The plot's simple, Link washes up on the island of Koholint Island, an island that's home to a mysterious giant egg, and to get off the island, Link must awaken the strange god-like entity known as the Wind Fish, who slumbers within said giant egg. So off goes Link to gather eight plot devices in eight dungeons in Koholint Island; you guys know how these Zelda games go. As a game, Link's Awakening is probably the first in the series to introduce side-quests and actual NPC's that bring flavour to the story instead of just being tied into the main 'defeat Ganon' action adventure. And while there were already helpful NPC's in ALTTP, this was probably the first that really added NPC's that would help you and guide you to your next objective. One would argue that Nintendo went a bit overboard, particularly with their newer releases, but trust me that when I was much younger, I appreciated these hints a lot.
Anyway, on with the enemies! I'm using the "DX" version of the sprites, because that's the version I played. Both Link's Awakening (for the Game Boy) and Link's Awakening DX (for the Game Boy Color) are both essentially identical games anyway.
Is this the first game to have Octoroks actually hang out near water? I think so! The next game is Ocarina of Time which made their Octoroks fully aquatic, so it's interesting for sure!
Sea Urchin
Something that made Link's Awakening extra-funny for hardcore Nintendo fans is that... there are enemies from other games that were snuck into the game! Like these Sea Urchins, which are apparently from a Kirby game! I've never played Kirby, so I'll take the wiki's word for it. These Sea Urchins are pretty logical enemies on a beach. As enemies they're pretty nice and sweet, a simple, understandable 'spikes are bad' design with two cute eyes. You push them around with your shield before you actually get your sword, which is cute.
Monkey
In
A Link to the Past and even later in
Link's Awakening, a friendly monkey named Kiki helps Link out! This one is just a dick, though, throwing coconuts from his perch at Link. There's only one monkey and he'll eventually throw bombs at Link. You can beat the Monkey, but it requires a bit of a trick. You need to use the Pegasus Boots to run into the tree and knock the monkey off of the tree. He's still invincible, though, so you need to bring
Bow Wow the Chain Chomp, an NPC imported straight from the Mario games, to murder the monkey.
Mutt, Cuccoo & Bow Wow
Yeah, I can't find larger sprites for the Cuccoo and the Chain Chomp, sorry. Anyway, these three 'enemies' only really show up in Mabe Village. Both the Mutt and the Cuccoo will attack Link if he is a monster that attacks them (the Mutt is surprisingly tough and you need the Fire Rod to murder it), although notably, the 'Cuccoo Revenge Squad' is a bit harder to activate in this game, needing fifty hits to the cuccoo to be triggered.
BowWow will never attack you for any reason, despite being a Chain Chomp. The owner, Madam MeowMeow, apparently trains her pets well! She's got two smaller Chain Chomps in her house. The Chain Chomps will actually charge you like they're going to chomp, but I'm going to assume it's the equivalent of a friendly big dog looking a bit too aggressive as they run up to 'play'. You rescue BowWow from a bunch of Moblins and take him to walk around for a part of the game where he's required to clear certain roadblocks. He can and will eat anything in its path. What a good dog! Er, cat! Er, giant fanged metal ball!
Moblin
I've always seen the Moblins in Link's Awakening as looking like very grumpy fat orcs, with that white part being their lower jaws and those two teeth jutting out of the lower jaw. Some of my friends, meanwhile, swear that it's meant to be like a boar (like a Warcraft Quillboar), with the white parts being the pig's snout and the tusks jutting out of the sides of the snout. I guess they were inspired by ALTTP Moblins, which were pig-men? Turns out that, if the remake is anything to go by, my analysis is correct. The Moblins mostly patrol the Mysterious Forest and a small dedicated hideout (which is a first for these 'blin' type enemies) but are otherwise pretty simple enemies. The first Moblins you find throw spears at you, but there are also sword-and-shield variants.
Keese, Zol, Gel & Zora
Yeah, this was supposed to be a bit shorter and I've talked about them a lot before. Keese are bats! Which are extra-hidey in this game because of the limited graphics, so when I say they 'blend into the background', they quite literally do. They sure are basic bat enemies! Zols, both green and red, bubble up from the ground and bounce towards Link, and the red ones can split into little Gel babies. The Zols are particularly annoying in certain 'kill every enemy in a room' rooms in dungeons, because sometimes it's hard to realize where you have to stand to make the Zols spawn. These guys are basically everywhere in the overworld and the dungeons.
Zoras are essentially identical to their ALTTP (and, let's be honest, every other 2D Zelda game) looks. Spits fireballs; weak to ranged weapons, you know how it goes. This game actually has a swimming mechanic, and the Zoras are practically invincible since Link can't fight while swimming. Majora's Mask this ain't!
Buzz Blob, Cukeman & Hardhat Beetle
These two, more specific to ALTTP, make appearances here. And they behave basically identically to how they do in A Link to the Past. Not a whole ton to say here, they still turn into Cukeman when you sprinkle a witch's magic powder on them. Link's Awakening Cukeman have weirder eyes and no mouth, which I thought makes it look more charming! Unlike their ALTTP counterparts, though, LA Cukemen actually do just say random words ("hey mon!" and "it can display millions of polygons!") which is thought to be an inside joke about the development of the N64 console.
