The First Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch Review Is Now In, And It's Looking Good

I'm really excited about this game, however....I think Dragon Quest XI S is going to steal a good deal of thunder from it's release. Of course it will sell and it looks great but I'm not stopping Dragon Quest till I'm done.....maybe twice.

its Famitsu worst site ever, always give good scores, this is the same site that gave great scores too dynasty warriors 9!

so I would take there reviews with a huge grain of salt. but the game will be good. will be getting this next week along with ni no kuni. daemon x machina this week, those two next week and dragon quest the following week, my wallet hates me

I am so excited! Preordered both game and amiibo some time ago.

What I wonder is how a reviewer can evaluate the game with out being biased from the original game? I am not complaining, just curious.

I can't wait the style of the game look fantastic & sure Nintendo has done a star job on this one I wonder if other Gameboy Zelda games are coming our way??

To be fair:
https://gamnesia.nintendoenthusiast.com/star-fox-zero-received-a-score-of-35-40-from-famitsu-magazine/

To be honest I'm not excited about this release. Other than beautiful visually it's still the same gameboy game that I've completed countless times over the years on the original cart and the DX version on VC. Just not enough there for me to justify purchasing.

Now if they had done this to Zelda 2 that would be great! Fixing the cryptic text, 2.5 D battles and palaces, fixing the difficulty in death mountain. I'd buy day one!

Nintendo Life, you should also score reviews like Famitsu. 4 reviewers, 10 points maximum each, 40 tolal maximum points. Neat grading system.

Wish I could play but while I’ve still a huge chunk of BotW to complete I can’t justify getting this, though something to look forward to

The game is gorgeous, but it saddens me how much attention it will take from more ambitious games, for a lack of better words. Remakes are fine and all, but I think Nintendo should price accordingly. With Crash and Spyro having three game collections for considerably less, the offerings here just seem quaint. I know they have the dungeon maker, but the only interesting part of that is locked behind an amiibo.

To be fair, with all the "trailers" they have shown on social media, I don't need to play the game as they have shown more or less EVERYTHING.

True I am getting it and was going to whatever happened, even though I don't like the new version of Link, but need it for the collection.

I can fairly confidently predict that it will sit at 80 on metacritic. General praise across the board with criticisms being that it's too faithful to the original and a bit short.

And I for one couldn't care less because I will play the hell out of it and love every single minute.

@AlternateButtons Hmm, Skyward Sword?

@Joe-b You'll get your money's worth out of DQXI. The endgame content is massive.

@suikoden take every review with a grain of salt. Reviews are just some other persons opinion (or in this case, 4 people). It's up to you to watch trailers and reviews from different places to get a full overview of how it's being received. If Famitsu is wrong their review will stick out compared to others as an outlier.

Since I never played the original version, I'm very excited to play this one, because I love 2-D Zelda's. After Luigi's Mansion 3 this is my most anticipated Switch game of the year. But I can imagine that if you already played the original, you are not as excited as me.

@blockfight

I do, its just I don't understand why people have so much faith in them as they give high scores too nearly everthing.

Hopefully this sells well and we get a similar treatment for the Oracles games, or perhaps The Minish Cap.

@suikoden I don't feel that they do. But that's just my opinion. I'm sure there's plenty who agree with you.

@GameOtaku I agree with you Zelda 2 is my most wanted remake. I’ve never beaten that one, got to the last temple and put it down in frustration. I’d like to see what they could do with it, still a good game.

I’ll be picking this one up. It looks nice but I’m not getting any new Zelda feelings from this. It’ll be just nice.

Actually for Famitsu, who are completely unreliable anyways, that is not a good score at all.

@antdickens Gamexplain went over that not to long ago. They mentioned how at E3 the game was running under what they had hoped. More recently however they had said it's now running great and hitting the target frame rate almost perfectly.

@Wavey84 And here that was my favorite Zelda. It had personality, the music was great, and I loved the exploration of the different islands. Each one felt like a treasure hunt. To each his own I guess. My favorite tune is from that game as well.

