DX Differences
In December 1998, five years after the original, Nintendo re-released Link's Awakening for the Game Boy Color as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. Koholint Island was now in full colour, and Nintendo added enough new content to make it worth playing again, even for anyone who had already woken the Wind Fish.
The cartridge still works in an original Game Boy, in black and white, but some of the new features only work on a Game Boy Color. Here's everything that changed.
The Big Additions
A brand-new, optional dungeon built around colour puzzles, which is why it can only be entered on a Game Boy Color. Clearing it lets you choose the Red Tunic (double attack) or the Blue Tunic (double defence).
A mouse photographer opens a shop in Ukuku Prairie. Once he gives you a photo album, he pops up at key moments to snap a picture: twelve photos in all, which you could print out with the Game Boy Printer.
The whole game got a colour palette, plus a special border when played on the Super Game Boy. The Siren's Instruments now shimmer through several colours.
Gameplay Changes
- The Stone Slabs that give dungeon hints became Owl Statues, and the Stone Slab Fragments became Stone Beaks. More hints were added too. See our Stone Beak locations.
- The subscreen can show your tunic colour: press Select on it.
- Some dungeon chests hold different items than before.
- A few parts of the island's landscape were changed.
- The Genie, the boss of Bottle Grotto, throws its fireballs more slowly.
- You can no longer skip a whole conversation at once by pressing B.
Other Changes
- The title screen was touched up, with clouds drifting around the Wind Fish's egg.
- Extra music was composed, and new lines of dialogue were added, for example when you get the L-2 Sword.
- Lots of glitches from the original were fixed.
- The secret ending (for beating the game without dying) was redrawn: instead of Marin flying with wings, she appears as a seagull alongside her portrait.
- Some dialogue was toned down in a few regions, and Martha the mermaid now loses her necklace in most versions.
Playing It Today
Link's Awakening DX was released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in June 2011. Since the 3DS eShop closed in March 2023, the easiest way to play it now is Nintendo Switch Online, where it joined the Game Boy library on February 8, 2023.