Okay, I can kinda see them looking more like a 'beetle' in this version? I still kinda see more of a weird octopus with a hard shell, but maybe that's me. These guys are actually straight-up invulnerable in this version, and you need to bounce them into crevices. WAIT THEY WERE WEAK TO BOMBS ALL ALONG? MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE
Stalfos, Mini-Moldorm & Like Like
You gotta have skeleton enemies, and these sure are skeleton enemies! Koholint's Stalfos have particularly spiky clavicles for some reason. These guys will jump around a lot, which isn't something I would associate with a skeleton enemy. The orange ones are the cowardly ones that jump away and lob arrows at Link, while the green ones will jump towards Link and try to impale him.
Mini Moldorms also show up a lot in dungeons, particularly the first one that has a Moldorm boss. Not much to be said here that I haven't said about the Moldorms already. Like Likes also make a return this game, these nasty pulsating plant-like blobs that chomp down on Link and steal his shield. Again, I like and loathe them in the same breath, but we've spoken about them across multiple games.
Spark
Oh, these fuckers. These motherfuckers. I hate them so much, with their glowing colours and their smarmy grinning faces. Can an 8-bit sprite enemy convey such a 'nyeh heh heh fuck you' vibe? Cause the Sparks sure do. These guys are glued to the walls and move around them, and are completely unkillable until Link gets the boomerang... which, by the way, is not the discount-version-of-a-bow like it is in many other Zelda games, but the secret sidequest-locked item in this one. Man, I hate these things.
Three-of-a-Kind
Straight-up "Vegas" in the original Japanese version, these guys are... um... they're weird. They kinda look like Poliwag from Pokemon? They have pictures of card suits in their stomach, which alternate and Link has to hit them to make all three in the room display the same suit, at which they blow up. It's bizarre, and while certainly not implausible in a setting of magic, does kind of take me out of the game a bit in that it revolves a bit too much around a puzzle mechanic instead of something that can feasibly be a monster in this world. It doesn't even have a particularly memorable design.
Spiked Beetle
Another pretty fun enemy, and one that I thought came from
Mario. Was thinking of a different spiked-hard-shell enemy, I guess. Also, the localization team
really likes slapping 'beetle' on anything, huh? Spined Beetle, Hardhat Beetle, Spiked Beetle, regular Beetle... these guys are specifically identified as '
Togezo' in Japanese, which means that they are
Spiny from the Mario games. And as that game (and the Switch version of this game) shows, these guys are actually spiky tortoises. You knock these guys with your shield, which flips them over... and granted, that flip-over sprite doesn't actually show tortoise anatomy. It looks more like some sort of shelled cephalopod or... well, beetle, I suppose. Anyway, it's-a-Mario enemy.
Goomba
Speaking of which,
the most notable Mario enemy, the dang
Goombas, show up! I don't play a lot of Mario games -- I think my extent of Mario knowledge comes from the original Game Boy Super Mario, and a bunch of the spinoffs like the Party and Kart games. So I don't think I'll ever do a Mario monster review... but since they snuck into a Zelda game whaddyagonnado, am I right? I always loved the Goombas, they are such a simple design! Known as "Kuribo" in Japan, the name identifies them as some sort of chestnut (
kuri in Japanese) creature... but I've always thoguht of them as weird waddling mushrooms. Maybe because Mario has mushrooms in its game, too.
These Goombas don't have the upward-facing tusks that the creatures would eventually receive in the Mario franchise, and thus look so pleased. Look at him, he's so happy. There are actually brief side-scrolling segments in Link's Awakening, so they brought the archetypal side-scrolling enemy in! You can just kill them with a sword, but since this is a Mario enemy if you jump and stomp on them, you get a bonus lootable heart.
Piranha
Sometimes just called "Fish", these are not Mario Cheep Cheeps. Those show up later! The Piranha in Koholint inhabit the Goponga swamp and basically any body of freshwater you pass by afterwards. You can see their fin, and then they jump out to chomp down on Link. Neither of which are behaviours known to real-life piranhas, of course. Not much to really say here, they sure are swamp enemies.
Goponga Flower
Known as 'monea' and 'anamonea' in Japanese, which I think are puns on anemone, these guys are less of an enemy and more of an obstacle. The smaller ones, at least, which is the obstacle you need to bring BowWow the Chain Chomp to destroy. The larger ones will spit out fireballs at Link until you actually bring BowWow to destroy it. I do like the idea of a giant, static plant monster, so I don't mind that these guys are a different sort of obstacle to Link's journey in Koholint.
Crow
Oh, crows are back. The crows in this game almost exclusively inhabit the trees in the graveyard, though. Unless I'm missing something major, I don't think there's anything between crows and either graveyards or corpses, so I guess it's one of those 'crows are a dark omen' thing. Not much to say here, they're generic flying enemy and we've seen Crows in ALTTP.
