It must be stressed that both Seasons and Ages are completely different games. They have different quests, items, dungeons, bosses, and lands. It is best to buy both games and pick one to play first. Upon completing that game you will be given a secret password that you can use in the other game. This will allow you to transfer rings that you have acquired in one game to the other and open up new areas of exploration in both games. Let’s say you’ve beaten Oracle of Seasons and used the password linking system to start Ages. While playing Ages you’ll come across some characters that will give you additional passwords to put into Seasons. So, you can then go back to Seasons and more quests will open up in that game and then you’ll get a password to put back into Ages letting that game know you’ve completed those quests. As you can see this linking system really adds substance to both adventures. To avoid spoiling any surprises that’s all I will mention about the linking system, but suffice to say to get complete enjoyment out of the games you will want to use this innovative feature.

The first game I decided to play was Oracle of Ages. I didn’t have any valid reasoning for picking this game first other than it came in a blue box and blue’s my favorite color. Really it doesn’t matter which game you play first since both are so much fun, but Ages tends to be a little more difficult so if you want to ease into playing both games perhaps you would want to start with Seasons.

While Ages focuses on time travel (which has been done in Ocarina of Time and is similar to the Light World & Dark World of Zelda 3), Oracle of Seasons incorporates a brand new technique, the ability to change seasons. The game begins with Link meeting up with Din, the Oracle of Seasons. The evil General Onox appears and kidnaps her, throwing the land of Holodrum into chaos. The seasons are now in total chaos and the land has begun to slowly deteriorate. It’s up to Link to locate the eight scattered essences of nature to restore order to the land and eliminate Onox. Early in his quest Link will acquire the Rod of Seasons. This can be used at certain points in the game to alter the seasons. This will become necessary in order to successfully navigate the vast overworld. An example of a puzzle is an area of the game where a river is blocking your path. Well, if you can locate a nearby tree stump and change the season to winter the river will freeze and you will be able to cross it. Likewise, summertime causes many lakes to dry up and vines to grow. When autumn arrives leaves fall from trees and will cover some holes that were impossible to cross before. In spring flowers will help you reach areas you once couldn’t. Each location on the overworld will have to be closely examined if you are to successfully complete your quest. I enjoyed the season changing element of this game more than the time travel aspect of Ages simply because it’s more versatile and it’s fresh. The time travel aspect has been done before in the series and I thought this game was more innovative with the overworld.

As far as gameplay is concerned, both titles play nearly identical to Link’s Awakening. You can assign one item to the B button and one item to the A button. Generally I use the B button for the sword and the A button for whatever item is needed for the current situation. Speaking of items, both games have their own unique items, but they also share a number of traditional ones like bombs, power bracelets, and potions. New to the games are the many rings that can be found. Upon locating one of these rings you can take it in to have it appraised at the ring shop. Once the ring is identified Link can wear it to make use of its special powers. In total there are 64 different rings that can be collected. Some are only in Seasons and some are only in Ages. Some of the rings can only be acquired by linking the two games via password or by physically linking the games with 2 Game Boy Color systems and trading fortunes. Only one ring can be worn at any one time so you’ll have to choose wisely. One last note, if you’re playing the games on a Game Boy Advance a special shop will appear. In this shop you can buy rings for 100 rupees, so it may be slightly easier to acquire rings in that manner.

Of course the dungeons are completely different in both games, but the compass and map are standard fare. The dungeons are often the crux of the games since that’s where you’ll often find the cool new items and weapons as well as recover the essences, thus progressing the story. While both games feature excellent dungeon design, I really must give a nod to Oracle of Ages for its amazing use of puzzles throughout the game. These dungeons will really test your thinking skills and may even frustrate you until you realize what must be done. The intricate design of each dungeon is simply unparalleled in any other Zelda game, which is a bit surprising since Capcom developed the game for Nintendo.

Graphically both games impress. They look slightly better than Link’s Awakening DX, with more details readily evident in the overworld and dungeons. The use of color in the games is magnificent, with a lot of dark purples and reds signifying the underlying evil. The graphical design really helps set the mood in both games. In Ages the past is darker and almost antique looking whereas the present is filled with bright colors. In Seasons the color palette changes depending on which season you’re currently playing. There are some very short cinemas in both games that add to the story and look excellent. These games are the pinnacle of good graphics on the Game Boy Color system.

Those of you worried that the traditional Zelda theme song has been cut from the games need not worry. It’s back sounding just as good as ever. Some of the music has been recycled from older games, but there are plenty of new musical tracks to keep the games fresh. In fact, both games really offer up some fantastic melodies that will inevitably penetrate your brain causing occasional sleep deprivation (hey, it could happen!).

This is probably the best example of two companies coming together to make two truly epic games. Both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages are ridiculously fun from beginning to end. The innovative password linking system makes owning both games even more rewarding. These two games will provide you with many hours of enjoyment and are worth every penny they cost you. Whatever you do, don’t pass up these two gems. For those of you saving up money to buy the Game Boy Advance, the first two games I’d buy for the unit are Seasons and Ages. Even though they aren’t 32-bit, none of the launch games for the GBA can compare with these two masterpieces.