Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Launches to Rave Reviews
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Remaster remake nintendo Link's Awakening legend of zelda

Nintendo’s latest remaster of a handheld classic “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” launched this past Friday to gamers around the world, and thus far reviews for the Switch exclusive have been overwhelmingly positive.

The game is a complete overhaul of the original, which launched for the original Game Boy back in 1993. A DX version was also released a few years later, which brought new colors and an exclusive dungeon to the Game Boy Color. This new version sees a number of tweaks made to the visuals, but the gameplay and game design remain largely the same.

Link’s Awakening has been well-received by critics, garnering a lofty 88 score on the review aggregator Metacritic, with reviewers praising the game for keeping the quirky humor that made the original such a fan favorite.

Where the original game had a scrolling screen due to the Game Boy’s technical limitations, the Switch version has an almost diorama view to it, which follows a plastic-looking Link around as he searches for a way to get off the island he’s stranded on. Along the way he’ll meet new friends, gain new abilities, and go through dungeons to look for things to help him on his quest.

One of the few knocks on the remastered version is the inconsistent frame rate, which does tend to stutter a bit on the Switch’s hardware. The issue is most prominent when there’s a lot of action going on the screen at any given moment. Still, the experience as a whole seems very enjoyable, and fans of the genre should be impressed.

While we at Evil Controllers do focus a lot on shooters and eSports, we do have a soft spot in our hearts for old video game classics, and we’re excited to give this game a spin.