As the moral of the excellent Pixar film Ratatouille argued, greatness can come from anywhere. And while many would not expect any sort of deep emotion to be elicited from an unlit, gray and green display measuring less than 2 inches in size, Zelda once again proved that the series knows no boundaries. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a masterpiece and stands up to the other greats in the series, despite any perceived technical or artistic limitations of its platform. As Link completes his quest of gathering the eight magical instruments, defeating the nightmare, and freeing the Wind Fish, he slowly starts to awaken. As he does, the island of Koholint is shown fading away.
The various scenes of the island's inhabitants fading to white are quite depressing. As life was continuing on the island, it fades in a manner similar to the nuclear holocaust of Fail-Safe (a sequence which is probably more recognizable when it was parodied on The Simpsons in the scene where Sideshow Bob deploys the faulty atom bomb ). While it's not quite clear whether the island still exists on another plane of reality or if it's gone forever having been nothing more than a dream, it's still an incredibly touching sequence.