Ghini & Giant Ghini
No Poes in this game, just Ghinis! They're totally different, Ghinis are one-eyed fat cartoon ghosts, Poes are robed fat cartoon ghosts with lanterns! Anyway, the Ghinis hang out in the graveyard, and are a bit of a bitch to take down until you get the requisite items, namely the Fire Rod or the Boomerang. Ghinis are pretty relentless in haunting Link despite their grinning faces, and if Link accidentally touch a gravestone while hunting down a Ghini, more Ghinis will be summoned. And killing the very first Ghini will get rid of all the other Ghinis on the screen. It's always a fun little property of these specific enemies. Sometimes, bigger ones appear! They're just identical to the smaller Ghinis, they just take more hits to murder.
Zombie
Zombies show up in this game. They've got little stringy hair jutting out of their scalp, and a single huge eye and either an eye socket or a small one. I think they're grinning, too? They rise up of the graves and will zombie-shuffle towards Link. Not a whole ton to say here, they sure are zombies! Again, I feel like Link's Awakening is a lot more free-spirited with what enemy they toss in.
Shrouded Stalfos
Also alternately called "Stalfos (Shrouded)" or "Stalfos Knight"; the Japanese names for these guys are actually "Dokuro Naito" and "Dokuro Naito Sodo", meaning "Skull Knight" and "Skull Knight Sword" respectively. Not every skeleton enemy is a Stalfos, translation team! Anyway, these guys are little robed skull dudes. They are quite literally just palette swaps of the archer and sword Moblins, behaving identically but are found in dungeons instead of the overworld
Mask Mimic Shy Guy
Screw that "Mask Mimic" nonsense, I know a
Shy Guy when I see one! Probably my favourite enemy from the Mario franchise, I don't think I've actually
played a Mario game with Shy Guys as villains. And look at them! They're adorable little guys wearing a full-body cloak with sleeves too big for their hands, and they wear an adorable little mask with the most adorable blank expression. I'm not sure if their mechanics are inspired by their original Mario appearance or not, but Shy Guys are sort of like Goriyas from ALTTP, mirroring the reverse direction of where Link is moving, and so you have to position yourself right in order to catch them with a spin attack. I don't think they show up much.
Vacuum Mouth
Wallmasters don't show up in this game, but the Vacuum Mouths take up the slot of an annoying enemy that will send Link into the beginning of the dungeon. They're also often located across a crevice of yawning doom, and are just as content to drop Link into certain death. These guys can be killed, and are called "Deathball" in the Japanese version.
Boo Buddy
Or simply just "
Boo", these cartoon ghosts show up from Mario! I guess that's why they used Ghinis in this game, the sprites are a lot more similar to the Boo? Either way, these guys only show up in a single room in the Bottle Grotto dungeon, and can only be hurt once all the torches in a room is lighted up. Apparently the Boos are always shy, even in Mario games, which is why they're called "
Teresa" in the original Japanese of Mario games, a pun on
tereru ('shy').
Pols Voice
Oh, these guys! I keep remembering them appearing a lot more often in the Zelda franchise, but I've apparently only played two games with Pols Voice in them -- the original Zelda and this one. Huh! They never showed up in A Link to the Past? A Link Between Worlds? Minish Cap? Triforce Heroes? None of the 3D games? Huh! Anyway, Pols Voice are cute bunny heads that bounce around, and they are only vulnerable to ranged weapons. And the ocarina, which otherwise doesn't have any combat usage. If you remember my review for the very first Legend of Zelda, you'd know that Pols Voice are supposed to die to the loud noise from the microphone gimmick. The Game Boy Color certainly has no such thing, but that's what we call an 'Easter Egg' in this business.
Winged Octorok
These sure are cute Octoroks with wings! There isn't a whole ton to say about them, they show up a fair bit later in the game, and behave identically to Octoroks other than the fact that they fly around. None of these 'Octoballoon' business that other Octoroks in A Link to the Past and Breath of the Wild would employ to fly, these guys just sprout wings.
Pincer
Called "Holdarm" in Japanese, I guess these guys are meant to be a variant on ALTTP's Swamola (a.k.a. "Moldarm"). Unlike the Swamola, Lanmola, Moldorm or any other giant worm enemies, the pincers hide inside their hole-like nests, and they will burst out of their nest like a grapple gun, trying to drag Link down into their caves or sandy areas. I guess they're like trapdoor spiders, bobbit worms or tiger beetle larvae, then? Cool!
Beetle
The regular Beetle is called "Zorozoro" in Japanese, which is an onomatopoeia for skittering or crawling around. Not much to say here, they're like a central body with four legs, which is way too little for an actual insect. It's also certainly much more resembles an arachnid or echinoderm than an beetle, huh? These are the other inhabitants of the same holes that will spawn Pincers.
Zirro & Bubble
Previously translated as "Bomber", newer releases and the Switch games would stick to the same translation of "Zirro" that ALTTP uses. They're still weird flying mushrooms with wings that drop bombs at Link, and are often found in areas rich in other enemies like Pincers, Winged Octoroks and Buzz Blobs, making it a bit of a pain to meet them. Until, of course, you get the boomerang. Not much to say, otherwise.
Another returning enemy is the Anti-Fairy (or 'Bubble'), which also behave identically as their ALTTP counterparts. Not much to say here, dusting them with magic powder turns them into Fairies, which is where the 'Anti-Fairy' moniker in ALTTP and LA versions of the Bubble came about.
