3/5 ★ – DarrensTrashBag's review of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.

Oracle of Ages contains some of the more interesting story beats, characters, and environments when it comes to 2d Zelda games. I like the time travel mechanic much more that the changing seasons mechanic. But that is about all that Ages has for it. The dungeons are horrendous. They are all a slog to go through and at least once going through each dungeon, there is a puzzle that once I completed, I thought "That was stupid." Several puzzles and bosses completely trick the player into doing what they are not supposed to do. The final dungeon boss has two balls on chains that it launches at the player to attack them. Obviously the player would equip the power glove and pick up the iron ball thrown at them and throw it at the boss. When in actuality, it is the iron ball that was NOT thrown at the player. Jabu-Jabu's Belly in this game is worse than every water temple in the 3d games. I don't think I had a good time with any of the dungeons, while seasons had bad dungeons, there were still a few that I liked. Both of the Oracle games are not that good, however, I can commend the creativity that came with side quests that require the player to do half of it on Ages and then switch to Seasons. Characters from one game coming to the other and recognizing the player is a very cool detail. Ganon was actually a pretty good boss in this one, however Twinrova was terrible. It is much easier to direct the element thrown at link in the 3d games because you have precise aiming. In this fight, you just have to get lucky with some of the hits until you get to phase two. The second phase is just peak game design flaw. Hitting Twinrova causes her to start taking damage like every other boss, she even has a second animation showing the player that they are making progress and then she changes the scenery to fire or ice, also showing the player that they are making progress. This is probably hidden in an owl statue that everyone passes, but the game does not explicitly tell you to shoot a mystery seed at Twinrova while she is in her second animation that lasts a third of a second. So far, this has been the worst boss in the series for me and greatly made the experience finally beating both of the games an unsatisfying one. Both of the games together I give a 70/100. However I give Oracle of ages a: 64/100