The best 2D Zelda game wasn't even made by Nintendo

In the late 1990s Nintendo wanted more Zelda games, and Capcom screenwriter Yoshiki Okamoto, leading the studio's then-new screenwriting subsidiary Flagship, pitched an idea to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. After a couple years of development struggles and trimming back the scope, the pitch became Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons for Game Boy Color in 2001, games that many consider the most inventive and memorable of the series' 2D entries.

Link, fresh off some other Hylian adventure, gets a dream call from the Triforce and travels to distant lands — Labrynna in Ages and Holodrum in Seasons — to stop forces of darkness. An evil witch possesses the Oracle of Ages and gains control of time, while a pointed-hat general kidnaps the Oracle of Seasons and sends nature tumbling into chaos.

On the surface the games echo A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening: eight dungeons, new tools, bosses and errands that culminate in a powerful weapon.

oracle ages, oracle seasons, capcom, yoshiki okamoto, shigeru miyamoto, game boy, 2d zelda, link, labrynna, holodrum