20 Nintendo Games You Must Play Before You Die
19. Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy)
Nintendo has many accomplishments worth bragging about under its belt, from kickstarting the home console movement to creating the world's most recognisable gaming mascot, but cramming the Legend of Zelda formula onto a humble Game Boy cartridge deserves pride of place on that list.
The Big N pulled off that incredible feat with few concessions in 1993 when Zelda: Link's Awakening hit the handheld system, with all of the depth and sophistication of its SNES predecessor A Link to the Past, albeit in a less colourful package.
Link's Awakening was streets ahead of anything else on the Game Boy. The story was gripping, the in-game world absorbing and never once did it feel like you were playing anything less than a full-fat Zelda title.
Sure, the formula was scaled back here and there, but the concessions were so shrewd that you barely noticed them, and when the DX edition arrived on Game Boy Color in 1998, the gulf between Link's Awakening and the home console Zeldas narrowed even further.