• Nintendo is remastering the 1993 classic “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” for the Nintendo Switch.
  • This is great news – “Link’s Awakening” is one of the most memorable, and arguably the best, entries in the entire “Legend of Zelda” franchise.
  • It’s coming later in 2019, with no precise date set.

I’ll cut right to the chase: “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening,” first released in 1993 for the original Game Boy, is getting a gorgeous-looking remastering for the Nintendo Switch later this year.

If you’re a gamer of a certain age – like me – you’re probably punching the air in excitement right now. While the series entries that followed it are mostly all gorgeous, amazing games, “Link’s Awakening” still stands out as one of the best of the series, 26 years later, for the creativity of the game’s characters, puzzles, and items.

(And, spoiler alert: The ending is a real tearjerker. No lie.)

Here’s the trailer, first released as part of a Nintendo Direct YouTube presentation on Wednesday:

The whole aesthetic seems to borrow heavily from "The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds," which was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. That game was also something of a retro revival, only instead of a remake, that game was a sequel to the 1991 classic "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past."

It's good to see Nintendo dipping into its back catalogue and refreshing some of its truly timeless classics for a new era.

But if you're wondering: No, Nintendo didn't announce anything about any new content for 2017's "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." Nintendo fans will have to make do with this nostalgia trip, at least for now.

For comparison's sake, I leave you with this gameplay video of the original "Link's Awakening":