A Dark Link game made by none other than magonian DarkLinkOmega, whom we can only assume enjoys the Dark Link concept, but did he pull it off?

Well, as we dissect the game, you'll come to understand why it's really only a mediocre rendition of the theme, but first I'd like to point out that 'DLO' is only 15 years of age, and I was actually impressed with him for managing a full game that caters some slightly innovative concepts.

He has taken the Zelda world and grafted parts onto his creation, to a somewhat commendable effect. The Lizaflos are their own sect of sentient lifeforms, whom speak to you, and even join you on your quest. The DarkLink/Link rivalry is decidedly more pronounced, as 9 years prior to the events in this game there was a battle of DBZ proportions (and I mean that only in the transformation capacity, with Darklink+, Ultimate Link, and the like were apparently involved, with Ganondorf playing a role in angering Darlink to fury, Link murdering Darklink's son, and a fair amount of drama disclosed beforehand in a bland prologue). There was even a blue link, red link, and purple link mentioned, Link's friends. Ultimately the game begins in the 10th year following the godly drama, with Nami (your beautiful, if not a tad bossy bride) and you being assailed in your own home by a spindly creep in the service of the mysterious Zrikon (yes'Zrikon, and no, he isn't green, midget-sized, telekinetic, or transported by a flying tea-plate'). Naturally your journey is centered around making Zrikon pay for his insolence, but it becomes a tad more'with a certain rivalry renewed even.



The presentation of RM3 games is something I've found to be bunged only by an absence of presentation. The game itself is fairly uniform in its appeal, but the slew of games coming to the bats recently have managed to underpopulate their worlds with creativity it seems.



There are villagers who exist solely for aesthetic purposes (aside from the advent of 'Hi'), and slightly desolate spaces in the world.



However, the maps were nice, when compared to the imagination void maps the standard RM3 game sports, and you can tell he had fun inventing a world to suit his inner-Zelda fan. Varying elevations (oh my!), differing vegetation, and the like.As I mentioned, this game shows that DLO could work on his detail orientation, as he clearly isn't too detail oriented.


This is where I was surprised by DLO, with his continual homage to the Zelda series, and his nice little ingenuities that I've seen older designers fail to grasp the importance of time and time again.

There was a nice touch, for instance, early on in the game, when one visits the library. You speak with the librarian and he'll bestow upon you a book of your choice to aid in combat, and of course there are a few other things scattered throughout the game that make you go 'oh, nice'.

There was of course the Lizaflo inclusion, along with standard Zelda items, and Hyrulian worlds. So a pretty good job to DLO for managing to bring something to this sectionHmm, well I'll drag down the score for a lack of 'major' features to tide you over between finding minor ones, and also a lack of things aside from the main quest.

The world is ,well, the people are boring, the towns are boring, etc.

RM3 is rather difficult to really distort to the point of a 'bug', so we'll just skip to the things that I did sense.I'm still not sure if there was a major glitch or not as I came to a point where I couldn't seem to advance in the storyline, and had to use my powers to advance to the next stage myself, but then again this could've been a failing of my own making. I really was fairly confused.

Naturally there were a few grammar errors, but that's just part of scripting an entire game of your own accord.

Being an 'old codger' within the Zelda universe meant there were a fair amount of things I could recognize and appreciate that DLO took the time to include, and there was also a few fairly interesting additions. This designer managed to keep the battling to a slightly less taxing degree than most, but still I want to see less map traversing in all games.

I'd also like to point out a non-hollywood ending, and a curious storyline.The dialogue is flat, and the populace is flat, there really isn't much of a better way to turn your potentially impressive project into a slightly boring project than avoiding those crucial details.

A decent attempt at personalizing the Zelda world to a degree most people don't take it, but let me stress that this is a mediocre game, though when you play it there are the little homages and details that add flair, showing that though DLO is just 15, he has already mastered some crucial points in game making, and if he continues to design games he'll probably become a notable force within our community. He must work on adding details (as so many do) throughout the game, and he needs to work on his dialogue, or perhaps get someone to help him in the future.