Darknut & Moblin Pigs
These guys are all repaints of the sword moblins, albeit with higher health. The Darknuts, borrowing the name from the recurring evil knights since the original TLOZ, are found in Kanalet Castle. They sure are knight enemies!
Meanwhile, the Moblin Pigs (later called "Boarblins" in the Switch version; and called butablin in the Japanese version) replace the regular orc-y Moblins in the Eastern half of Koholint Island. It's kind of interesting that they decide to use the orc or bulldog like Moblins as the 'default' one and relegate the piggy ones as the exception. Considering how wildly Moblins differ from game to game, it's kind of baffling. Anyway, I like that they went through the effort of doing this. Considering how certain newer RPGs really skimp on enemy variation, I appreciate that they went through this effort.
Spiny Beetle
They sure look like beetles more in this version, but they don't look 'spiny' at all. Anyway, these guys also make a return from ALTTP, they show up in the Eastern side of the overworld and are a bit irritating! They are indistinguishable from any other grass, skull or rock until they reveal themselves, and then they will charge and attack Link. Later on Link gets the Power Gloves, which allows him to rip off the item they're hiding under and murder the true body. Even later, the Fire Rod and Boomerang can just murder them flat-out even when disguised.
Tektite
Looking remarkably different to their ALTTP counterpart, this version of Tektite is, I think, their attempt at reinventing the enemy to be a bit more 'buggy' until the very next game, Ocarina of Time, essentially made this one basically gone. Even the Switch remake uses the design from ALTTP. And I guess this is just the regular Tektite from TLOZ or ALTTP, seen from the front, but I've always seen this guy to look a lot different, a pure glossy eyeball like Vitreous or something, with two bug fangs underneath, and legs that allow it to jump around. Oh well. Some older translations call these guys "Land Tektites", to differentiate them with the "Water Tektites" ('Hover' in Japanese, and unrelated to the Tektite monster at all).
Bombite
Actually not the Mario enemy Bob-omb, although they really look similar, huh? They even have different Japanese names! (Bob-ombs actually do show up in Minish Cap and Four Swords). Bombites only inhabit the Key Dungeon, and will basically bounce around after Link hits them with his sword, before exploding. The green ones will grin and slowly and menacingly walk towards Link, who needs to bat it away until it explodes far away. Not much to say, they sure are sentient bomb enemies.
Pairodd
I'm not entirely sure what this guys specifically reminds me of. A Neopet? A Digimon? A cereal mascot? Anyway, Pairodds are strange looking animals that's just a head, a chubby beak and two legs. They teleport around a room and launch shuriken at Link, which are two powers that I would not expect a goddamn sentient puffin head to have. I remember these guys are a pain in the ass to kill, and you really need to be fast to follow them around the room.
Piranha Plant
Another classic Mario enemy... wait, is this what inspired the Deku Baba? Link's Awakening is only one game before Ocarina of Time, after all. Huh! These guys rise out of pillars and chomp down on Link, and I've always liked these overly-exaggerated fanged venus-flytrap fangs on a stem. Unlike that chump Mario, Link has a sword, and will murder these weeds happily. Not much to say, I really love the simplicity of the design of a Piranha Plant and how it effectively communicates the design of a giant carnivorous flower.
Thwomp & Thwimp
Another Mario enemy! These guys only show up in the very rare side-scrolling segments of the game, and they are sentient stone slabs with angry faces. The rare grey one has a single eye and just looks so worried! Not a whole ton to say here. Smaller 'Thwimps' also show up later on.
Pokey
Yet another Mario enemy! The Pokeys show up in the Yarna Desert area as overworld enemies, and are three-segmented enemies that hover around. They sort of behave similarly to the Hokkubokku from ALTTP, where you just have to beat it up segment by segment. An... interesting way to adapt a cactus monster for sure. I actually like the fact that these particular Mario enemy isn't just a random easter egg but is incorporated to the overworld.
Arm Mimic
I thought this was another
Mario enemy, since the name seems to imply a connection between it and the Mask Mimic. They are called
Manemane (mimic-mimic) in Japanese, and are apparently based on Japanese
Haniwa dolls. They've got weird arms and blank eyes and mouth, and they also basically mimic every single move that Link makes and is the single most damaging non-boss enemy in the game. They're only a couple of them, but memorably, one of them is invisible.
Camo Goblin / Goo Specter
So at around this point in the game, if you play the 'Link's Awakening DX', or the Game Boy Color version, you gain access to the DX-exclusive colour dungeon! Which, of course, has the gimmick be... colours! They hide in the coloured backgrounds and goop out as these creepy Grimer-like enemies at Link. They share their Japanese name with the
Boo Blah from the Yoshi games. I don't think these guys actually have any sort of gimmick to them.
Orb Monser
The Orb Monsters, on the other hand, actually do have a gimmick relating to their colours! They're kinda neat, these one-eyed spherical creatures with tiny feet that walk around with two giant metallic shells on either side of its body. Pretty neat and simple video game monster design, and you need to beat them until they clamp together into a ball, and then toss them into the holes that match their colours. Bit of unfortunate for anyone who's colour-blind, but back in the day having video games able to actually utilize freaking colour as a gimmick at all was such a huge accomplishment.
