemy in return. In combo with the ice rode or the Ether Medallion, it becomes a really powerful attack.

Great content thanks I’m new sub

This game was the 1st zelda I ever played and my 1st gameboy game. blew my mind and ive replayed it easily 20 times or more. it was a pseudo top down “metroidvania” before that term ever came to be oh, and you can sequence break this game...like super hard. its a screen warp glitch on the original GB (non dx) version or rom

You can sequence break the dungeons! I happened to me. I got to angler tunnel (or whatever it was called) and got the flippers and everything, I just could not get the boss key (I had trouble figuring out you were supposed to stand on the platforms in a certain order). I gave up eventually and left and beat the other dungeons. I got to the end of the game, played my ocarina in front of the wind fish egg with 7 instruments and it didn't work. I had to finish the dungeon first.

Great and fair review but I should point out that the story description is a bit inaccurate. Koholint island is the product of the Wind Fish's dream and not Link. Since it's a divine being its dreams create actual worlds which Link ends up in (thus he's trapped in its dream). The reason the Wind Fish's dream is established like this is because the nightmares within wanted to continue to exist and not vanish when it wakes so they trapped it in an eternal sleep so Koholint may exist forever. The game purposefully makes it obvious that Koholint is not real even going as far as to directly spelling it out to you before you enter the Face shrine. Link's moral conflict is that he can either let Koholint island be and have the Wind Fish be trapped forever in sleep and also be trapped forever on the island himself while the inhabitants are harassed by the nightmares who now rule the dream, or he can defeat the nightmares, wake the Wind Fish, save himself and release Koholint's inhabitants from the nightmare's grasp but this also means destroying Koholint and everyone on it. The ending sequence's music is a very bittersweet melody, somehow managing to sound both tragic and triumphant reflecting the ending itself. You saved everyone, you escaped, you beat the bad guys but now all of those characters you met are no more than a memory in the back of your mind. The final scene has Link waking up wondering if it was all a dream when he spots the Wind Fish soaring the skies letting him know that even if the world was the creation of a god's dream...it was still real in some sense. If you beat the game without dying you're treated to an extra scene (made even more explicit in the DX port) where you see that in some form, Marin's dream of being able to fly like a seagull and see the world beyond Koholint was realized as she's reborn as a seagull herself. I really love the game's story and how it turns the tired "it was just a dream" trope into an engaging story about moral conflicts and questions about what is real and what isn't.

I actually avoided the acorn and piece of power like the plague for the reasons you mentioned.

When playing the original GameBoy games, if playing to more simulate original game play, I prefer a color pallet that beige and green dual tone scheme rather than black and white or black and green because I had an original GameBoy and the screen looked like that. I think it was how the screen was made. It had like a goldish color reflector, and the LCD pixels had a green tone.This kind of made the screen appear more colorful than it was. On Link's Awakening, the trees were green with hay colored grass. When you go to black and white like with the GameBoy pocket, you lost that. I really don't know why they didn't use that as the default pallet for original GameBoy games on the GameBoy Color. They gave you a sepia tone pallet instead. They gave you an all green pallet and a black and white pallet, but not one that looked like the original GameBoy. Sure, I didn't miss the smearing of the screen during fast movement, the low contrast, or even the lack of a back light, but I did miss the colors that were just the properties of that crappy LCD screen. A fun fact about the original GameBoy is that it was 60Hz. The LCD screen wasn't fast enough for that, but the programmers took advantage of that to give screen shades beyond four. In Link's Awakening played on a GameBoy Pocket or more advanced screen including an emulator, if you cut grass, leaves flicker. If you cut grass on the original GameBoy, it looks like a shade that you can't see on any other screen because the LCD was too slow to show the flicker. I never even noticed until I played Link's Awakening on a GameBoy Color since I never got a GameBoy Pocket. I kept wondering why the leaves flickered when you cut grass. Unfortunately, most people won't be able to experience that unless they have a real original GameBoy. I guess people aren't missing much. I still prefer playing on the GBA-101, N3DS Virtual Console, or on an emulator.

For sequence breaking, you can do Dungeon 7 and 8 in reverse order, easily if you get the Mirror sheild from dungeon 7 first, but even if you don't, you can just get past the fire that normally needs the mirror sheild with a pegasus boot jump, you'll get hurt but you can get past. Doesn't break the game though since you're just reversing the last two dungeons and there is no final story bit between them and the final wind fish egg boss.

love this game so much. but i have to correct something in the video. link is not dreaming all of this. when he awakes at the end he is looking to the sky and seeing the wind fish.

I'm enjoying a lot your Zelda series even though I never got to enjoy these games.

The hammer in alttp is way more desirable than you give it credit for. Very useful for bosses due to it doing the same damage as the 3rd sword. Check out some alttp speed runs for more information on the game.

Wow, congrats on the SEO my dude. I bet the announcement today will net you some views.

The witch sells you the potion as often as you want after having used it.

10:15 The only one is doing dungeon 8 before 7, unless you want to use glitches.

Still one of my favorite games of all time

Good timing! Nintendo just announced the remake!

Sounds like a lot of people will be experiencing this game very soon

YAY for the GameBoy!-)

Agree: HATE the piece of power and acorn...HATE the music! Disagree: I ADORED the credit roll of the various NPCs in "A Link To The Past"!

I think I’ll pick this up after I beat Link to the Past. Would you recommend the original, or the DX? I’m surprised how many references this game has to other Nintendo games, like the Chain Chomps and Wart from SMB2. They even have Mr. Wright, who looks like the Dr. Wright character from SimCity for the SNES. I’m also surprised how well they pulled off platforming in a top-down game. This game might be my favorite just for that. What series do you think you’ll do next?

Bomb Arrows my man so much fun

what version are you playing? Every time i've played, the windfish's secret path was either ^^^>^^>^(in the DX version)

How timely is this now? Given the recent Nintendo Direct. Fine work.

Actually I hate the power up music from the guardian acorn and that other item so much that whenever I manage to pick those items up *accidentally* I run into enemies deliberately to make that terrible jingle go away.

Story wise, I think this game happened between SEASONS and AGES> I think this because at the end of SEASONS we see Link set sail and this game starts off with Link sailing already but thats just my thoughts, anyone else??

I honestly believe that once people realize this it will seem so incredibly obvious and a newfound understanding and respect for Link's Awakening will be reached. The game was never quiet about the island being a dream because that was exactly the point: the developers wanted you to believe that it was all a dream. To some degree, it was a dream. The Wind Fish was asleep and dreaming throughout the entire game. When Link awoke the Wind Fish, however, it was revealed that the Wind Fish was not only a part of the dream but also a part of the waking world. And the magnum opus of the game was executed when a player made it through the entire game without dying. Spoiler alert here: if a player beats the entire game without dying, Link is treated to the elation of finding out that Marin is not only a part of the waking world like the Wind Fish, but that she got her wings in the end as well. When I was young and beat this game, I thought Link's Awakening pulled off the ultimate twist at the end, as we knew that it was a dream from the very beginning of the game, but at the end of the game, you realize that it wasn't only a dream but there is something real about Koholint as well.