The Legend of Zelda:
Link's Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1999) is an adventure-puzzle game in the Zelda series and universe. A remake of the 1993 Game Boy game of the same name, this one is set on Koholint Island and follows Link after he is stranded and must find a way back to the land of Hyrule. Its unique combination of puzzles and combat and exploration, together with a surprisingly deep story make it an intriguing game to play.

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Link's Awakening's unique cartoon art style paired with the shallow depth-of-field effect makes playing the game feel like playing with physical toys and is a noticeable departure from other Zelda games such as Breath of the Wild. You traverse through the open world and battle enemies using your sword and protect yourself with your armour, as well as completing the sometimes quite difficult puzzle-based dungeons which can be based on colour puzzles, locating keys and much more.

You can throw heavy objects like bounders to clear your path, grapple across gorges and dash into enemies to defeat them, and you can find and upgrade your gear as you go. Using your abilities, you explore the island on a quest to collect eight instruments and awaken the island's legendary Wind Fish in order to escape. Unlike many other Zelda games, Link can also jump and there are also several platforming sections in the game.

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 8 months ago.