Bone Putter
These guys are cute! They are cute little skull dudes with little adorable Doraemon style arms and legs, and cute little dragonfly wings. They fly around and are mostly harmless, throwing projectiles at Link and sometimes jumping around and fucking with the Color Dungeon's puzzle. The last of our DX-exclusive enemies, these guys are kinda neat.
Water Tektite, Peahat & Armos
Three more recurring enemies! And... and you know what? I can't blame the translation team for giving the name to the 'Hover' enemies as Water Tektite, considering how much the Water Tektite sprite resembles the traditional look of the Tektite from the previous three games. Like most depictions of 'Water Tektite' or 'Hover', they are basically just water striders that walk around the surface and are completely harmless.
Peahats! Zelda's most annoying helicopter-flower bulb enemies! These guys aren't actually threatening at all in this game, just sprouting out of the ground and calmly helicoptering around the room. They are completely immune to everything that's not a bomb or a fire rod, but they're also not very harmful.
The Armos hang around the South Face Shrine and... I do like the almost anime-robot-esque fact that they only have a single (presumably glowing) central eye in their face. Despite traditionally being more of an annoyance than anything, Koholint Armoses are actually very powerful, although Link has to poke them to make them activate and bounce around.
Star
Roughly called "Ballerine" in Japanese, these are just weird squat humanoids that bounce around the room very, very quickly but die in a single slash once you catch up to it. I'm not entirely sure what this guy is supposed to be, some sort of deformed human? Or just a weirdo that simply... exists? Its
remake model has even less to do with a star, looking more like... a spiky sentient candy or something?
Iron MaskThese guys are called "Hiploop" in the Japanese version, which you guys should recognize as the Japanese name for the Helmasaur enemies in the franchise. In the Switch remake, they straight-up just reuse Helmasaur models from the 3DS games. On the other hand, I can totally understand why the localization team wanted to give them a far more impressive name, becasue they do look like some kind of squat figure with a giant, imposing mask in front of their faces, sort of like a Sith mask if a Sith mask covered your entire body. Like most modern Helmasaurs, their beak-like helmets can be ripped off with a hookshot, revealing their vulnerable bodies.
Cheep Cheep & Blooper
Told you Mario Cheep Cheep enemies will show up! They're cute fishies with googly eyes and thick lips. I really don't have much else to say here, they only show up in a single segment in the Angler Cave dungeon. The Blooper enemies from Mario also show up, although they don't actually do the ink thing that I most remember about them from the Mario Kart games. Both of these guys, I feel, are the
most Easter-Egg-y enemy, not even ones that are moderately threatening to Link.
Dacto, Flying Tile & Wizzrobe
Originally translated as 'Raven', the Dacto reappear from ALTTP... and they sure look more like big mean crows than pterodactyl monsters, huh? Like ALTTP's Dacto, they're basically bigger, scarier crows. Flying Tiles are... it's basically turned into once-every-game running gag that a room in a dungeon will have its tiles fly up and throw themselves at Link? It's cool.
Speaking of recurring enemy, Wizzrobes appear in the last couple of dungeons, and they have both teleportation and fireball-launching enemies, and you really need to spam your Fire Rod in fighting against them. Not much to say here, I do think that this game has the most adorable Wizzrobe sprite.
Giant Bubble / Giant Spark...it sure is a giant bubble! These guys are basically the giant version of the 'Bubble' or 'Anti-Fairy' enemies, and it's basically just this giant hazard that shows up exactly once in the game. You beat it up and it splits into smaller Bubbles. Not much to say here.
Beamos, Rope & Gibdo
Another trio of recurring enemies! I don't dislike them, but I like that these guys kind of get spread out across the game. The Beamoses lack the tentacle-like base that the ALTTP versions have, but otherwise behave similarly and are still invulnerable. Ropes are just funny cartoon snakes and considering how they are weak and how they are one of the weakest enemies in ALTTP, it's surprising it took almost to the end of the game for them to show up.
The Gibdo are mummies! They are real tough and take a lot of hits to defeat, and using the Fire Rod on a Gibdo will burn off the super-tough wrappings and turn them into a Stalfos. Unless I'm mis-remembering, this might be the first time that the Gibdo and the Stalfos are really associated together.
Anti-Kirby
Straight-up identified as 'Kirby' in the original Japanese version without any of that 'Anti' stuff. Anti-Kirby is a hilariously bizarre little cameo that will try and suck Link into himself! And this was years before Smash Bros! It's kind of an utterly interesting fact that they would actually just straight-up use one of their other video game protagonists not as an NPC, but as a straight-up enemy. Kirby does look like a particularly friendly-looking enemy, though. What is he? I've always thought he's some sort of balloon monster, like Jigglypuff, but I've never actually really thought about what Kirby is. He's a cute video game mascot, if nothing else.
Vire
One of the final dungeons have Vire! Just like how the Vire is one of the final common enemies in the original TLOZ! They're fanged gargoyle-demon-man, and they can basically move in and out of the actual game screen, which is an interesting way to incorporate the actual game screen into combat. They're weak, but they split into two bats that kamikaze towards Link.