@AlternateButtons I'll agree, while Skyword Sword wasn't my favorite it did do a lot of things right. Great story, great gameplay, and loved the crafting. Just was a bit limited with the flying. That was my worst parts of it.

This game will obviously be good. Just don't know how long it is. And hopefully will lead to a remake like this of the oracle games and even more hopeful of Monish Cap

@Joriss an epic adventure with arguably the best dungeon designs of all previous Zelda's. So, yes.

I expected better.

They gave 30/40 and 31/40 for Oracles games. So...

Is the game short? The original?

I’ll give it a ten because it’s so dam beautiful 😍

35/40 from Famitsu.

So it's around 44 in Metacritic if the standard conversion is followed.

@antdickens DF played a recent build at gamescon and the performance was almost locked at 60 now

Maybe day 1 for me.

I'd take 2d zelda over 3d every time. BOTW is a nifty experiment but the weapon issue is stupid and the game is so damn repetitive.

I had this game on GB but only my brother ever played it. New game to me.

I might have to cancel my pre-order. I've got a dentist appointment (and possibly a root canal) on Friday and I don't know how my finances will look afterwards.

35/40 sounds right since its a one to one remake with a few extra additions

@chiefeagle02 You need to prioritise! Just get them to remove all of your teeth, thus saving you money in the future. Link's Awakening is an essential purchase ^_^

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Man, I can't wait! It's been at least 10 years since I last played the DX version on my GBA SP. I've cleared my planning for next weekend.

@Spoony_Tech Wind Waker was great! And I loved the music!

@NimrodsSon I'm thoroughly enjoying the demo! It must end soon. I just sat in the sauna and trying to find the little girls sister! Can't wait for the release.

This makes it a bit more tempting to buy but not much. The asking price is just too high for what they are offering, this might be the first Zelda game I buy used.

Already pre-ordered! Btw, Gamestop is offering a free poster for pre orders

@Dustopolis Good point on the Crash and Spyro collections. Like Samus Returns, this should retail at $40.

I will wait for a price drop, Black Friday sale, or a used copy.

Didnt expect something else.
Cant wait!!!
In for a hell of a ride

This will be a wonderful game... it's just that I've played through the original (which is also wonderful) a good dozen times. It looks similar enough that I don't feel the urgency to immediately jump in with so many other stellar switch titles out and upcoming. But for anyone who has not played the original, this will probably be a top five Zelda game.

Link's awakening DX was the first Zelda I ever played and that's why I consider it my favourite of the series. I don't think the pricing is right at all though. It should be a 30-40 euro game max as compared to some other games that cost 60 but have tons more stuff to do. None the less I'm waiting to get my hands on the remake and I might have to get it day one 60 euros or not.

@AlternateButtons Many years ago, Famitsu was very stingy with their scoring and developed a strong reputation for that fact. Despite the fact that this has changed quite a while back, the reputation has stuck around, especially with older gamers familiar with Famitsu in the 90s.

Wish this was coming out this week since i'll be on vacation when it comes in the mail next week. Would have been the perfect vacation game too.

IMO the only thing reviews are good for is when there are game breaking bugs or performance issues, and I don't recall any first party Nintendo game ever having those.

I wanted this game bad. Then downloaded the Dragon Quest Demo. I forgot this game still existed.

For those of you who have yet to experience this game in any form: please buy this. It's a charming, out of left field entry and is my third-favorite handheld Zelda game; it's only behind A Link Between Worlds and Minish Cap in my book.

It should be the same price as that Captain Toad game for Switch.

It's a new version of my most favorite game of all time. So yes.

Great news for Zelda fans, but I've never really played these games much even though I bought the original for GameBoy. It's interesting though that a classic game has been completely remade from scratch. I'm struggling to think of any other examples of that. Why not just release original classic game on Switch Online?

I've never played the original but I have my copy on pre-order and I KNOW I'm going to love it a lot more than Breath Of The Wild and also finish it before that game..Can't Wait!

