Nearly a decade before the Game Boy, Nintendo made its mark on handheld gaming with the Game & Watch series. Designed by the legendary Gunpei Yokoi, the single-game handheld devices doubled as watches and became incredibly popular. They’re an important part of Nintendo’s legacy, which is why the games’ mascot “Mr. Game & Watch” is in Super Smash Bros. That legacy is also why Nintendo released Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. last year to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and why we’ve now gotten Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda to celebrate that series’ 35th anniversary.
The Zelda Game & Watch takes the same nostalgic Game & Watch design and backlit, color LCD screen of the Mario Game & Watch, but replaces Super Mario Bros. and the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 with the original Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, and Link’s Awakening. It also overhauls the clock and timer functions with Zelda graphics instead of Mario graphics. The $49.99 price is a bit expensive for such a limited device, but that’s only if you look at it in terms of utility. This is a collectible for fans of Nintendo’s history, and The Legend of Zelda, specifically.
Classic 1980s Design
The Zelda Game & Watch is an 0.4-inch-thick plastic card measuring 4.4 by 2.7 inches, designed to evoke the original Game & Watch devices from the early 1980s. The face of the device is the same gold color as the Mario Game & Watch, but with a Link green plastic body instead of Mario red, which removes the Mario handheld’s Famicom aesthetic. It still looks unmistakably like a Game & Watch device, and the green certainly adds to its Zelda identity.
The Game & Watch’s back features a pleasant Easter egg in the form of a debossed Triforce. When the Game & Watch is on, the Triforce lights up (a flourish the Mario Game & Watch lacked).
The handheld’s face is filled by a 2.5-inch color LCD screen flanked by NES-style controls. A black, plus-shaped direction pad sits to the left of the screen, while circular A and B buttons and rectangular grey Start and Select buttons sit to the right. The direction pad is plastic, but the buttons on the right are all rubber. Three additional buttons labeled Game, Time, and Pause/Set are located above the Start button. They’re slightly smaller than the Start button, but they have the same shape and grey color.
The Game & Watch’s right edge holds a USB-C port for charging (a cable is included) and a power button. The left edge holds a small cut-out for the built-in speaker. Like the Mario Game & Watch, the Zelda version doesn’t have a specific stated battery life, and the screen automatically turns off after a few minutes when not in use.
Fun Times
Turning the Game & Watch on brings up the clock display, a top-down view of Link running around the original Zelda overworld or a dungeon with the time appearing as terrain in the middle of the screen. You can take control of Link at any time by pressing the direction pad or the A or B button and run around the screen, attacking randomly generated enemies. This doesn’t do anything, and you can’t move between screens except during automatic transitions between minutes, but it’s a fun little bit of interactivity.
Pressing the Pause/Set button lets you adjust the device’s volume or turn it off completely (advisable if you don’t want to hear the chirping of each second ticking), change the screen brightness, set the time, and enable or disable the three-minute auto-sleep function.
The clock is the Game & Watch’s default mode (and the “Watch” half of the whole concept). Pressing the Game button opens a menu that lets you access the device’s other functions, which includes a timer and four games. Timer mode switches to a sideways view of Link in a combat screen from The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. The timer itself appears as rotating yellow triangles above Link’s head, obviously evoking the Triforce, but looking much more incongruous than the time in the clock mode. Like in the clock mode, you can take control of Link and fight randomly spawning enemies by using the game controls.
Three Classic Zeldas (and Vermin)
The games themselves include The Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and the classic Game & Watch game Vermin.
The Legend of Zelda started the series, and the fact that 35 years later we’re not only seeing new Zelda games, but a retro handheld like this with the original title, should tell you everything you need to know about its influence. While Hydlide arguably started the Zelda-like action-adventure genre first, Zelda itself polished the concept into a far more polished experience that looks and controls much better, and that’s why it caught the attention of people across the world.
Three and a half decades later, the first Zelda is certainly dated. Personally, I’d say it’s been dated ever since The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past came out on the SNES. Its controls are fairly stiff and it doesn’t even attempt to hold your hand at finding the different dungeons you need to explore. Once you get into the mindset for old-school video game exploration, though, it still really holds up.
