The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Eiji Aonuma explains why it’s the right time to revisit Link’s weirdest adventure

Remaking a 25-year-old Game Boy game would, on first impression, appear to an odd way to follow Breath Of The Wild; after such a groundbreaking reinvention of the Zelda formula, it seems like a step back in more ways than one. But then shifting to a more traditionalist approach has hardly done Mario any harm in recent years. Besides, Eiji Aonuma has been thinking about returning to Link’s oddest outing for a good few years now. Indeed, when we interviewed him about Breath Of The Wild back in E296, Aonuma alluded to making a game about “living as a thief”. Now, anyone who’s played Link’s Awakening will remember what happens if you steal from the shop (and for those who haven’t had the pleasure, we won’t spoil the surprise). So, we ask, the penny suddenly dropping, was that what he was alluding to back then? He’s laughing before we’ve even finished the question: “Yup, that was it!”