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Remake of the fourth episode cult of the saga released in 1993 on Game Boy, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019) promised to offer a nice dose of nostalgia, while benefiting from some technical improvements well felt and a graphic redesign assumed. Highly anticipated by the fans, was Link's return on the island of Cocolint worth the trip?
More than 25 years after its initial release on Game Boy, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is not his first remake. In 1998, the title that freed not only the Tri-force, but also his nasty history Ganon had already experienced a colorized adaptation on Game Boy Color, before making his arrival on the virtual console of the 3DS in 2011. This time, it's a complete remaster, with some notable new features that makes its arrival on Nintendo Switch. A new situation for Link, whose adventures on the island of Cocolint are found for the first time powered on home console.
More than a remake, it will be more accurate to talk about reorchestration about The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Make no mistake, the game is fully modeled on the original title released in 1993, whether its story line, its map or its dungeons. Nintendo would have, anyway, wrong to deprive himself, knowing that the first adventures of Link on Cocolint were already particularly successful. Unsurprisingly, it is therefore on the form that will focus the main changes made by the Japanese firm, the most visible being the complete graphic overhaul of the title, as radical as it is cute to watch. Exit animated sprites and retro pixel art as desired, Link now offers an aesthetic resolutely more cartoony and symptomatic enough of the current Nintendo games. The rendering is smooth, round, and no offense to purists, this new approach probably more childish of the universe of The Legend of Zelda is a nice graphic redesign.
If the general thread of Link's Awakening 2019 looks like the original game, Nintendo offers some changes well felt. In terms of gameplay in particular, the disappearance of the up / down and right / left axes in favor of a more free movement made possible by the joystick not only allows Link to be more mobile, and therefore faster (always practical when it this is to escape the perimeter of a bomb), but also offers monsters an expansion of their movement patterns. What make the fights a little more panting, especially as the presence of additional buttons on the switch handles also allows better allocation and management of items. Specifically, the few minor changes made here and there do not upset the initial gaming experience, but work effectively for better ingame fluidity. Only notable defect brought by the 2019 version (it was necessary one), the presence of a rather unaesthetic blur around the screen during the movements of Link that tends to sting when we linger.
When we talk about the remake of a work, we often forget the musical dimension of the latter. And yet, how to evoke The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening without paying tribute to his masterful soundtrack signed Minako Hamano and Kozue Ishikawa. More vitaminized than the soundtracks of previous opuses, but equally epic, the original music from the island of Cocolint were able to find a second youth this year, in a modernized rewrite, but still very interesting.
The mosaic dungeons
Designed to enrich a single-player-only gaming experience, the dungeon-mosaic mode allows players to create their own dungeons, and then share them with the wider community. A novelty exclusive to the Nintendo Switch and subscribers Switch Online, which offers in addition to its free mode, a challenge mode in which Igor the gravedigger invites us to create maps while respecting certain predefined constraints.
The tool is quite well thought out and intuitive way Super Mario Maker 2, since it allows to know in real time the viability of the different maps. Quite anecdotal in the general adventure, the concept of dungeons-mosaic is no less an interesting addition, especially since the various pieces of cards are unlockable as collectibles over the course of the adventure. While some are easily accessible by progressing in the story mode, others are much more complex to find, which will add an additional challenge to seasoned completers. It's also via dungeon-mosaic mode, already mentioned in a recent trailer that Nintendo has managed to find a use for his amiibo. Using one of the 23 miniatures from The Legend of Zelda, additional maps will be added. In addition, Link's Awakening will also unlock the Dark Link dungeon boss.
A title thought for fans?
Whether it's through its classic Retro mini consoles released a few years ago, or its NES and SNES virtual library available on Switch, Nintendo knows how to thrill the nostalgic fiber of its players, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening n do not escape the rule. For all those who have discovered the game in its original version or even later in its DX version, the game remains resolutely true to its spirit of the times, and multiplies the easter-eggs not only to the Nintendo license, but also to the title classic. We thus find pell-mell adorable plush Yoshi, dungeons filled with Goombas and plants Piranha, and many other surprises, some of which were already found in the 1993 version. Side characters secondary, the entire cast from 1993 is obviously present, from the adorable Toutou to Pepe le Ramollo. Always nostalgic, the game opens with a nice introductory cinematic resuming the style of the artworks of the first titles of the license.
However, and despite a tribute paid to the players of the first hour, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is not content to fan-service to satisfy an army of nostalgic geeks who grew up in the years 1993. The new players who discover the title for the first time will also have the opportunity to enjoy the game, which has not only the merit of being beautifully rewritten, but also very successful in itself, both in form and substance.
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