Link’s Awakening.

A Link to the Past was my first Zelda game, a great game obviously, and the moment when my young self saw the rainy introduction of the game will forever be etched into my memory, but Link’s Awakening after that impressed me greatly. I didn’t play it until the DX release, sometime after its launch, on GameBoy Color. My mother bought it for me because I loved Ocarina of Time. Many years later I also played the original release and recently of course the remake on Switch. It is basically the perfect handheld Zelda game. It’s compact, has a charming story, a filled world, unique and memorable characters and enemies and challenging dungeons. I also looked and sounded great on aging and restricted GameBoy hardware too.

The game is vastly underrated as far as I’m concerned, it’s somewhat of a technical marvel actually and in many ways puts it big console brother, A Link to the Past, to shame. It has cutscenes for one, and the story is told more visually rather than mostly through the manual like in the SNES game. It’s also the game that started a lot of series mainstays, while other more famous games in the series usually get the credit. It’s for example the first game in the series that features a music instrument with different songs that have different effects. It also introduced the fishing minigame, and the collect-a-thon and trading mini-games. It had mini bosses and a guide character, though it’s not yet with you constantly like in later games. The main twist in story is well known by now, but I never saw it coming at the time, and it one of those occasions when a story is done right. The dark tone (I’d say this is the grimmest game in the series, even beating Majora’s Mask in that regard), humour and the bittersweet ending of the game also never disappointed.

Luckily the remake put the game in a new light, a very favourable one and I’m glad. The remake is exceptionally well done and playing it made me fell as good as the original did. I definitely wouldn’t mind A Link to the Past, the Oracle game or the original NES Zelda, or of course a completely new game to be (re)made in it’s style.

A Link to the Past is the best Zelda.

Also happens to be one of the best games of all time.

It's no perfect. Too much linear. But the combat is amazing. 

The boss battle are superb. 

ALTTP is miles ahead. 

The greater "linearity" of LA doesn't bother me at all, I've never found this to be a negative in a video game. I like both overworlds about equally, and I quite enjoy LA's quirky charm.

In their original forms I know I'd pick LttP by a landslide but the Swithc remake levels the playing field by a lot.

ALttP is a fantastic game in its own right, establishing the basic formula that most Zelda games would follow for years to come, a great feeling of adventure and overall just a really solid title, but Link's Awakening takes that and adds something that will also be important for the series moving forward, its charm. The former made the foundation and latter gave that foundation its magic.

In terms of dungeons, while ALttP has the better set of them mechanically and design wise, LA only picking up its complexity and design until the last 3 dungeons, LA manages to give all of them a more distinct feel thanks to the music, despite being on a less powerful handheld than the home console entry, it sees fit to give every dungeon its own music, tracks like the Face Shrine given a tonal shift to match the story up to that point, the point driven far more home with the remake, still the original deserves all the credit for its initial inclusion. I will also give credit to the Thieves Den in ALttP, one of the dungeons that manages to tell a small story within it to give it a better sense of identity.

Music is special in the Zelda series and is something that on the whole LA manages to do better than ALttP, its tunes may not be as reused as the latter, but it doesn't take away from how memorable they are, little changes to even the classic overworld tune gives it an edge for me, the incredible Ballad of the Wind Fish is a fitting motif for a lot of key scenes with Marin, the inclusion of various songs that one can learn with the Ocarina give a greater sense of charm to the game, is a far grander soundtrack overall compared to ALttP, both have really iconic tracks, but LA delivers more of them.

The way that you get attached to the Island in LA is also worth of praise, thanks to the naturally paced trading sequence, while its ultimate reward is entirely optional, you still need to do most of it to complete the game, this simple concept makes it so you get more personal with most of the residents, you get to know them, their relationships, making you care more about what happens to them, the land of Hyrule may feel much grander and epic in ALttP, but one seeking a more personal journey and attachment to the characters in the world, is something that Link's Awakening delivers much better.

The story is also quite good in LA, while I'll always enjoy the classic tale of Zelda, Link and Ganon, there is something endearing about more out there stories like the one presented here and Majora's Mask. Its twist and ending, while something I knew even before actually finishing the game, still hits hard with a really great sequences. ALttP also has great sequences, the opening of the game, the Dark World itself, and Aghanim to name a few.

In the end both are games that I highly enjoy, but there is a greater sense of charm and attachment that I feel with Link's Awakening due to the reasons I mentioned, and taking out of a contest between the two, over 20 years after its release, LA is still a kind of game with a setting and ideas that haven't been replicated again within the series.

I'm going to say something that MIGHT be quite unpopular here: I wasn't a huge fan of Link Between Worlds. I mean, I like it better than the 3D Zelda series, but not so much as the original Link to the Past.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the fact that it opened up the game a bit more. There are other elements that I liked over the original, but the overall experience wasn't as fun or engaging as the original Link to the Past for me. Even on replays (which I did recently, twice, on the Classic Mini).

Where Link Between Worlds broke down for me was on the dungeons. Something just wasn't as fun about them - I think it was probably because they felt WAY slower, somehow. I forget why.

For anyone who actually pays attention to my posts, I'm not a dungeons guy, there are very few games where I find dungeons to be a positive experience. Some of my exceptions include Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Dragon Quest 5, and (of course) Link to the Past. In other words, I tended to like games where the dungeons didn't really feel like dungeons. Not only did LTTP's dungeons have a bit of an entertaining playground feel to them, but they never overstayed their welcome.

Something about Link Between Worlds made the dungeons unpleasant - it's been a while, but I didn't find the puzzles to be as fun, as they were more about looking around for stuff, and everything seemed to take longer. This kind of removed the non-dungeon feeling dungeons that LTTP had.

Another thing Link Between Worlds lacked for me were these kind of iconic moments, even the opening segment didn't feel special like Link to the Past's always does, each time I play it.

Although, I think I still like Link Between Worlds better than any 3D Zelda; for the most part, since Breath of the Wild, I've found the flaws of the 3D Zelda franchise before BotW stick out to me like a sore thumb: overly long dungeons, lots of REALLY bad "wander around for a while to find the key/switch/puzzle in order to continue your adventure, and needlessly lengthy dungeons that I don't find satisfying to finish. I did like a few things from the 3D Zeldas, I really liked the towns of Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Skyward Sword (Celda's felt small and inconsequential, and Twilight Princess was soulless)... but I am getting off topic, and really should stop here (I'm a ranty post type bastard!)