Played on 3DS Virtual Console

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages was released at the same time as its counterpart Oracle of Seasons, and both of these games can be played separately or linked. If you do choose to play both, it doesn’t really matter which one you play first. Regardless of which one you play first, you play through the one game and then can continue on in the other game with a linked profile. I should mention for the purposes of this review that I played Oracle of Seasons first, so I played through Oracle of Ages on a linked profile. I don’t think this should taint my review too much, but it should be noted that I had a slightly different experience playing Oracle of Ages than someone who might be playing this without having played Oracle of Seasons first. It kind of complicates things, but in the end I found that it really didn’t affect the core experience of the game too much.

The story of Oracle of Ages is actually quite good for a simple GameBoy Color game, but in the end it also is your typical Zelda fare, so don’t expect too many surprises here. Basically, Link finds himself in the land of Labrynna (instead of the usual Hyrule). An evil sorceress named Veran possesses Nayru, who is the Oracle of Ages. This sends the timeline into chaos, and so Link must save Nayru and defeat Veran to save Labrynna. To do this, he must do his usual routine of finding various dungeons and going through them in order to collect the eight Essences of Time needed to save Nayru. Like I said, it’s actually a pretty decent story for a GBC game, but it’s also far from the most in-depth game story, or even the most in-depth Zelda story for that matter.

The gameplay of Oracle of Ages is also pretty similar to previous Zelda games. In particular, it’s most similar to Link’s Awakening, and its counterpart Oracle of Seasons. So, if you’ve played another Zelda game before, then you know what to expect here. However, if you haven’t played a Zelda game before, then to be honest I think you shouldn’t start with Oracle of Ages. It’s not a bad game by any means, it’s just that it’s not the best of the best, and so it’s a game that I recommend more for Zelda fans than for newcomers. If you’re looking for a fun 2D Zelda like this, perhaps start with the aforementioned Link’s Awakening, or with my personal favorite, A Link to the Past.

Anyway, though, all that is to say that I don’t feel the need to explain too much of the gameplay here, since it will already be familiar to Zelda fans. You explore the overworld, do what you need to do in order to find the next dungeon, complete the dungeon by solving its puzzles and defeating its enemies, fighting a big boss, and then repeating the process all over again until it’s complete. The game feels a lot more puzzle-based than its counterpart Oracle of Seasons, so if you like this series for its puzzles then Oracle of Ages will probably be up your alley. The dungeon design is interesting, but also not necessarily the best of the series.

Most of the items will be familiar to Zelda fans, such as the Roc’s feather, but there are some interesting new ones too. Some of them are shared with Oracle of Seasons, such as a seed shooter and various power-up rings, but the game does also have one or two of its own unique items. My favorite is the switch hook, which allows you to switch places with something on-screen. It’s a neat idea, and it’s fun to use.

While Oracle of Season’s main mechanic involved Link changing the seasons to affect the overworld, the mechanic that’s most unique to Oracle of Ages is time travel. While time travel has been used in other games like Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask, it’s a bit different here in that it’s more straightforward. While the aforementioned games had mechanics that were more about manipulating time, Oracle of Ages is all about traveling between two different time periods, past and present. Just like how the overworld changed depending on what season it was in Oracle of Seasons, the same is true for Oracle of Ages. The world looks different in the past and present so you have to keep switching between time periods to advance through your journey. I’m normally not a fan of these kinds of game mechanics, but I thought it worked well enough in Oracle of Ages. I mainly just don’t really like jumping back and forth for the sake of it in games like this, and while this is still the case at time here, it’s at least presented in an interesting enough way. You might move a plant towards a wall in the past so that it will grow into a vine in the present, allowing you to now climb up that wall. It’s not anything revolutionary, but it allows for a decently fun gameplay loop.

Nothing else is particularly stunning about Oracle of Ages, but it’s all as good as it needs to be, in my opinion. I say this in reference to things like graphics and music. The game didn’t dazzle me or provide the most memorable soundtrack, but everything looks and sounds pleasant, so it works for the game. The same goes for the gameplay too. Aside from the time travel mechanic, the game really doesn’t re-invent the wheel as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned, but in my opinion it doesn’t really need to. This isn’t one of those game-changing Zelda titles, but rather just another straightforward entry in the series.

I’ve found that the handheld Zelda games are usually much shorter than the console ones, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for your “money’s worth” out of the game (although, it only costs $6 if you buy it on the 3DS eShop, so I think it’s still worth the money). While I’ve seen some people say it takes them around 20 hours to beat the game, my experience winded up being more like 14. While I didn’t go for a true 100% run, I did do mostly everything the game had to offer, and did things like collecting all the heart pieces, so this seems like a standard game length to me. I was perfectly fine with the length of Oracle of Ages, since I didn’t want it to be as long as console Zeldas, but I understand if others feel differently. If you really want to get the most out of the game, you can always get Oracle of Seasons too and play both as separate and linked games.

In the end, Oracle of Ages really isn’t one of my all-time favorite Zelda games, but I do still think it’s worth playing. However, I give that caveat that I really only recommend it for Zelda fans, because if you’re just looking to play a few of the best Zelda games, then I don’t think this quite makes the cut. I do find it to be slightly better than its counterpart Oracle of Seasons, though, so if you’re looking to only play one of these two games then I recommend Ages. However, both games are just decent Zelda games, not amazing ones. I enjoyed my time with Oracle of Ages, but I’d only truly recommend it if you want more Zelda in your life.

3.5/5