The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX (Game Boy Color)

Aside from being the other Game Boy Color title in my friend Antoine’s library (see my very first game post back in August), Link’s Awakening DX was actually already in my collection on that old grey brick…  only not in fantastic, full-colour mode.

As mentioned in the Super Mario Bros. Deluxe post, Antoine was nice enough to let me try his Game Boy Color one morning before school.  It’s strange, but playing a game in colour in the palm of my hands just felt incredible.  Here was Super Mario Bros., a game I’ve played through over and over again since childhood, and I was playing in the school hallway.  Amazing!  When he popped in Link’s Awakening DX, it was somewhat like visiting an old friend in the hospital, recuperating from colourful shots of botox to the face.

I say it felt like a hospital, mostly due to the white halls at our school…  anyway.  It makes sense to me.

In any case, it was strange.  I had owned a Sega Game Gear since I was young, but it didn’t quite feel like it was the ultimate hand held gaming experience.  Maybe if they had waited before releasing it, and made it sleeker or something.  I dunno.

What I remember most about playing the original Link’s Awakening was discovering two things in particular…

Who is Roc, anyway?  First he leaves his invisibility cape in a Hyrule cave (in A Link to the Past), and now he leaves a magical jumping feather in a dungeon on Koholint Island.  Who forgets or misplaces two awesome things like that??  Roc, that’s who.

The lady next door came over to visit my mom, and I sat quietly at the kitchen table while I played Zelda.  I remember having to position myself correctly in relation to the power outlet, and have my somewhat bulky battery pack perched on the table in a way I wouldn’t yank it off in a moment of sheer gaming excitement.

The second thing was mentioned in a Nintendo Power “Classified Information” section, which some might consider to be a “cheat”.  In reality, it was actually a glitch!  Performing it was simple, and allowed early access to areas you’d otherwise have to wait to be able to get to.

(Skip ahead to about the 0:55 mark for the glitch demonstration…)

If you pressed Select at the exact moment you crossed over to a new screen, it would launch you way over to the opposite side of the screen you were entering.  Walls, pits or bodies of water were no longer an obstacle!  It was fun to see where you could get to, but if you weren’t careful, you could easily screw the game up a bit, or possibly even get stuck “in” a wall.

The obvious choice to make a movie with was the DX version.  It had Game Boy Camera support (remember that thing???), which meant that a few of Link’s exploits were captured by a photographer in the game, and displayed in nice color images.  You could even print them (in black and white) on the Game Boy Printer!!!

Those were two strange experiments I definitely had no interest in buying into.

Anyway, I thought the images helped break up the monotony of reading everything.