Another gorgeous 'Legend of Zelda' game is coming to Nintendo Switch, and it's one of the best games you've never played

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Nintendo has a second major "Legend of Zelda" game in the works for its Switch console.
The game is "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" — a remake of the classic Game Boy "Legend of Zelda" game.
"The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" is scheduled to arrive in 2019.

Nintendo has another major "Legend of Zelda" game in the works for its wildly popular Switch console: "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" is scheduled to arrive later this year.

The new game is a remastering of the excellent Game Boy of the same name, which originally launched in 1993.

Never heard of it? You're not alone. It's one of the first "Legend of Zelda" games, and it's considered a classic by those of us who are old enough to have played it at the time.

Here's a primer on the next major "Legend of Zelda" game for Switch:

"The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" is a top-down "Zelda" game, in the style of "Link to the Past":

Way back in 1993 when "Link's Awakening" originally launched, it looked like a Game Boy version of "The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past" — the Super Nintendo game many consider to be the best "Zelda" game ever made.

In 2019, the art style of "Link's Awakening" offers a glimpse into what could be another totally new avenue for "Zelda" games. Frankly speaking, it's outrageously pretty and vibrant.

There's a glow to everything, and a handmade look that's reminiscent of the most recent "Yoshi" and "Kirby" games.

"Link's Awakening" originally started life as a port of "A Link to the Past" for Game Boy, then became something unique.

In many ways, "Link's Awakening" is a spiritual successor, or sister product, to "A Link to the Past." It's a top-down "Zelda" game with a similar level of depth of exploration, puzzle solving, and dungeon crawling as its Super Nintendo inspiration.

That's part of what makes "Link's Awakening" a classic — it was a side project created in the first golden age of "Zelda" games. Due to the fact that it was on the original Game Boy, it remains far less popular than major console entries like "A Link to the Past" and "Ocarina of Time."

Like the first few "Zelda" games on NES and Super NES, "Link's Awakening" has an open world — but it's set on an island!

There's a nautical theme to "Link's Awakening" that helps it stand out from the pack, and the game's focus is on collecting musical instruments.

Similarly, the game's music is appropriately whimsical. There's a real sense of charm and lightness to "Link's Awakening" that its contemporaries lacked.

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