Podoboo
And our last non-boss enemy ends up being yet another Mario cameo, the lava monster Podoboo, which just jump out of the water. They're like, some sort of cartoony skull face with sad eyes? Made out of fire? Sure.
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Mini-Bosses:
King Moblin
Link's Awakening is the first Zelda game to have bosses outside of the dungeon, something we in the fandom often call 'Overworld Bosses'. King Moblin is the boss of the moblins, and he sure has googly-eyes! King Moblin kidnaps Bow Wow the Chain Chomp from the village and Link has to assault his base and beat him up. Not my favourite sprite in the game, to be honest, but it does communicate that this isn't a particularly huge threat to the player and more of a side-villain.
Lanmola & Armos Knight
Two of the Light World bosses from A Link to the Past show up as overworld bosses. A single Lanmola shows up as the guardian of the Angler's Key in the Yarna Desert, and the fight is pretty neat because you fight him in an antlion-pit-style quicksand. The Armos Knight is fought in the South Face Shrine, and guards the key to the Face Shrine. Not a whole ton to say, this guy has more attacks compared to his ALTTP counterpart, but is otherwise unremarkable.
Ball and Chain Trooper & Mad BomberThese sure are soldiers! A Ball and Chain Soldier acts as a bit of a miniboss in the Kanalet Castle, and behaves similarly to all enemies like him in other Zelda games. The Mad Bomber (
Bomb Knuckle in Japanese, explicitly noting him as a Darknut variant) tosses bombs at you and jumps out of holes in the ground like a whack-a-mole game.
Turtle Rock
Probably one of the cooler things in Link's Awakening is when you're about to enter the Turtle Rock dungeon, when you play the plot device song required to open the dungeon... and the 'neck' of Turtle Rock comes to life and straight-up just fights you! Complete with two completely pointless turtle feet jutting out of the rock! Not much to say here, the fight is pretty simple, but the spectacle of a piece of the terrain transforming into a boss is certainly memorable in this relatively early game.
Avalaunch / Stone Hinox
Called the 'Stone Hinox' in the original release of Link's Awakening and retconned to 'Avalaunch', this guy does behave identically to the Hinox below, just lobbing boulders instead of bombs. Sometimes he smashes the ground! Not much to say, he sure is a rock golem dude that's one of the new enemies in the Color Dungeon.
Giant Buzz Blob
A giant Buzz Blob is one of the bosses in the Color Dungeon, and like all Buzz Blobs he's completely invulnerable to everything in Link's arsenal, forcing him to use magic powder. Disappointingly, he doesn't turn into a giant Cukeman, but into a giant Zol.
Dungeon Mini-Bosses:
Rolling Bones / Spike Roller
Called 'Roller' in the original Japanese, 'Rolling Bones' in the original Link's Awakening localization and later retconned into 'Spike Roller', this pink blob thing is the first dungeon mini-boss, being the miniboss of Tail Cave and part of the miniboss gauntlet in Turtle Rock (practically all the early minibosses return in one of the later dungeons). I'm not sure what it's meant to be, just some pink creature with stumpy arms, lips, eyes and an antennae. It just sort of moves around the miniboss room and pushes around a giant spiked roller while Link has to jump over it and bash Rolling Bones to kill it. A simple enemy, but one that always looks a bit weird to me.
Hinox
A recurring enemy, a Hinox is the mini-boss of Bottle Grotto! As usual, he just lobs bombs at Link. He's actually one of the easier mini-bosses and shows up a couple more times throughout the other dungeons. They have a far more comedic-looking sprite than they did in ALTTP. They just look so lumpy and happy to be included.
Dodongo Snake
Straight-up just 'Dodongo' in the original Japanese, these guys certainly look super-different from the traditionally very dinosaurian depiction of the Dodongos! The Dodongo Snakes are just two metal-looking spheres ending in a massive lip, making it look more like a particularly fat giant leech more than anything. Like other Dodongos in the franchise, you have to kill them by feeding them bombs. Not much to say here. You fight two of them at once, and I think when they reoccur later on you fight two or three at the same time?
Hydrosoar / Cue Ball
Called 'Hiploop Hover' in the original Japanese, it implies that this is a fusion of a Hiploop (Helmasaur) and a Hover (Water Tektite). He does look more like some sort of bizarre giant Octorok to me, though! The original Link's Awakening calls this guy by the rather unimpressive name of Cue Ball, other sources call it the Water/Fire Cephalopod, and the 2020 Switch version gave it the name of Hydrosoar. The Hydrosoar is a giant octopus that really reminds me of Ocarina of Time's Big Octo, running around a room filled with water with a pillar in the middle, and Link has to run around to slash at his vulnerable backside. The one you meet later on in Turtle Rock hangs out in a pool of lava, which is awesome.
Master Stalfos
Pretty cool sprite, huh? Especially considering how simple-looking the Stalfos in the game actually are -- just simple skeletons without armour. Master Stalfos, or "Master Stalfon" in the original Japanese, is just this huge skeleton in armour, complete with a shield with a skull shape engraved on it! He's one of the more memorable bosses in that you keep beating him and chasing him down the Catfish's Maw dungeon, fighting him four times in total. It's perhaps nowhere as dynamic as a lot of more modern games, but it's still something remarkably different from a lot of its contemporaries. Like the Stalfos Knights ("Stalfon") of ALTTP, his weakness is bombs... but only when you deal enough damage to cause him to 'crumble'.
