What's New

    
                               

The 2019 Nintendo Switch version of Link's Awakening is a full remake of the 1993 Game Boy game, made by Grezzo (the studio behind Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D) with Eiji Aonuma producing. The island, the story, the eight dungeons and the order you play them in are the same as before, so the original walkthrough still gets you through. Here is what is different from the Game Boy and Game Boy Color versions.

Look and Sound

  • A toy-box island: Koholint is now fully 3D, with characters that look like plastic toys and a world built like a diorama. A tilt-shift blur at the top and bottom of the screen makes it look small and far away, the way the island felt on the Game Boy's tiny screen.
  • Widescreen: the game fills a widescreen TV, but some dungeon rooms still only fill the middle of the screen, because their puzzles and boss fights were built around the original's almost square layout.
  • Animated cutscenes: the opening and ending are now hand-drawn animation, directed by Junichi Yamamoto.
  • New music: Ryō Nagamatsu rearranged the soundtrack, keeping the original melodies.

Controls

  • Sword and shield are always equipped. On the Game Boy you had to give up a button for each of them. Now they have their own buttons, which leaves the other buttons free for your items and cuts down on trips to the menu.
  • Upgrades are automatic: sword and shield upgrades replace the old ones as soon as you get them.

Dampé's Chamber Dungeons

New The biggest addition. Dampé, the gravekeeper from Ocarina of Time, now lives in a shack in the Tabahl Wasteland, on the spot where Link's Awakening DX had its Camera Shop. Once you have finished the Key Cavern, he lets you build your own dungeons out of rooms ("chambers") from the dungeons you have already cleared, then play through them.

  • Challenges: Dampé sets building challenges in three tiers. Finishing them earns rewards, including a Secret Seashell, two Pieces of Heart and the game's last Heart Container (see our Heart Pieces page).
  • Chamber Stones: you find extra chambers as Chamber Stones around the island, in the Trendy Game and at the Seashell Mansion.
  • Plus-effects: special chambers add rules to a whole dungeon, and clearing a custom dungeon can earn you a bottled fairy.
  • amiibo: the Link's Awakening Link amiibo released with the game adds Shadow Link, who chases you through your dungeon. Beating him improves your reward. Other Zelda amiibo (and Zelda-themed Smash Bros. amiibo) unlock one of five special chambers you can't get any other way.
  • The idea came from Shigeru Miyamoto asking Aonuma whether Zelda could have something like Super Mario Maker. Rearranging existing rooms was the simpler answer.

Collectibles

  • Changed Pieces of Heart: 32 instead of 12. Many are minigame prizes, and two come from Dampé. With the eight boss Heart Containers and Dampé's extra container, Link can reach 20 hearts.
  • Changed Secret Seashells: there are now 50. The Seashell Mansion fills a meter as you go and hands out rewards at 5, 15, 30, 40 and 50 shells. The stronger sword, now called the Koholint Sword, comes at 40 shells instead of 20. See our Secret Seashells page.
  • New Seashell Sensor: the 15-shell reward makes a sound when you are near a hidden shell.

Minigames

  • Trendy Game: the crane game now uses real physics, so prizes can slip out of the claw. New prizes appear as you win the old ones, including Pieces of Heart, Secret Seashells and a Chamber Stone.
  • Fishing: the fishing pond has new catches, including Cheep Cheeps and Bloopers from the Mario games, which win you Secret Seashells.
  • Raft Shop: the Rapids Race pays out a Piece of Heart for a time under 40 seconds and a Secret Seashell for 35 seconds or less.

What Stayed

  • The Color Dungeon from Link's Awakening DX is still here.
  • Jumping and side-scrolling rooms, the trading sequence, the telephone booths and the Owl statues all return.
  • Gone: the DX Camera Shop, which was built around the Game Boy Printer. Dampé's Shack took its place.
  • There is also a harder Hero Mode for experienced players.