This is not a game whose quality is worth speculating, it’s exactly the quality of the old version, if not a little better or a lil worse

I have a copy on order. This is an expensive game at £49.99 which most outlets are selling it at, but I did find one store offering a 20% discount, so can't complain.

But I hope the review score reflects the games longevity.

Link's Awakening DX was actually first one from the series which beaten several times back in 90's. Will buy this of course. Nostalgia~

Not gonna lie, I'm skipping out on this game for untitled goose game

@Old_Man_Nintendo I'm actually a big fan of Star Fox Zero, it's a great game and I was shocked with how long I'd played it for when checking my activity log.

Prepare for cuteness overload! (and since I never beat this one...its like a new game lol)

9,9,9,8 is not that great for SOFTBALL, Nintendo Kiss Ass Fatimiususisusisisisiis

@Joe-b LMFAO! Wrong.

@dougphisig nobody cares

@chiefeagle02 Ouch bummer!

Spending my time on A Link To The Past for now, so no.

The game came out in 1993. We already know it's good.

Can't wait for one of my favorite games of all time to re-release.

That means Famitsu gave this a lower score than Umbrella Corps. I'm sure it'll be good but Famitsu scores are meaningless. They also gave Shadow the Hedgehog 31/40.

@antdickens any game produced by nintendo or under they control have bad performance?

It's clearly a good game, but the price can't be justified.

I’m definitely excited for this game, but I do want a little bit more out of a £50 game. At the end of the day, it’s still a game boy game. Not much can change that. I think Nintendo should’ve dropped the price to £35 and make it a budget title like a lot of the remakes of this generation (Spyro and Crash). If they still wanted to get £50 out of it, they should have bundled the oracle games too and made it the ‘Zelda portable trilogy’. I’d be much happier with that

The game looks good, the price doesn't. Nintendo's greed all over again.

I'll wait for a sale and get Dragon Quest and Nino Kuni instead.

@pullmyfinger aren't you just a bottle of sunshine.

@Joriss Foolish human.

Honestly, I think a Oracle's of Remake would have been more dope, but I'm lying if I say I think that if this sells well they're totally not going to release that in 2 years. The Oracle games had a lot of good ideas if you could get past the 2.5 games for the price of 2 thing.

@the_beaver I mean, it is a full remake. Like the og came out in 1993; a lot of people didn't play it and there is by default nothing reused except the general dungeon and map design, and even then, that had to be entirely recreated. I'm kinda okay with the price almost. I think that if they released it on the 3ds it would be 40, but I kinda get why Nintendo doesn't want to split it's pricepoint into something like AA and AAA games. That sort of devalues their own .

@John_Deacon why shouldn't it? Its not like there are any reused assets. Everything in the game had to be recreated from scratch. I mean, I'd agree on just polishing up textures and adding amibo support like the wind waker HD and Twilight Princess, but even though everything is modelled after and a recreation of a game that came out 26 years ago, practically speaking, because there was no carry over except from a dungeon and map design standpoint, it's an entirely new game. Hell, even the that was old had to get redesigned for the new artstyle. Nah, I'm gonna say it's a new game for most. I played the original, but I'm willing to bet a lot of people haven't. The statute of limitations is up on this one

@AlternateButtons "Was there ever any doubt? It's Zelda, of course it's going to be reviewed positively".

Fixed.

@suikoden Famitsu gives the weirdest scores and are Nintendo fanboys but we know that the remake is good because the original game is good. So yeah, basically you said the truth.

I wonder if technical performance is solid though and the visuals well I'm not sure that I love them.

Oh and Famitsu rated Star Fox Zero 35/40 like @Old_Man_Nintendo said.

I'm convinced if you put the name "Zelda" on anything, people will freak out and praise it as the best thing ever. I look at this game, see all the excitement, and think "Why?" It looks like a basic adventure game with Wii graphics.

@TJC04 Try base.com where you can preorder the game for £40.