Wind Fish (Patreon)

More of a whale, really. Despite this glaring flaw, Link’s Awakening is one of my favorite Zelda games. You know what? I’m going to be bold about it and say it is my favorite. I’m also going to be forthright and admit that nostalgia plays a big part. First off, I love it for being so weird. Zelda only exists in mention at Marin’s passing resemblance. There are Goombas and Kirby’s running around. Characters routinely break the fourth wall. And despite all this silliness, it has one of the most tragic conclusions to any Zelda game, and really any game I had played up to that point.

You gradually learn that the whole game takes place within a dream. Bosses go from confidently bullying Link to begging him to stop his quest. And in the end, the only way for Link to leave is to destroy everything, monsters and whimsical characters alike. I remember completing that game huddled under a lamp (it was an old-school Game Boy) one night during a family vacation to Cape Cod. It would be one of our last such trips. (Everyone is still very much alive, but I was starting my junior year of high school and my brother was already in college.) Either way, it made the ending that much more bittersweet. I didn’t know games could be sad.

The Ballad of the Wind Fish still elicits emotion in me to this day. And as much as I love the Switch remake, the tinny 8-bit square wave is how I’ll always remember it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KftKvz0LK4&list=PLDF2556A8C45BF850&index=44