"Ages of Fun and Frustration"

Zelda games almost always meet gamers' expectations. In the jump to the third dimension, the two N64 classics, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, were regarded as some of the best games ever. But gamers didn't forget about the classic 2-D gameplay that preceeded it, and by 2001, a new handheld Zelda was in heavy demand. That year, Nintendo and Capcom produced two new Zelda games for the Game Boy Color that go hand-in-hand, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. Both are reminiscent of the classic Link's Awakening for the Game Boy with all new landscapes, dungeons, and items. And if you were looking for that ace-in-the-hole 2-D Zelda game, then you had to take a look.

Oracle of Ages is similar to Oracle of Seasons (and Link's Awakening, for that matter) as in you play as the famous hero Link and explore the overworld, talk to people, and beat eight dungeons and a final boss. The differences end there as the overworld, items, dungeons, and story are much different than Seasons, so basically, you could go out on a limb and say that the two combine to make a super-large Zelda game. The plot of Ages picks up where Seasons left off and Link visits the new land of Lynna and some sorceress named Veran takes Nayru, the goddess of ages, captive and Link needs to go on a treasure hunt for a couple of lost items and take advice from a large, talking tree for advice. With a password from Seasons, you can continue where the plot left off and find out the true ending, though the plot doesn't seem all that great to begin with.

Ages' gameplay is not much different from Link's Awakening as in you go on a big adventure, defeat enemies with a wide variety of weapons (particularly the sword), solve puzzles, talk to people, and do other good deeds. The controls are nearly identical to Link's Awakening as you can strafe with ease and quickly assign two items to the A and B button for easy use. Weapons include the classic sword, shield, bombs, as well as some new items such as a seed gun that ricochets seeds off the wall and a hookshot that switches your position with pots and other movable objects. You can also collect and equip rings, which give you miscellaneous abilities, such as added defense, attack power, or protection from miscellaneous elements. The only real complaint is more frequently than in Link's Awakening, Link can get “stuck” on enemies and can lose a chunk of health too quickly. Besides that and the frequently weapon switching you'll do, the control is fluid and there's no real complaints to be heard of.

As you've come to expect from the series, Link is dropped off in a small town with a mere sword and shield and is restricted to a small area of the overworld. From there begins the long cycle of doing bunch of miscellaneous tasks to unlock the next dungeon, which will bless you with some new item that'll give you access to more of the overworld. These items include feathers for jumping over pits and bracelets for picking up pots and stones. However, the game's progression really isn't that great. After each dungeon, the game tips you off to a new area of the overworld to explore. From then on, the stuff you have to do to proceed is usually off-the-wall, such as bringing an item to a specific person, completing some minigames, or searching for a hidden passageway. While this stuff is mainstay in Zelda games, the progression was more indirect than straightforward. Unlike Seasons, there is no sub-world such as Subrosia to visit but Ages' overworld has a few more annoying tasks to complete (Crescent Islands come to mind, good luck doing that without a guide).

Unique to Ages and not Seasons is time travel to the past and the present. By using a harp, you can jump into portals and travel to either destination. The landscape and the terrain is different for both time periods—the past is more greyish, dirty, and unkempt, while the present is picture-perfect. By time-traveling in the right spots, you can reach areas not normally accessible in one time period. You'll be doing a lot of tasks in the past to change the present, such as move a plant seed so that it grows a vine in the right spot or save a city from a volcano eruption. Combine this with the game's progression and you'll be switching back and forth in time to hand off items to people. This can be annoying, but the time travel concept is fairly neat in practice.

In Ages, the dungeons are more puzzle-based than combat-bassed, which can be more-or-less a good thing depending on your tastes. Expect to push colored statues into place and to shoot targets from afar to get keys on occasion. Similar to Link's Awakening, you'll traverse around and pick up keys and fight enemies and bosses. The thrills in the dungeons are similar with a few new twists and enemies, such as a few minecart segements. In terms of difficulty, Ages seems harder than Link's Awakening, particularly because of the nerfing of some powerful weapons and the mundane puzzles. The only problem is the “rooms” in the dungeons are now larger, which makes the dungeons feel more vacant as a whole as you spend more time walking from point A to B, unlike the more packed temples in Link's Awakening. Also, I was disappointed to find out that several of the game's dungeons have a pasty while complexion that just doesn't look very creative (hey, I like my temples to look cool). But unchartered ground is always enjoyable.

As mentioned before, a password feature exists between Seasons and Ages. When you receive a password in Seasons, give it to somebody in Ages to receive secret items, and vice versa. Passwords are also given when you beat one game to unlock extra features in the other game. A neat feature that gives both games a little more value.

The game's visuals don't vary much from Link's Awakening DX but artistically, it is aesthetically pleasing. The colors fit the mood, with a dry pasty look over the crusty past and a crisp look in the present. New sprites, particularly some trees and enemies, give the game some flair. The interface is clear and you'll have no trouble seeing what's going on around you. The sound effects are mostly recycled from its predecessor but with some original music for dungeons and whatnot. Nothing fantastic but for a Game Boy Color game, it is top notch.

Oracle of Ages is a great game for Zelda fans, and if you are interested in the series, then you should take a look at it. It takes about 15-30 hours to complete, bar additional items such as heart pieces and rings. But the overworld progression is just dumb and the plot isn't really that great. It was great to finish the game but was sort of a relief that it ended since it felt lukewarm after so much hard work. Compared to Seasons, it's really hard to determine which game is better, so it's best to say they're about the same. Most likely, you'll enjoy it for a few play-throughs, but not many more after that.

Presentation: 9/10 – Typical Zelda intro with a few neat artwork still cutscenes. Interface looks nice and clean.
Gameplay: 8/10 – Throwback to the classic Zelda formula of beating dungeons and going around the overworld, but the progression is a bit disruptive.
Graphics: 8/10 – Clear, neat looking 2-D world and animated charaters, but hardly new to begin with.
Sound: 7/10 – Mostly recycled sound effects but with a few new bits here and there.
Replay Value: 7/10 – This Zelda adventure has good length to it but not a whole lot of incentive to play through after a few times.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/07, Updated 01/04/08

Game Release: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (US, 05/13/01)