The latest version of The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening is a trip down memory lane for a lot of older gamers. This remake retains the top-down perspective and gameplay from the original release, but adds a handful of smaller additions to further enhance the gameplay experience to modern standards.
The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening uses modern visual techniques and a modern game engine to render the world. The graphics and effect look minimalistic and clear. This results in a beautiful recreation of the original game that feels fresh and authentic at the same time.
The same stories in an updated context
Depending on who you ask, creating a remake of an older game is perceived as great or pointless. The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening is a traditional remake. Apart from the updated graphics and adjusted gameplay mechanics, you experience the same adventures and stories as in the original release.
The current generation of gamers, myself included, did not have the chance to experience The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening on the original hardware. The platforms these older titles were designed for are often no longer available. Due to backwards compatibility problems, these gamers are lost in time for the younger gamers.
As a result, a remake offers all gamers the chance to experience a specific title in an updated context on the current console hardware. These remakes often deliver the best gameplay experience.
A different game engine and assets
To make it clear, The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening is a remake and the developers recreated the game code and assets once more. The end result is a game that looks like an updated version of the original release, but features improved gameplay mechanics. The remake uses a different game engine and higher quality assets to tell the exact same story.
A remaster of a game is a different thing. The developer takes the original game code and improves the assets. The gameplay remains the exact same. Some developers take it a step further and use the original release as a source of inspiration to create a different game with similar gameplay mechanics and stories.
A waste of resources and time
The process of developing a remake, reboot or remaster is often considered as a waste of potential resources, time and talent, but revisiting games also offers benefits. These remakes deserve their place in the modern gaming landscape as they offer great games a second chance to reach a larger audience.
There is an unspoken rule that defines the maximum number of remakes in the works. Gamers should never have the feeling that the remakes replace the original games.
Create fresh gameplay experiences
A lot of games reuse the same gameplay mechanics. You often find explosive barrels located close to larger groups of enemies. These barrels are identified as red so gamers can determine which barrels can take out this group of enemies.
To reduce the number of reused gameplay mechanics, remakes may be able to let gamers and developers discover alternative game design principles that were lost in time. This could change the use of specific gameplay mechanics and create fresh experiences.
Marketing, revenue and income
Some publishers seem to consider remakes as an easy method to get additional revenue out of a specific concept or title. The disadvantage of such a bad marketing decision is the reception of these remakes. They may feel often unconvincing and forced.
The remake of The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening is not the result of a forced marketing decision, but the work of a passionate team of developers. As a result, it is a great game.
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Disclaimer. This post contains copyrighted images from The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening, a video game developed and published by Nintendo. The fair use of copyrighted works for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting or research is not considered as an infringement of copyright.
