The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (DX)

You wake up in a stranger's bed, the sea murmurs outside the windows, and the first thing you see is a girl leaning over you. No kingdom of Hyrule, no Princess Zelda — Link's Awakening begins with a shipwreck on the island of Koholint, and from the very first minute it makes clear that this is going to be a different Zelda than the one you know.

It came about almost by accident. As an unofficial "after hours" project by part of the team that had just finished A Link to the Past, it was originally meant to be nothing more than a port of that game to the handheld Game Boy. But the developers' enthusiasm turned it into a fully standalone title — the first-ever portable Zelda and the first entry in the series not set in Hyrule. That alone was enough to make it a small revolution.

Mechanically it rests on proven pillars: exploring an intricate world, gradually unlocking new abilities through items, and cleverly built dungeons full of puzzles and keys. On the Game Boy's tiny monochrome screen, the developers managed to cram in a surprisingly rich world with its own logic and rhythm. The game also became famous for how gladly it breaks the fourth wall and enjoys itself — you'll meet Chain Chomps and Goombas from the Mario series here, because the team simply allowed itself to play.

Beneath the playful surface, however, hides a surprisingly melancholic story. The entire island of Koholint is nothing but a dream of a creature called the Wind Fish, and the moment you wake him, everything — including the characters you grew fond of — disappears. This bittersweet premise gives the game an emotional depth no one would expect from a portable action-adventure from 1993, and it still makes it one of the most acclaimed episodes of the series.

In 1998 came the expanded version Link's Awakening DX, which added color and a single color dungeon playable exclusively on the Game Boy Color. And if you had any doubts about its status as a classic, the fully remade version for the Nintendo Switch from 2019, with its charmingly toy-like visuals, confirmed that the dream of Koholint island hasn't aged a day even after decades.

Why play it: It is the most personal and dreamlike Zelda, one that managed to conjure up an unforgettable world on the Game Boy's tiny screen.