The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

"A challenging, in-depth, puzzling game with rewards, bonuses, and action"

This game is easily my favorite game for the GameBoy. For a tiny little cartridge with little disk space and not much room for great graphics, this game is incredibly in-depth and the storyline is awesome!

Gameplay - 8/10
Good controls, addicting puzzles and dungeons. Incredibly easy to get used to the controls, even for anyone who has never played any of the other Zelda games for the GameBoy. If you are a good sport and can withstand a little bit of frustration, can stand having to hold down the ''up'' button on the d-pad for a while, enjoy puzzles, and of course fighting off the enemies and getting sent back to the beginning of dungeons, then this game is for you.

Story - 10/10
Practically the whole game depends on the story! The story is about how the evil Queen Ambi takes over Nayru, Oracle of Ages' (hence, the name), body so she can mess up the past and therefore mess up the present. I can't go any further about the story. You'll have to play the game yourself to find out...

Graphics - 8/10
This game has pretty darn good graphics, for the GameBoy at least. On some other GameBoy games (especially ones that have spun off movies and TV shows), you can hardly tell a flower from a human! Sure, some of Link's animal friends look a little...um...different, but the actual system (GameBoy) is to blame, not the game.

Audio - 3/10
Unlike the graphics, this time Zelda is to blame, and not the system. And I'm not talking about the poor 8-bit sound quality either. It's just that those songs, well, get old after a while. Not only that, but also the little beeps that come on everytime new letters are displayed when you talk to someone or something.

Replayability - 5/10
What can I say? It's an RPG. The reason I will give it a five is because it has little things that may be worth playing again for. These include weapons not necessary to complete the game but making it easier to kill enemies, such as the level 2 sword and the boomerang.

Buy or rent?
This game is definitely worth buying. It's nearly impossible to complete Zelda in the alloted rental time at Blockbuster. And even if some people may be able to, it's still a great game and deserves to make some money.

In conclusion, this is a fun little game. Like I said in the gameplay section, you must be up for some challenges and frustration. Even with a strategy guide or FAQ, you will need to backtrack and find out what you skipped. But in the end, it will all seem worth it to you.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/01, Updated 07/10/01