At first glance, the new Zelda titles seemed like a colorful remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. However, since these games arrived in stores while I was on a plane to Los Angeles, I figured I better play one of them. I happened to play Oracle of Ages.

I made the mistake of picking up where someone else left off. I had a sword and a shield. I wandered around for a bit, beating monsters with one hit. So far, I was not impressed with anything new. The worlds seemed a bit more colorful, but nothing really eye-catching.

Remebering the cutscenes I saw at Spaceworld last year, I decided to reset the game, and start from scratch. Now the game was interesting. As the original The Legend of Zelda, Link starts out with absolutely nothing. Looking for my sword, I run into Impa. It's nice to see that they are finally trying to create a quasi-world with recurring Zelda characters. Impa needs my help to find Nayru, a singer. Seeing how I have no equipment, this sounds like a good idea. We find the singer, and then something really bad happens...

What really surprised me was the fact that in that sequence of events, I saw not one, but two cutscenes. Add to that the pretty amazing intro for the old handheld, and now I'm impressed. Even though I have had the Game Boy Advance for a few months, the scenes were still amazing in my eyes.

The sound is the same as the first Game Boy Zelda title. Considering the number of hours I have spent playing handhelds lately, the music is medium overall, but still excellent use of the Game Boy Color's abilities. It does make me eager for the Zelda Advance announcement (like you have any doubt there won't be one?).

So, overall, my impressions of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages are positive. They kept the same gameplay we know and love. The dungeons, based on the first one, will actually pose some challenge. And with the two titles sharing data and secrets, the Oracle titles look to be possibly the most expansive Zelda ever.