Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons: First thoughts

 These two Zelda games had eluded me for years... to be honest I've played most of the Home console Zelda games, it's the portable ones that I've had a few issues with. I didn't have a Gameboy Color, so that era is mostly lost for me. Now with Nintendo Switch Online's Official Gameboy Emulator, I'm able to play these two games. 

I'm an idiot and I'm playing them both simultaneously so I won't be able to fully do a review right now. Once I beat both games and unlock the secret ending that you get by linking both games, I will do the official review. If I can figure out how to do it on the Nintendo switch. I  think that on the Game Boy game version you needed two Gameboy colors and a Link cable with both games. Kind of how you could trade Pokemon in well Pokemon. Not sure on thwar

So, Link gets sent to two far away lands where he must save an oracle from a villain:

In Oracle of Seasons, Link ends up in Holodrum, must save Din, the Oracle of Seasons from the Evil Onox.

In Oracle of Ages, Link ends up in Labrynna  must save Naryu, the Oracle of Ages, from the Evil Veran... 

It's essentially the same game but it's not. There was a Third one, Oracle of Secrets, but it got scrapped for making the linking all 3 games too complicated... maybe it's time for a remake of these two and complete the Trilogy for the switch or its sequel?

But as I was saying, the plot is eerily similar, the world is eerily similar and the gimmicls are eerily similar. It reuses a lot of assets from Link's Awakening.

The main differences lie in the world... while SIMILAR, they're not IDENTICAL. In Seasons, you dick around with Mother Nature. In Ages, you Marty McFly the hell out of Labrynna as if you had an Ocarina of Time. The other main difference is Gameplay's focus. Both games are essentially a 2D Legend of Zelda, BUT Seasons is the more combat oriented (and easier one) I've beaten all 8 dunegeons and I'm prepping for the final battle. Meanwhile Ages is more Puzzle based and therefore harder... Between the Goron Dances and the Restoring split crap minigames, fuck this game, dayo! 

Now here comes the odd part... technically speaking, the games are superior to Link's Awakening, but they FEEL too derivative and inferior to Link's Awakening. Now I mustn't be too hasty in judging until I get the ending...

Wait, Oracle of Ages has this:

OK, that's enough reason to hate this game...