Quick Look: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

3 AM (quick look) Boys let's goo!!!

I'm thinking I may have to play this but the analog only movement is almost a game breaker for me in a game like this :( also no way to turn off the music or turn down the sound is a obnoxious choice

But this looks wicked fun

We all know UP is actually the best Pixar movie

This is my Game of the Month.

I'm going to get it, but I'm still not into the artstyle. Link looks weirdly plastic and I'm not a fan of the blurred edges of the screen. It's cool that I can finally play this though!

I'm excited about playing this remake, but I'm worried I'm just going to burn through the entire game in a short while since I know it so well. It was my first Zelda game and I've played it at least 5 times throughout my life. I know it like the back of my hand.

Fun fact: Dungeon 3 gives you one more key than you need, which leads to some confusion.

Minish cap is on the wii u virtual console.

One of my favorites. For the longest time the handheld Zeldas and LttP were all I had played until Wind Waker. 2D Zelda is my bag.

Heads up, Vinny (very briefly) spoils the plot of this game twice in this QL at 39:30 - 39:40 and 43:40 - 43:50

Every time I replayed Link's Awakening I always made sure not to use my one key on that door Dan went in. Commiserations!

Link's Awakening DX is one of my favorite Zelda games. Might be my second favorite handheld game in the series.

Being the first Zelda game I owned probably adds some nostalgia to that. I never played it on a original GameBoy, though. I had a GameBoy Pocket, which had a superior screen quality compared to the original brick. And later on I got a Color and was finally able to 100% the game.

@vinny@ybbaaabby@danryckert : Minish Cap is also available on the Wii U eShop. Works great to play on the gamepad.

There are some very noticeable FPS drops, even in this video.

Ouch.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when Dan (or anyone) incorrectly refers to every Link as the Hero of Time?

Also, please learn how to pronounce Dampe.

Saving maps to a Zelda Amiibo is the only way to share them with other people. Seems like a bad feature overall.

There is a decent version of Minish Cap on the Wii U if you're still looking to replay it. Been trying to get a real cart for a while for my GBA but all i seem to find are fakes that look identical to the official version. This game looks delightful, i can't wait to get it on payday!!

Link has many different voice actors. The most iconic Link voice is Nobuyuki Hiyama, who played adult Link in Ocarina of Time, Smash Bros, and Soulcalibur 2. You may also recognize him asJoe Higashi from Fatal Fury/KoF, Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho, or Viral from Gurren Lagann. For OoT he was instructed to do his best to not "sound Japanese." It doesn't seem to make sense because Link doesn't talk, but if you compare Hiyama's Link to Takashi Ōhara's Skyward Sword Link, you definitely notice the latter somehow sounds more Japanese.

dont know if vinny and abby should give anyone else shit for bad jokes. i mean people in glass houses shouldt throw rocks

So is Crazy Tracy the Log Lady of Hyrule?

Also anyone who cares to play Minish Cap today could just do it on GBA or DS. Those carts still work fine, so saying there's no way to play it today is kind of a silly statement IMHO.

And goddammit that accent in Dampé isn't just for show

They also spoil Mario 2!

Yeah that is fucking uncool man, as someone who is normally the first to mention spoilers ahead , why the hell would Vinny do this TWICE?

Many people have never played the original and this is a high-profile Switch release.

Dick moveby @vinny seriously

@esben8: That's always been part of the fun of the site. They all make terrible jokes, then boo each other for them, only to keep making bad ones themselves. It's all very tongue-in-cheek, and I like it.

Some of the best early bombcast memories were Vinnys bad jokes. I don't know if you remember, or were around at that point, but he used VERY different language before becoming a parent. Here's a small example very near and dear to my heart.

Hopefully!

@baka_shinji17: Do you know about how long this is? I'd love to pick this up, but what with getting a puppy (TODAY!), I won't have as much of a budget for video games. Puppies are expensive, at least in so far as providing for them. And Imma' spoil the little bugger rotten.

So I'd like to get a game I can get some value out of, and this just looks super charming in all the right ways.

Astral Chain looks fun as heck too, so there's my dilemma.

I can never trust Zelda reviews, Zelda is a very fanboyish franchise and every review of every game is filled with hyperbole and I’m disappointed every single time especially Skyward Sword and BotW so I’m very skeptical of this

@esben8: you’ve never had friends, have you?

