Nintendo Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda - Not Machine Specific

If there's one thing I should address before this review, it's that I was a 1990s kid, and was an infant at the tail end of the 80s decade, I never grew up with the Game & Watch series and only knew about Nintendo's green screened brick handheld, although I did own a few Tiger electronic handheld games which were close enough to G&W as it was. But, I'm just stating my history here. The Legend of Zelda modern Game & Watch is a fine nostalgia trip into Nintendo's past era of gaming, where 8-bit games were still going strong, three classic titles, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and the Game Boy game, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening are all included on the small system, along with a small twist on the classic Game & Watch game, Vermin as you play as Link hammering down a bunch of.... octoroks? that's what they look like anyway! All of the games are preserved working in perfect quality, with a game pause feature allowing you to continue where you left off, changing screen brightness, and even having an exclusive little screensaver for each game if you leave the games idle for a while. On top of that, the handheld also has its own clock that you can adjust the time to, and exclusive for this handheld is setting a timer and playing a fun minigame of defeating as many enemies as possible as the timer goes down. The handheld itself feels very sleek fitting right into the palms of your hands, and a nice rubbery feel to the buttons, apparently feeling accurate to how the original 1980s Game & Watch systems did. I've heard nitpicks from certain social media comments saying they wished that Nintendo went with the DX version of Link's Awakening, but I think in theory Nintendo wanted to use the 1993 release as the original Game Boy and Game & Watch released in the same decade, and really, I have no complaints about that. Some may not take a liking to the pricing, especially when scalpers have to bring up the price higher, but if you can manage to grab a copy on the retail shelf for its actual price, I highly recommend picking one up, as these may not last for long.

I bought the Zelda and the Mario one absolutely worth every penny my children are five and eight years old and they absolutely love it. The graphics are amazing on these games and it’s easy to travel with. Perfect size love that there’s no Internet need for these which means no YouTube just pure 90s game. I love that my kids love it because it’s very nostalgic to us since we played these as kids as well. Makes the perfect gift.made by Nintendo and battery lasts for days

This Game and Watch is amazing. It contains 3 full Legend of Zelda Games (Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2, LOZ: Link's Awakening) plus a bonus game. The case is clean with great colors and the interface to select and play the different games is as simple as it gets. If you leave the device on in clock mode, it displays a large clock with a Zelda game auto-playing in the background and you can take control of the auto-play at any point by pressing the face keys. It comes with a USB-C cable for quick charging. Nintendo really thought of everything with this. I'm so glad I got this!

Let's start by saying Nintendo knows that quality assurance with nostalgic products at least are of the utmost importance. I don't have a Switch and I know the joy-con drift situation is a pain point, but with this device and the NES Classic that I do own you can tell they care about their legacy. As a collector's piece, an interactive one at that, both for Legend of Zelda and for Game&Watch this is a beautiful thing to put on the shelf. Emulation of the games appear perfect. I have two minor issues and honestly I understand both of them. The size of the device and by extension the screen is a bit of a pain point. Still fully usable and I have larger hands, but I can see where this might bother others who are used to a Switch or a premium phone screen for gaming. I tend to think the dimensions of the device are mainly to simulate the original G&W dimensions and if looked at in that spirit it makes perfect sense. Nevertheless, I get why some might wonder why it wasn't slightly larger across the board. The second minor critique would be the version of Link's Awakening. I grew up on the original and again if this is about paying homage to the classics I get it. I personally would have liked to see the Gameboy Color version, but Link's Awakening 93 is still both perfectly playable and one of my favorite 2-D Zelda's of all-time if only because of how much it experiments with the game mechanics and narrative when compared to the masterpiece that was A Link to the Past. Miyamoto not being involved in the gameboy game was a blessing because the team wasn't hindered by his input being very strict to certain ideas of what Zelda can and should be. I think the device is a testament to a time when Zelda wasn't a formula, but an experiment that had good and bad conclusions, hence the inclusion of Adventures of Link which was a look at Zelda in a different way that has a very marred reputation. So should you buy it? If you love Zelda and like collectibles with superb build quality, yes. If you just want to play old games on a handheld, I might look elsewhere as the market is full of options for this that don't include the Nintendo premium costs but also doesn't include their build quality or reputation either.

Este Game & Watch me volvió a enganchar como no lo había hecho un videojuego hace años. Está muy practico para llevar a todas partes y los ajustes de sonido y luz son un plus para jugar esos juegos en esta época. Me estoy pasando Link's Awakening y la verdad la experiencia de poder volverlo a jugar de la misma manera que hace años me hace volver a querer pasar todo el dia jugandolo. Los botones responden muy bien al tacto y el diseño compacto y ligero me deja queriendo jugar más titulos clasicos en este tipo de presentacion

Just what you’re come to expect. Good quality product, fun game all around a great product faithful to the original game and watch systems.

Nitendo sempre a mesma coisa

Bought this for my husband as our anniversary present - he absolutely loves it - it’s so neat and portable

The best modern Game & Watch collectible for me. Played through all the games