Link's Awakening Fan-Made Remake Falls Short
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is my favorite game. I've got a pretty long history with Link's Awakening, which has garnered a love for it that is unmatched by any other game. So, naturally, when I recently discovered a fan-made remake of the title, I got pretty excited.
The remake utilizes graphical elements from other 2D Zelda games, like the Link character model and environment pieces from Link to the Past and Minish Cap. The more detailed graphics look nice, but can also clash if you've had enough exposure to the games they're originally from.
I finally got a chance to play the remake last night, and, I have to say, it was disappointing. I was expecting a simple re-skin of the original game, but much of the gameplay has been redesigned as well, and for the worst.
The game is hard to control, because movement is restricted to a gridded space, so minor movements are impossible. Every tap of a directional key moves link a full square, even when trying to do a change of direction (you can't turn to face another direction and stay in the same square). This makes combat difficult, because you can't move away from the enemy and quickly turn around to attack. Doing so simply causes Link to run into the enemy and take damage.
The sword's hitbox has also changed, only hitting things in front of Link, as opposed to the original, which could hit enemies in front of and to the right of him. Again, this makes combat difficult, because players can't hit enemies that are standing to the right or left of Link without making a large, circular movement to face them (because of the poor movement).
Also, Link's trademark spin attack has been changed. The spin attack was executed in the orignal by holding the attack button until the sword began to flash, and then releasing the button to unleash the attack. In the remake, the spin attack is an attribute tied to one of many Sage Medallions, items players can collect to gain new powers. Sage Medallions are tied to the 0 (zero) key on a keyboard, which is so far from the directional keys used for movement, that it's nearly impossible to use quickly and effectively. I was also unable to find a way to reassign the controls, so, as far as I know, players can't change that.
Lastly, the original's save feature, accessed by pressing A+B+Select+Start, is gone and has been replaced by statues that act as save points and are placed throughout Koholint Island.
Despite the remake's shortcomings, I'm going to attempt to beat the game, simply because I'm interested in how Koholint Island looks with the updated graphics. I could probably browse the image folders that were part of the download to see everything, but I'd rather experience it all in action. Plus, I love the game so much, I'm willing to give this inferior version a real effort.
