The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening  is a 1993  action-adventure game  developed and published by  Nintendo  for the  Game Boy . It is the first installment in  The Legend of Zelda  series for a  handheld game console .  Link's Awakening  is one of the few  Zelda  games not to take place in the land of  Hyrule , and it does not feature  Princess Zelda  or the  Triforce  relic. Instead, the protagonist  Link  begins the game stranded on Koholint Island, a place guarded by a  whale -like  deity  called the Wind Fish. Assuming the role of Link, the player fights monsters and solves puzzles while searching for eight musical instruments that will awaken the sleeping Wind Fish and allow him to escape from the island. Development began as an effort to  port  the  Super Nintendo Entertainment System  game  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past  to the Game Boy, developed after-hours by Nintendo staff. It grew into an original project under the direction of  Takashi Tezuka , with a story and script created by  Yoshiaki Koizumi  and  Kensuke Tanabe . The majority of the  Link to the Past  team reassembled for  Link's Awakening , and Tezuka wanted the game world to feel like the television series  Twin Peaks . After a development period of one and a half years,  Link's Awakening  was released in Japan in June 1993 and worldwide later in the year. Link's Awakening  was critically and commercially successful. Critics praised the game's depth and number of features; complaints focused on its control scheme and monochrome graphics. An updated rerelease,  The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX , was released for the  Game Boy Color  in 1998 featuring color graphics, compatibility with the  Game Boy Printer , and an exclusive color-based dungeon. Together, the two versions of the game have sold more than six million units worldwide, and have appeared on multiple game publications' lists of the  best video games of all time . A  high-definition remake  for the  Nintendo Switch  was developed by  Grezzo  and released worldwide in 2019.