A New Hero Awakens

This Epic Zelda Quest became bogged down with the weight of life over the past five years.  Now, with the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, I've decided to pick up the master sword and continue the quest.  

 

I can hear this image

I'm now determined to include ALL the games.  I'll only rank each game once (so not 3 different ports of Ocarina of Time) and play whatever I deem to be the best version of the game.  

First, let's catch up on the past few years.  Like the rest of the world, I played and enjoyed Breath of the Wild.  I'll save my verdict on it for later in the quest.  

 

Link's Awakening continues to get better with age

I also played through the Switch version of Link's Awakening.  It reminded me of just how great the original game is, enough that I bumped it up ahead of the NES version of Legend of Zelda.  That means as we resume the quest, my current ranking stands as:


1. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
5. BS Legend of Zelda

Reawakening

Much as Link became stuck on Koholint Island, this Zelda Quest has been stuck for the past year as life got in the way.  I’m going to try to begin his mission again with the goal of getting caught up in time for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (this didn’t have a title last time we posted).  I finished Link’s Awakening tonight.  I’m always amazed just how much is packed into every inch of the map.  The game's charm also holds up.  My biggest criticism is the game is very easy.  As a kid, I guess I never really noticed this.  Anyway, like the Wind Fish, I am now awakened and ready to move on to the next game.

 

Like Lindsay and Blake, I’m going to start ranking the games.

1.        The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past

2.       The Legend of Zelda

3.       The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

4.       Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

It Came From Japan

Now onto The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.  This game is exciting because it is the first time I’m going to play a game on an original Game Boy cart in more than a decade.  But I’m not going to squint to see my old GB fatty.  Nope, I’m picking up one of the numerous oversights by Nintendo of America: The Game Boy Light.

This guy has seen better days.

Ask anyone who tried it what the biggest problem with the Game Boy was and you get one answer, “You can’t see anything.”  All sorts of aftermarket solutions were released.   

Speakers + Light + Magnifier + Joystick = WTF?

The one I had was the Handy Boy.  You can hardly even see the system under that monstrosity.

In 1998, Nintendo came up with a solution: The Game Boy Light.  This system has two settings on the power switch.  

The first works like a traditional Game Boy Pocket with black and white color.

But flip the switch and you get this.  The light is actually behind the display and works sort of like the old indiglo watches.   

 

It’s easy on the eyes and you can look at it for a long time without straining your eyes.  It is everything you would want the Game Boy to be.  

Sadly, NOA never brought it over to America.  Maybe it was because the Game Boy Color came out just six months later or maybe it was NOA’s misguided beliefs in what Americans like (I’m looking at you “Play it Loud”).  

Either way, I got all my gaming information at the time from Nintendo Power so I had no idea this thing even existed until about five years ago.  They are especially popular now with chiptune musicians because you can see them in a club.  If you ever find one, I highly recommend it.  

Gator's gotta have his dog food.

As for the game, I’m loving its lighthearted attitude.  It’s a nice change of pace.  I look forward to playing more of it and its inspiration (more on that to come).