Koholint Island is a place worth treasuring. This is something Link learns over the course of his quest to wake the mythical Wind Fish. And it’s something you will know already if you have played either version of Link’s Awakening to date: the Game Boy original or its DX re-release for Game Boy Color. Koholint Island is as much a character in Link’s adventure as its inhabitants, and not a square of its map is wasted. From the beach Link washes up on to the purple and white egg laying in wait on its highest peak, it is a meticulously-made puzzle wrapped up in the lives of those who dwell upon it.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Switch reviewDeveloper: GrezzoPublisher: NintendoPlatform played: SwitchAvailability: Out September 20th on Switch
Zelda has frequently dealt in melancholy, via locations on the brink of doom or left recovering from it generations later. On the surface, Link’s Awakening is one of the series’ most whimsical entries, its world inhabited by Super Mario enemies and talking animals, frogs who sing soul music and crocodile artists who paint pictures. But, from the off, it is also a location Link knows he must escape from – even if he doesn’t yet know why. The melancholy here lies in every subsequent step, each bringing a greater familiarity and understanding of the places and people he must leave behind.
All this was true, of course, when Link’s Awakening launched as a full-blooded Zelda game squished down onto a tiny monochrome screen, but crucially it remains so now on Nintendo Switch, where this masterly remake arrives in a post-Breath of the Wild world. All these years later, this version is exactly what I had hoped for – a chance to play through a modern recreation of Koholint’s original design, laid out exactly as it was and without any of its oddball charm being lost on the way. It’s an astonishing balancing act to see the remake’s choice of new visual style – tactile terracotta buildings and model-like figures cast against bokeh-drenched backgrounds – so accurately preserve the original’s quirks. The side-scrolling sections remain intact, as do the rooms which reset after you leave them, in a replication of the effect seen on the Game Boy, when that version’s grid-based layout scrolled from one screen to the other. For Link’s Awakening fans, this remake feels like the game you dreamt of.
The Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening – Story Trailer Watch on YouTube
For those new to the game – and for Link himself, of course – Koholint is an island full of secrets awaiting discovery. There’s something Breath of the Wild-like to its largely open structure – most of its regions are accessible after the game’s first hour – and in the uncertain nature of how Link has found himself here, a place which feels oddly familiar. But in its gameplay and item design this is classic Zelda, with a sizeable overworld – perhaps the series’ tightest – and a selection of dungeons housing new items to let you puzzle a little further than before. Along the way, Link will befriend the inhabitants of Mabe Village and the wider island, aid them in their struggles, bring love to a goat pretending to be Princess Peach, and even travel with a few of them as they explore alongside you.