If you do a girl in a parallel universe is it cheating? (The Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Seasons (GBA))

Member Name: StarSoldier1

Product:	The Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Seasons (GBA)
Date:	20/08/07 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge game with a lot of cool ideas.

Disadvantages: Too much switching.

It's always great when another Legend of Zelda game comes along but this new Zelda is one half of a two set series created by Capcom (from Mega Man, Side Arms, and Resident Evil fame) and not by Nintendo this time. This review is about The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons; a cool game that adds an environment changes to the mix (spring, summer, fall, and Winter of course). It's now Link's job to rescue a dancer (that also happens to be the Oracle of Seasons) named Din he just meet in a weird universe from the evil Onyx and help restore order to a world now in utter chaos. She's also hot looking too if that helps any?

The new seasons game play will affect where and where not you can not go in the game like during the Spring you can use certain flowers to bounce Link to higher platforms that wouldn't be there any other season and during the Winter season Link can cross over ice covered lakes if he wants to and much more. Some seasons can also block your path too by having trees in the way or something like that so there are some trade offs. As Link progresses in the game he can learn magic to help him control some of the seasons and unlock more of the map and therefore some more secrets too just like in any good Zelda adventure.

Much like in the last Gameboy Zelda (Link's Awakening) Link can equip certain items with the B and A buttons like Swords, Shields, Wands, and much more but Link can also wear a ring that can give him special powers, which is very cool but you can only have one ring at a time so you have to constantly trade off rings every so often and the same goes for the items too. I think the main problem is with the lack of buttons on the Gameboy (only 4 of course), so the game forces you switch to your inventory menu way too many times during game play which is bound to get some people very angry but hey it's still fun collecting them all.

The graphics are just like the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX which is almost like the character designs from the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (on the Super Nintendo) but with weaker animation. What stands out most about the game is the excellent use of colour in the opening cinemas and for the seasons changing so you'll always know what season it actually is (the game can only be played on the GameBoy Color and advance btw). Some hard-core Zelda fans should instantly recognize some of the enemies in the game like the dragon first boss.

Just like the graphics, much of the sounds and music is from the past Gameboy Zelda game (especially from Link's Awakening) but don't worries you'll still hear a lot of different new tracks as well, even some music from the N64 Zelda games. Don't expect anything too fancy though because this still on an 8-bit machine after all and if you saw some of older Gameboy reviews here, then you should I'm not a big fan of the Gameboy's audio.

If I had to choose between picking Oracle of Seasons or Oracle of Ages, I would pick Seasons because it's more action than puzzle and it's easier to get into while Ages is slightly more difficult and puzzle like. I also like that there is not too much pressure to get the other game (Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages) because Oracle of Seasons is a great game on its own but if you want more after you finally complete the game than you may want to get the other game anyway because it's that good of a game (plus you also get a special password at the end) also but the choice is yours. With excellent use of puzzles, new items, and action this game has it all and it will keep you busy for a while. The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons is a must for Gameboy Color owners who are sick of playing crap.

Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons overall rating: 86/100

For 1 player only
Rated (E) for Everyone
graphics: 7/10
sound: 7/10
gameplay: 9/10
replay: 8/10

StarSoldier1
(Ryan Genno) 2007

Summary: Yeah, I would get it.