The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC)

Yes, I've said it. Fans who picked the "Zelda" series up at "Ocarina of Time" may baulk at the idea, but, if impressiveness were measurable as the ratio of a game's brilliance to the limitations of the host hardware, then this game wins the contest hands down. Quite simply, to get a game of "Link's Awakening"'s length and depth onto a machine that was far from state of the art even on its (the Game Boy's) 1989 debut, was a phenomenal achievement - and one which should not be taken for granted even in today's world of endless Nintendo repackaging which saw the game relaunched in colour around the time of "Ocarina of Time".

While the game quite forgivably lacks the scope of its illustrious siblings "Link to the Past" and "Ocarina of Time", it is nonehteless a thoroughly absorbing work. As per those games, all the characters and items are somehow related to your quest. Throughout the game there is a run of items which have to be exchanged - dog food for bananas, bananas for honey, and so on. At first this seems rather pointless but it soon becomes vital for your quest: a key example of just how involved this game is. It is an 8 bit title that shames many of our modern 128, 256 or however-many-it-is (they probably don't even count anymore) bit works of today, to shame.

The dungeons are often inspired, with many excellent ideas, such as the crashing temples of Eagle's Tower, and the recurring bosses. A few - most notably the Angler's Dungeon - are a little lightweight, but generally the standard is fantastic. The bosses are a little disappointing at times, but the final encounter with a morphing blobby monster - and the crazy pseudo philosophical end sequence - are excellent.

Overall, this game was an essential part of the "Zelda" series' imperial '90s trinity (along with "LTP" and "OOT") and is as great to play now as it was in 1993.

Now this is how to make a game. 100% gameplay. The graphics are none too special but hey - the original version was released way back in 1993. In my opinion this is the most playable Legend of Zelda yet. I know I'm in the minority but it dominated my life more than Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker or Link to the Past. The plot is better than most Zelda games, and the structure well defined and skillfully modelled. Sub quests are present and there's even a fishing minigame. The music is chirpy and never annoying and the puzzles - though often hard are never unfair - there is always a logical solution. It is quite a long game that earns replay value by just being tremendously fun. The new DX version even has a brand new dungeon not present in the original game. It is better than resent handheld Zeldas (Oracles was good, but not AS good). Take my advice , if you do not already have this game BUY IT or the original version. Your gameboy will love you forever.

I have always been a firm believer in the idea that older games are much more fun and much harder than modern games. Games don't have to have the latest graphics or fancy controls or millions of different options, and this game is certainly one of many old games that prove it. The creators of this game have faced the challenge of limited possiblities with fantastic results. This game is incredibly challenging and some parts of the game will have you stumped, such as (Spoiler alert!) the trading sequence and the blue rooster. (/Spoilers). But no matter how hard the game may become it just never stops being fun and everytime I put it down I found myself picking it up again ten minutes later and having another shot at it. This game has so many brilliant aspects that it is impossible to go through them all, I'm just going to say that if you haven't played it already, it's fantastic.