I don’t think anyone is surprised to see The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening doing well. Breath of the Wild was a huge hit for the Switch and introduced a lot of new gamers to the magic of Hyrule. Now, Switch owners get a taste of just how great Zelda can be in 2D.

Link’s Awakening is officially the fastest-selling Switch game of 2019. Before that Super Mario Maker 2, held the year’s title of best selling Nintendo title. The interesting thing here is the hype surrounding both games. With a remaster, anyone that played the original is going to be excited. However, Super Mario Maker 2 was highly anticipated and is unlike any other game in terms of creation and freedom within a Nintendo IP. So what is it about Link’s Awakening that just absolutely wowed players?

In short, Link’s Awakening is the culmination of two things occurring at once. Firstly, Breath of the Wild made Zelda cool again, and I don’t mean that in a rude way. Zelda games are always going to be great for the core fans, but Breath of the Wild drew a lot of outsiders in with an open world, RPG elements, and great gameplay. Of course, you can argue that the one thing the game didn’t feature is the 2D charm of classic Zelda titles. Well, enter Link’s Awakening.

Much like A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS, a great 2D Zelda game is hard to beat, and Link’s Awakening is a remastered, touched-up version of an incredible game. It’s also coming out at a time where casual to semi-core titles are somewhat slow. Daemon X Machina and Astral Chain aren’t necessarily for casual to semi-core gamers. A 2D Zelda hits young children, nostalgic adults, and curious gamers drawn in by the game’s charm.

Thankfully, the game’s success likely means more 2D Zelda in the future.

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