I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that excited about starting Link’s Awakening DX. It seemed archaic in comparison to Link to the Past. However, after having played it for about an hour, I have a much higher opinion of it.
For the most part it plays very similar to Link to the Past. It’s got a top down view, a spin sword attack, and the dialogue reminds me a lot of the previous game. The map system, compass, keys, etc, also feel very similar. The first town even has a rooster weather vane.
There are some interesting additions to it though. For one, in the first cave there’s a portion where you toggle from top-down to side-scroll view, very similar to the NES Zelda (but nothing as weird feeling as Adventure of Link). Taking it even a step further, you can get a “feather” which gives you the ability to jump in both side-scroll AND top-down mode. So in top-down mode, if there’s a chasm that is one block wide, you can jump it if you have the feather enabled.
Probably the biggest downside is the control mechanism. Since this was built for the gameboy you only have A, B, Start and Select. This makes it somewhat cumbersome to toggle items and maneuver between map and sub-menus. Probably the most tortured button combo is the one you need to save: hold down A, B, Start and Select at the same time. It usually takes me 2 or 3 tries to get it right. It’s tolerable though.
One other interesting thing about this game is the story. So far, no princess, no Triforce, no Ganon. It feels like a spinoff more than a main Zelda title. Despite this, it is more fun than I expected and I look forward to playing it through.
Time played: 2 hours