@identikit: I couldn’t believe he did that!

I'm sure you get used to it but WOW is that camera zoomed in! It reminds me of camera settings in some games where you think "Why do they even have this option? Who would ever play this way!?"

I'm sure it's complicated because the original was zoomed in out of necessity due to the platform. I also imagine changing that may require changing how some of the game is designed, possibly? And if nothing else, maybe that improves performance quite a bit on the Switch if it's only rendering what's in the tiny view area.

On a side-note, I highly recommend watching The Gaming Historian's video on this game. It's fasincating how it came together. It was never supposed to exist. It only happened because a couple devs in their free time made it out of passion and a way to explore the GameBoy hardware, so eventually Nintendo caved and let them turn it into a full-fledged game. Gives insight on how devs at Nintendo really care and are passionate about what they do. These games feel like they have a lot of heart put into them.

One last thing! Whether you are a Steven Universe fan or not, the Aivi & Surasshu cover of Mabe Village is a must listen. One of my favorite video game covers. https://aivi-surasshu.bandcamp.com/

My relationship with Link's Awakening: I played it when it came out and thought it was great on the GameBoy! But the reason I really like it and the reason I won't get the remake is the music, the original game had fantastic music and the staff roll music is the best (in my opinion) rendition of the overworld theme.

I have come to accept that I don't actually want to play this remake, I just wanted to listen to the remade music, and I've done that on youtube now - and I am happy! The staff roll music doesn't have much guts which is a shame, but the rest of them are great versions and are how I imagined them in my head in 1994.

Things I wanted to listen to that I really like:

Richard's Villa (for the frog's the bell tolls:): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyub96E0-Oc is great

Animal Village, which is exactly how I imagined they wanted it to sound on the gameboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04kJYqdWyy8

And obviously the staff roll music, I still prefer the GameBoy version, but this one has a little bit of it in which is nice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDXlfvKdIZk

This quicklook is a joy.

You're right, I definitely wouldn't do this intentionally. As I've said, I've never played much of this so I assumed this was the conceit of the game or it was a theory as it's the main thing I see referenced when it is put into timelines and talked about. I thought I was being cheeky in trying to make sense of it. No idea this was a major plot point. Weird how calling out spoilers can sometimes be spoilers.

@lionsy: Agreed that the original Game Boy staff roll music for Link’s Awakening is very very good. Pretty much the gold standard for lighthearted adventure game conclusion music.

To be fair, I haven't played much of it either and I also know the "twist". Feel like this game is up there with Fight Club where the one thing people know about it is the "twist", even if they know literally nothing else. Bioshock probably falls under that category, as well. Makes it hard to discuss.

@identikit: Nobody would know it was a spoiler, it's done so casually. Putting a spotlight on the thing is just as much a problem as the thing itself.

Also the performance still seems bad. I thought people were saying it was fixed?

Good job Max! I mean, Dan!

@agemyth: At least in the Game Boy version, if you read enough of the cryptic overworld statues, one of them straight up tells you the true nature of the island and the Wind Fish, with no real buildup or anything. In an area you get to at about halfway through the game, maybe. It isn’t much of a spoiler, as like you said, the game is pretty heavy-handed with the hints.

The bummer about this it's that it's a 60 dollars Nintendo game. Meaning, it will never go on sale and I'll probably never get it because of that.

It's a different VA doing link in BOTW. He has a very different sound. In fact, his voice changed during development. When they showed off gameplay in 2015 TGA's Link has his old VA. The FInal release has a different one.

Vinny calling Dan Max is their relationship in a nutshell.

It should be legal to spoil games that are remakes of 20 year old games.

There I said it.

The only change I don't like in Link's Awakening: They gave the Crane game physics, and made it a cheating bastard.

Ugh it looks so GOOD!

Oh hey it's that funko pop game

This looks so good. I can't resist my nostalgia... But 60 bucks.. ouchies.

@vinny: The special edition is apparently called the Dreamers' Edition. So I'm not sure if it's that much of a twist

You really shouldn't throw anything in a glass house. Including this bad attitude!

This looks really good but just don't know if I want to spend 60 on it. Never played the original but loved other 2d Zeldas

Dan calling the gravekeeper "Dampy" is driving me nuts.