Until now, Link's Awakening is the remake of the most faithful game I've ever played.

The legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening releases for Nintendo Switch in just over a week, and expectations are high. Well, I'm here to tell you, with regard to all the preview footage that Nintendo has shown of the game, that you see, that's what you get. Based on what I've played so far (just finished the sixth dungeon), Link's Awakening is a 99% true remake of the classic Game Boy game. Whether or not a good thing is subjective.

Link's Awakening is incredibly beautiful

I've never really been a graphic addict, and Nintendo Switch is not the console to push the boundaries of gaming hardware. That said, every human with a soul should be surprised by the beauty outrageously beautiful Link's Awakening is. It's almost literally breathtaking at the same time. I do not know how many tries and mistakes have been made with Nintendo EPD and Grezzo to achieve this artistic style not enough plastic, not enough clay, but the end result must be seen to be credible. The effects of water in particular are nothing divine.

Fortunately, Link's Awakening brings a soundtrack to match his visuals. The original tunes of Game Boy were already catchy and beautiful, but reinvented as orchestral arrangements, they totally train you in the game world. This game gets a gigantic A + gold for presentation.

I did not notice any difference in performance between playing at the docking station or at the handheld. On occasion, I've experienced a bit of a slowdown, but it's brief. And honestly, if it was not my job to scrutinize the game at a granular level, I probably would not even have noticed the slowdown. I do not usually dwell on frame rates.

If you played Link's Awakening '93, you played this

Artistic improvements are by far the biggest change to Link's Awakening 2019 because the rest was left essentially alone. Almost everything that was in the Game Boy game was translated directly into the Switch version, also appearing in the same places. The singular change in the game lies in the fact that, except in dungeons, the screen no longer "scrolls" to move from one place to another. Koholint Island is a giant connected world now.

As a result, vanquished foes, cut grass, and dug up land will all regenerate now when you move away from it. In fact, things regenerate fast enough that they sometimes move, but it does not really affect the gameplay. It's just a little whim. A more substantial change with the open world is that Link can now rotate, shoot, and throw at 45-degree angles, giving it a little more mobility, but Link can still only move in eight directions. However, everything seems familiar. And overall, the gameplay is as tight as expected.

The chamber keep is a promising novelty

In Link's Awakening for Switch, Dampé and its Chamber Dungeon mode replace Game Boy Color's Camera Shop DX version. This is a simple way to design your own dungeons from pre-assembled rooms acquired for later use. Playing in this mode gives the impression of connecting puzzle pieces, except that each piece is a dungeon piece with enemies or treasure or locked doors or all three.

I still have to spend more time with this mode in order to grasp the nuance, but to help me understand this, Dampé challenges the player to create dungeons according to specific rules. Building and completing these dungeons can unlock more content for Chamber Dungeon, and that sometimes rewards you for good things like a piece of heart.

At the very least, I can say that there are a lot of smart projects under the hood of Chamber Dungeon, but that makes me especially more hungry for a real "The Legend of Zelda Maker".

How must a remake be faithful?

The legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening puts me in a strange position. I got used to remakes of video games that evolve or branch out in directions very different from those of their original incarnations, sometimes even of the genre. Link's Awakening 2019 does not do all of that; it's an almost shocking redux of the Game Boy game. Nintendo EPD and Grezzo simply trust players to believe that the original game was pretty close to perfection and that it does not need big changes. And I mean … I guess that's basically true? In the end, it will be up to the players to decide.

Stay tuned for our last review next Thursday, before The legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening outings on Friday, September 20th.