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link has always been the black sheep of the Zelda series. The sequel to the original Zelda changed all of the game’s mechanics, switching combat and dungeon exploration to a side-scrolling view and using a more RPG-like leveling system with experience points. It was a jarring shift from what made the first game so engaging, and it didn’t click with a lot of players. Enough time has passed that we can look at the game for what it tried to do, and while it feels very un-Zelda, it’s still an impressive adventure that’s worth at least playing once.
After trying it again, I really think the game’s biggest flaw was simply that it was so drastic a change from the first Zelda, and that alone turned off many players. It was also a sharp increase in difficulty from the previous game, requiring much more careful timing and spacing to block and land attacks. It perhaps might have been better received by many (including myself, with my limited skills) if Link just had a slightly longer sword.
Link’s Awakening is the crown jewel on the Game & Watch. This Game Boy sequel to A Link to the Past took the refinements from that game and packed it into a much more portable package that used a third as many buttons. The combat is accessible and varied, the puzzles are complex and satisfying, and exploration deftly balances nudging you toward the next dungeon while giving you the freedom to search every screen for secrets. It is excellent, and easily one of the best (if not simply the best) game ever released on the Game Boy. It’s still fun to play today, which is why Nintendo remade the game for the Switch with modern graphics, but left the mechanics almost completely untouched.
There is one caveat for Link’s Awakening on the Game & Watch. While it is one of the best games on the Game Boy, it isn’t the best version of the game out there, and I’m not talking about the Switch remake. Link’s Awakening DX was released for the Game Boy Color five years after the original version, adding color to the initially monochrome game, along with a few tweaks and a bonus dungeon. The addition of color made the already fantastic game so much better without taking anything away. Link’s Awakening is still well worth your time even in greenish-tinted greyscale, but considering the bright, colorful LCD the Game & Watch uses, it’s disappointing to see the original version used instead of the enhanced DX one.
Just like Ball on the Mario Game & Watch, the final game on the Zelda Game & Watch is a reproduction of an original Game & Watch game. The game is Vermin, where you have two hammers and must hit moles as they dig up to the surface. Like all Game & Watch games it’s very simple: Move left and right to position your hammers over the spaces where the moles are digging to hit them as they come up to get a point. You try to get as many points as you can before you miss three moles. It’s a handheld game from 1980, and this was about as complex as it got. It’s a fun little diversion, but its presence is more a nod to the system’s origins than anything else.
Despite the Game & Watch’s tiny controls, I was able to play the different Zelda games and Vermin relatively comfortably with my big thumbs. The screen is sharp, bright, and colorful, but don’t expect to be able to play it in direct sunlight. And, like I said, all three Zelda games are worth at least trying out.
More a Collectible Than a Gadget
The main point of the Zelda Game & Watch, like the Mario Game & Watch, isn’t the ability to play those titles; the games are available on the Nintendo Switch as part of Nintendo Switch Online, and are much more comfortable to play on the larger system with its bigger screen. The gorgeous Link’s Awakening remake is on the Switch, too, though sadly no original or Link’s Awakening DX. The real purpose of these Game & Watch devices is to be novel collectibles that offer a taste of where Nintendo’s video game legacy really began, in these little handheld devices developed by Gunpei Yokoi.
The Legend of Zelda Game & Watch is a fun piece of electronics that shows off what the original Game & Watch handhelds looked and felt like, with the benefit of modern, backlit, full-color LCDs. It’s a pretty clock, though not one that should stay on all the time, and it can serve as a timer. It also lets you play three Zelda games and a Game & Watch game, and two of those games are some of the best ever released on their respective systems. $50 might be pricey for such a limited little device, but it’s not supposed to catch your eye for its utility or value as a gaming platform. It’s a piece of Nintendo memorabilia above all else, and if you’re a die-hard Zelda fan or appreciate the company’s electronic roots, it’s worth your attention.
