That they could be found on the humble Game Boy was a near miracle. That such deep, emotional ethical themes could be found in a mainstream video game in 1993 – the year that also brought us the likes of Mortal Kombat II and NBA Jam – was amazing. “For the best evidence of how fantastically accomplished the game is, you only need to look as far as the recently released Switch remake.” There’s a well-known philosophical problem called the ‘trolley dilemma’ – would you pull a lever to stop a train accidentally hitting five people if it meant you were deliberately letting it hit another person on a different track? – and it eventually becomes clear that the game is hurtling you towards a similar decision, while at the same time laying the guilt on thick. The rest of the game from that point takes a rather dark turn, where issues like existentialism and sacrifice start coming to the fore. The revelation answers a number of questions for the player, but also throws up so many new ones. Without wishing to get into too much detail on that twist – after all, there are many players who are only just discovering the story for the first time on Switch – as interesting as it remains today, it was completely jaw-dropping back in 1993. To quote another notable Twin Peaks legend: “The owls are not what they seem.” Takashi Tezuka said he had Twin Peaks in mind while he directed Link’s Awakening
The owl is the one who happens to know how you can get off the island, and is ultimately the one who reveals the game’s major twist to you.
Then there’s the mysterious owl, who also appears from time to time to guide you on your quest (the first time this happens in a Zelda game). Chain Chomps are kept as pets, Goombas and Piranha Plants roam underground, and even Wart from Super Mario Bros 2 turns up at one point in a strange cameo.
#GAME BOY ROM LINKS AWAKENING SERIES#
The constant recurrence of enemies from the Super Mario series continually reminds you that things are a little more offbeat than usual here. The more you explore, the odder things get. That they could be found on the humble Game Boy was a near miracle.” “That such deep, emotional ethical themes could be found in a mainstream video game in 1993 was amazing.
NPCs in Zelda games aren’t exactly the most straight-laced at the best of times, but Koholint’s residents are particularly eccentric.Ī good early example is Ulrira, an elderly man who uses the island’s telephone network to enthusiastically drop you hints on what to do next, but is painfully shy when you visit his house and meet him face-to-face (and that’s not to mention his excitable wife, the appropriately named Grandma Yahoo, who loves sweeping so much she breaks her broom). These townsfolk bring their own sense of surrealism to the adventure too, of course. Koholint Island – this “place both wonderful and strange” – is completely new territory for not only the player but Link himself, and half the fun is in exploring it and interacting with the people living in it. It all combines to drive the point home to the player that these are no longer familiar surroundings. And despite still featuring in the title, Princess Zelda doesn’t appear anywhere in the game beyond a short namecheck right at the start (“What? Zelda? No, my name’s Marin”). Hyrule is no longer the setting, with Link instead exploring the idyllic Koholint Island. The mystical Tri-force relic – which forms the basis for most of the series’ mythology – is nowhere to be seen. Link’s Awakening defies these newly established conventions in numerous ways. As a result, a number of common elements and themes had already been established by this point, but these were about to be wrecked like a raft in a storm. It’s a good job he did, because the result is one of the more unique, memorable Zelda games ever.īy the time Link made his handheld debut in 1993, fans had already worked their way through three other adventures in the series: the original Legend of Zelda and Zelda II on the NES, and A Link to the Past on SNES. These similarities aren’t coincidental: Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka has said he had Twin Peaks in mind while he directed Link’s Awakening.
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