Last year, Nintendo hopped on the remake bandwagon with a new version of 1993's The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Like Resident Evil 2 from the same year, this isn't just some HD reskin; this is a full on, rebuilt-from-the-ground-up remake with 3D graphics, new music and improved gameplay. In a sense, it was an entirely new game that just followed the same structure of the original. But while Link's Awakening was successful -- both critically and commercially -- much of the game's brilliance seems to be underappreciated.
Nintendo is a company that capitalizes on nostalgia, repeatedly winning over their fans by releasing well-made games that not only offer something new, but call back to previous games that players know and love. This is by no means a bad thing, but it does mean that newcomers to the Zelda franchise may not have the same experience as returning fans.
Obviously, each game "re-tells" the Legend of Zelda story. There's no continuing narrative between games, but that doesn't mean there isn't a benefit to playing them all. So where an old Zelda player may recognize a new interpellation of the Zelda theme music or appreciate a new take on dungeon puzzles, new fans will take them at face value and just experience the game as is, ignorant to any intertextuality.
This is where Link's Awakening benefits. It's not the latest iteration on a franchise, but a back-to-basics revisiting of one of the earliest games in the series. It's not a game that's meant to be a head-to-head competitor with some of the biggest open world games coming out today, but rather a celebration of what made Zelda the king of action-adventure games back in the 1990s. Players can enjoy it without wondering how it compares to The Witcher 3 and just appreciate it for being both its own cute little experience and a small slice of gaming history.
Additionally, Link's Awakening is a unique game to say the least. Any gamer with access to a console or PC can get their hands on a top down action game, but there are none that look quite like this. Link's Awakening's visual style is reminiscent of a small toy world that jumped straight out of a Fisher-Price catalogue. The sharp graphics and tilt-shift effect make it seem like you're gazing down into a plastic village through the screen of your Switch. Everything about it, from the little characters to the geometric layout to the cute animations when Link moves or attacks, gives the game a timeless appeal that players of any age can enjoy.
Of course, the game isn't perfect, and since it replicates the original to a tee, Link's Awakening suffers from the same issues its predecessor did. Namely the gameplay, which constantly jumps back and forth between straightforward to confusing. Maybe that was charming back in the day, but it can be frustrating when you realize that there was a hidden staircase that can only be discovered if you accidentally chop down the bush covering it. Still, we live in a digital age, and the answer to these sorts of things is only a quick internet search away.
As the hype escalates for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Breath of the Wild 2, Zelda fans shouldn't sleep on Link's Awakening. Whether you're a fan of the series or not, it's worth revisiting (or checking out for the first time) to see what's so great about Zelda in its purest form. This is a strange, clever little remake, and the world of video games is a bit better with it in it.