Gohma
Oh, hey, Zelda's resident recurring giant-eyeball bug enemy! These guys are a bit of an optional miniboss, and as you might expect, their eyes are the weak point but they keep blinking as they scuttle around the room. Not a whole ton to say here, I think I've spoken a lot about Gohmas in general in other games. Pretty cool spider-crab enemies.
Smasher / Rover
Called 'Smasher' in the older games and given the new English name 'Rover', this boss is originally called 'Jakki', and I'm never quite sure what it is. I've always seen it as a giant mouse of some sort? Like a computer mouse, not an organic mouse. A weird round black creature with huge eyes and a little antennae that tosses a giant iron ball around the room like a happy dog? It's basically an interesting game of catch as Link has to pick up the iron ball and chuck it at Smasher to damage him. The
Switch version makes it look like... like some sort of a ray? Or chocolate cake? Eh, it's an interesting one with an interesting gimmick.
Grim Creeper
This Grim Creeper dude is an interesting one! He's called "Piccolo User" in the original Japanese. No, not the Dragon Ball alien, but a reference to the wind instrument. Which is his weapon! This bug faced dude uses a piccolo to summon six little bug buddies. Called 'Battle Bat' or 'Big Keese' in different translations, Link basically has to kill his buddies and beat him up. Pretty cute little sprites, too! Very simple, little blobs with eyeballs and little bug wings. He doesn't die, though, and ends up sort of being one-half of the final boss of the Eagle's Tower. The boss fight itself isn't anything too special, but Grim Creeper as this piccolo-playing bug-man (skeleton-man?) that summons little buddies.
Blaino
Called "MIGHT PUNCH" in Japanese, Blaino here is a pretty annoying boss! Practically all the 'non-humanoid' minibosses (everyone except Mastter Stalfos and Grim Creeper) show up in Turtle Rock as minibosses, but Blaino here is the true miniboss guarding the item. He's... he's just this strange little humanoid with a squat body and two giant boxing gloves. He's just literally a creature that fights while punching. That is simple, Blaino fights and punches so hard and so fast that he's a pretty fun challenge nonetheless!
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Dungeon Bosses:
The first dungeon, "Tail Cave", is named after Moldorm's Japanese name! And as the boss of the first dungeon of the very first Zelda game I've ever played, this incarnation of Moldorm is the most memorable appearance for me personally. He looks a bit more buggy compared to his ALTTP appearance, huh? I think it's the slight changes of adding antennae (mandibles?) and the somewhat less-cute eyes, as well as the little protrusions on each segment that sort of looks like caterpillar legs or something. His boss fight is essentially identical to his boss fight in ALTTP; you need to beat that facy looking flower-shaped tail, but the location has a trench around it that can restart the battle if Link gets knocked into it. All the bosses in this game talk and taunt Link, by the way, while leaving little hints of their weakness. You wouldn't think that a giant caterpillar worm would be able to talk, but the Moldorm isn't exactly a Moldorm.
Genie
A genie trapped in a bottle (not a lamp, a bottle) is creepy enough. But Genie here is also dressed like a clown, with that crown neck-frill, clown sleeve-frills, a nasty grinning lip with a tongue jutting out... pretty creepy! The Genie's weakness, if you can figure it out before the Genie burns you to death with fireballs, is the bottle he pops out of. The spectral body of the Genie is completely invulnerable, until you figure out that you can pick up the bottle when the Genie returns into it and smash it onto the walls of the room, which will shatter and ultimately sets the Genie free and make it susceptible to normal attacks. A simple but fun battle.
Slime Eye
Or just simply "Big Zol" in Japanese, you got to have a giant eyeball boss! This one is a lot simpler than Vitreous, Kholdstare and Arrghus in the previous game. Slime Eye here is a giant slime enemy that looks like a transparent giant eyeball. The boss of the Key Dungeon, it actually hides on the ceiling of the room (making it invisible to the player) and it just drops Zols for Link to fight... until you use the Pegasus Boots to run and slam onto the room. It's kind of an interesting mechanic and one that actually did baffle me enough to have to look up a guide when I first played through the game! The boss is relatively simple, just beat the eyeball, see him split into two eyeballs, then hit the eyeball again.
Hardhit Beetle / Evil Orb
His Japanese name is "Do Pon", making it a bigger version of the "Pon"/Hardhat Beetle enemies you've met earlier in the game. The Switch version gives it the new name "Hardhit Beetle" to acknowledge this. Not a whole ton to say here, it's certainly a bigger version of Hardhat Beetle with far, far more bug-like features. Those sure are thick bug legs next to his bug face, huh? The Evil Orb here is the boss of the optional Color Dungeon, and its coloured orb basically is a health indicator, going slowly down from green to red, but Link has to do it fast enough otherwise the health 'reset's back to green.
