For many fans of The Legend of Zelda series, the best games in the franchise are difficult to pinpoint, though in that difficulty, one incredibly frequent choice for the best game is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Despite this consensus, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and director Takashi Tezuka believe that Link's Awakening, now being remade for the Nintendo Switch, is superior to Zelda's premier SNES title.
In an interview with Game Informer, the renowned developers of the Zelda series discussed a wide variety of topics. Among the topics was a comparison between the Super Nintendo's A Link to the Past and the original Game Boy's Link's Awakening. Takashi Tezuka, who directed Link's Awakening, stated that, from a development perspective, Link's Awakening offered a more interesting process, saying that "there was actually real meaning in the fact that we were able to make the game on the Game Boy."
He added, "It was really fun to take on the challenge of trying to make a game for the Game Boy since its technical classifications were much lower than that of the Super Nintendo." He had emphasized the excitement generated by the challenging development of Link's Awakening.
Meanwhile, franchise producer Eiji Aonuma expressed a similar opinion from a player's point-of-view. "Link's Awakening is a game where I was not involved in the development," Aonuma stated, adding that it had left a very strong impression on him.
It had left such a strong impression on Aonuma that Link's Awakening was ultimately more influential on following Zelda releases than A Link to the Past. He said that, while playing Link's Awakening, he "was very influenced by what the game offered," sharing that some of its elements "definitely transferred to the other Zelda games I developed." Aonuma had mentioned Ocarina of Time as an example of a Zelda title influenced by Link's Awakening.
This will likely come as a bit of a shock to many Zelda fans. As mentioned previously, the Super Nintendo's A Link to the Past has often been considered one of the best games of all-time and a blueprint for many adventure games to follow with its broad scope of polished elements, so it seems like a no-brainer for it to be a map of sorts for Zelda developers. However, much like series fans, the developers do have a deep appreciation for some of the series' weirder and deeper cuts.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening will be released on Nintendo Switch on September 20th.