While not the first Zelda I ever played, it's easily the one I put the most time into as a kid. I was pretty much glued to this thing, and it was the first Zelda to suck me in so much that I felt compelled to learn more about the franchise. This was in the early days of the internet, so there was a lot of scouring for details on fan pages and printing out character bios and getting my dad's computer filled up with viruses. Good times...
I remember being awestruck by the amount of secrets and easter eggs in this thing, like being branded an all-caps THIEF, or turning Marin into a dang ghost. It was years later that I caught on to the more disturbing fan theories about the story, and while those are almost certainly false, I think they're fun to think about too. The game certainly has a mysterious air about it, and for a an early 90s Game Boy game, they managed to pack in a lot of atmosphere.
Naturally the smaller scope of the game means there's a lot less content to explore. This isn't as vast as some other Zelda titles, and even the Ages/Seasons games feel like they're more robust, but there's still a lot to do for an early 90's Game Boy game. The graphics are pretty sharp too and the controls are spot on, it feels like a perfectly condensed version of A Link to the Past, impressive given the power game between console and handheld hardware.
There is a remake for the Switch, and it's fine. It has a horribly tacked on create-a-dungeon feature and the framerate really likes to nosedive for some reason. But it's still pretty authentic to the original, and is a perfectly fine way to enjoy Link's Awakening today. But my fondness will always be for the original, and I think it holds up surprisingly well today.
I remember being awestruck by the amount of secrets and easter eggs in this thing, like being branded an all-caps THIEF, or turning Marin into a dang ghost. It was years later that I caught on to the more disturbing fan theories about the story, and while those are almost certainly false, I think they're fun to think about too. The game certainly has a mysterious air about it, and for a an early 90s Game Boy game, they managed to pack in a lot of atmosphere.
Naturally the smaller scope of the game means there's a lot less content to explore. This isn't as vast as some other Zelda titles, and even the Ages/Seasons games feel like they're more robust, but there's still a lot to do for an early 90's Game Boy game. The graphics are pretty sharp too and the controls are spot on, it feels like a perfectly condensed version of A Link to the Past, impressive given the power game between console and handheld hardware.
There is a remake for the Switch, and it's fine. It has a horribly tacked on create-a-dungeon feature and the framerate really likes to nosedive for some reason. But it's still pretty authentic to the original, and is a perfectly fine way to enjoy Link's Awakening today. But my fondness will always be for the original, and I think it holds up surprisingly well today.