Angler Fish
The boss of the Angler Cave dungeon, Angler Fish is the only enemy here that you fight in a side-scroller format, after you swim through the watery areas with Bloopers and Cheep-Cheeps. A bit of a simpler boss, and one that is actually somewhat infamous for being the easiest enemy if you know what you're doing, just swim up to the lure and you can slash fast enough before the giant Angler Fish can move at all. He's otherwise a pretty simple boss even if you let him do anything, just spitting out his little "Angler Fry" babies and swimming around. Still, anglerfishes are cool animals so this is certainly a cool boss.
Sort of a larger version of the 'Pincer' enemies you fight earlier, Slime Eel here is the boss of the Catfish's Maw dungeon, and the first to reveal to Link that there something not quite right in Koholint Island beyond just being filled with monsters. You fight Slime Eel in a room with multiple cracks in the walls, and for the first phase you just fight its long tail, while the head just sort of shows up and pops in every now and then. Link needs to look at where the head is, hookshot it to draw the neck out, then slash at the 'heart' weak point. A pretty fun boss, mechanic-wise, and I do like just how odd that head looks. It's got eyeballs on both sides of its fangs, so it's a vertically-opening jaw, I think? Pretty cool.
Facade
Oh, a very, very cool name. Probably one of the more surprisingly unsettling bosses for sure, considering most of the previous bosses have been pretty simple 'giant animals' or 'giant versions of an enemy you meet earlier'. Façade is just a giant face that materializes on the floor, which is just done in such a different art style and feels pretty out of place when most of the faces you see in the game are comical and a lot more cartoony in the vein of Genie or King Moblin. I do like the idea that the entire room is a boss, and you need to blow up his central face by chucking bombs at him. Neat!
Evil Eagle (and Grim Creeper!)
The boss of Eagle Tower is "Evil Eagle" ('Albatross' in the Japanese version, and looking more like a vulture), but the eagle is honestly more of a bonus! Look at that dude riding on the Evil Eagle's back, that's the bug/skull-head of Grim Creeper, the miniboss! You fight him at the top of the tower as Grim Creeper flies around on his giant steed, summoning little bug friends or launching wind blasts at Link, and it's a combination of the Slime Eel (strike the boss when there's a chance) and Moldorm (you can get dropped off the stage, resetting the boss health) fights. Not too much to say here, but it's pretty cool nonetheless that a mini-boss just gets 'promoted' to the final boss of the dungeon.
The boss of the final standard dungeon, Turtle Rock, is Hot Head. He's... he's a giant ball of flame with a grinning face, and somewhat counter-intuitively, you can only damage him with the fire rod. He pops in and out of a pool of lava and sends out the lava blobs to attack Link. Honestly it's not one that I really remember a lot... a lot of the bosses in this game do feel a lot more... mundane, I guess? As far as Zelda bosses go?
Shadow Nightmare
Spoiler alert, spoiler alert! Spoiler alert for a 27-year-old game! Koholint Island, turns out, isn't even a real island, and everything in it is created by the dreams of the godlike being, the Wind Fish, which is slumbering. And Link's dreams got mixed into it, too! The final dungeon has Link head into the center of the 'nightmare', and the past couple of bosses have all been 'nightmares' of Link and the Wind Fish. Unfortunately, Link doesn't learn of the true nature of everything, and since he defeats the nightmares and allows the Wind Fish to wake up, it means the disappearance of all of the fun NPC's he's met in Koholint Island since both of them have 'woken up'.
The true final form of the Shadow Nightmare is a multi-boss fight, first appearing as a formless shadow form, before swapping in and out of four forms -- from left to right, these first four forms resemble a Zol, Agahnim, a Moldorm and Ganon. Agahnim and Ganon, specifically, are, of course, the two villains from A Link to the Past, and that's a pretty cool way to have the previous game's enemies as bosses. The Zol form is a bit annoying since you need to use magic powder specifically on it, but the other three bosses essentially fight similarly to their original forms. (Also, since I personally have never had an easy time with Moldorms, I thought it's cute that the Moldorm specifically was chosen as one of Nightmare's forms)
The fifth image here is sometimes called the "Lanmola" form, but isn't actually identified by the Japanese version (the first four forms have specific names), and I think it's just the true form of the Shadow Nightmare as it just goops around and tries to form itself into a sufficiently powerful nightmare to bother Link. Ultimately, after beating him up and forcing him to transform into these weird forms a lot, he finally assumes his final final form. Called "Shadow" (in English) in the original Japanese and "DethI" (with a capital I specifically, I've always thought it was "Dethl" for the longest time) in Enlgish versions, the Shadow Nightmare's final form is basically a giant shadowy eyeball with two giant rotating arms that spins around, and in pretty traditional Zelda boss fights with giant eyeballs, you need to pelt that eyeball with arrows. Or, if you've got the boomerang, one-shot murder it without bothering with dodging his attacks.
Ultimately, despite the rather simple dungeon bosses, Nightmare here has always been one of the more memorable Zelda bosses. Maybe it's a bit of a cop-out to simply have the final boss be a shapeshifter between multiple different bosses, but I do really like it. It's just utterly different, and just adds to the vibe of the dream-like bizarreness of everything that's going on in Link's Awakening.
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And there you have it! This one was a bit shorter and a bit easier for me to do. See you guys next time.
