Like with any Zelda remaster, the remake of Link's Awakening opens the doors for many improvements and additions to the original game. For veteran players, who already know and love the original game, it's especially the new stuff that will make a remake like this interesting. And from an improved interface to whole new content, there are many possibilities here. So, let's discuss some of them...
Better Input
This should be a given and it was already partially showcased in the trailer. The original GameBoy only had two buttons for actions, A and B, and thus you had to use all your items with those, including Sword, Shield and Power Bracelet, which resulted in a lot of item swapping.
Luckily, the Nintendo Switch has more than just two buttons. If the game supports single Joycons, then you still will have at least six buttons to work with. Sword and Shield could get their own dedicated buttons, if the Shield isn't already used automatically. Now, the A button could work like in any other Zelda game with context sensitive actions, where the Power Bracelet could simply be the upgrade for a "lift" action, much like in A Link to the Past.
Speaking of, the Pegasus Boots could also be assigned to one of the shoulder buttons. Other items would probably go to X and Y, where you can still assign them freely. So, overall this would resemble the control scheme of A Link Between Worlds on the Nintendo 3DS. And we already saw a glimpse of that in the trailer, where Link was equipped with Sword and Shield while using the Roc's Feather. No big surprise here.
It's not clear, however, how the Roc's Feather should be handled. Ideally, it would get its own designated button as well, but it could also still be one of the items.
No Unnecessary Texts
The GameBoy classic was a really solid Zelda game that has established many things for the series, but if there's one point of criticism about the game, then it's the slow and often repeated texts, unnecessarily so. Who doesn't get annoyed by text boxes like this?
Wow! This looks
pretty heavy!
You won't be
able to lift it
with just your
bare hands...
Or this?
You've got the
Compass! Now,
you can see
where the chests
and Nightmare
are hidden! This
Compass has a
new feature-- a
tone will tell
you if a key is
hidden in a room
when you enter!
Every, single, time...
Other than the fact that texts could appear a lot faster, it probably would be a good idea to remove any repeated tutorial texts entirely.
Reunite with Companions
During your adventure in Link's Awakening you're joined by several companions, but only for a brief period of time. It would be nice, if you could get the back at any time for the fun of it or to experience some otherwise missable stuff or even for new features. This includes the Chain Chomp dog, BowWow, the lovely Marin and of course the Flying Rooster. For the Ghost this probably wouldn't be necessary, because he wasn't of much use anyway, but you could still revisit him at his grave...
Well, this would work similar to Rosa in Oracle of Seasons. You want to date Rosa again? Just ask her out. You want to date Marin again? Just ask her out!
Ask Madam MeowMeow to borrow BowWow again or visit the Hen House to get the Flying Rooster.
More Hearts
Link's Awakening is unique in the Zelda series with its maximum number of Heart Containers: 14. Usually it's either 16 or 20. So, it shouldn't be surprising, if Nintendo decides to add at least two more.
One possibility would already come with the Color Dungeon. If Nintendo decides to keep it, the boss could give you an extra Heart Container. But more Pieces of Heart are always welcome as well. Link's Awakening had only twelve of those, but some of them were very devilishly hidden.
With that it's to expected that they make some of them easier to find. For example the sunken Heart Pieces could be slightly visible from above. How were you supposed to find the one Heart Piece at Kanalet Castle anyway? It's often just found by coincidence... But at the same time they could come up with some new secret spots for additional Pieces of Heart to make up for the easier discoveries.
One idea would be additional mini games, where some of them could utilize your companions in some form. For this you should be able to borrow BowWow or the Flying Rooster again, as already proposed.
More Secret Seashells
The Secret Seashells were basically the first item, where you have to collect a certain number to receive rewards. You needed 20 of 26 Seashells to get the awesome Seashell Sword and some of them were very nicely hidden as well. They could be under bushes, under rocks, in treasure chests and even under the earth...
But these type of quests heavily evolved throughout the series, where the numbers have increased significantly, e.g. 900 Korok Seeds in Breath of the Wild, or where you get a number of different rewards like for the Golden Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time.
It should be easy enough to expand the Secret Seashell collection and add a couple of rewards on top. It doesn't have to be 900 or even a 100, but the thought of discovering more Secret Seashells in new locations would be quite exciting. This would be a good reason to explore Koholint all over again!
Improved Warp System
While exploring any world in a Zelda game, a good warp system always comes in handy. The original warp system of Link's Awakening was quite rudimentary, however, maybe even one step back from A Link to the Past. Similar to Ocarina of Time, this game has to different warp mechanics entirely. One were the Warp Holes:
There are four of those on Koholint and by jumping into one of them it will send you to the next, but only to holes that you've already visited on the map. This works, but it already can be improved by adding more Warp Holes to the island and a selection, where you can chose your destination on the map.
The other warp mechanic was Manbo's Mambo, a warp songs that sends you to Manbo's Pond. Inside a dungeon it will take you back to the entrance. Again, this works and Manbo's Pond is at a central location from where you can get to one of the Warp Holes rather quickly. However, ideally there would be a Warp Hole right next to it...
Alternatively, they could remove the Warp Holes entirely and turn them all into little Manbo Ponds, where you can chose your destination after playing the song. But this would also mean that you can't teleport before the Level 4 dungeon, where the Warp Holes were quite useful on the quests before by connecting Mabe Village with Animal Village.
Overall you can travel around Koholint rather quickly by foot, because the island isn't that large, which should be even faster in the remake without the screen transitions and maybe a good use of the Pegasus Boots. So, the game doesn't necessarily need major upgrades to its warp system, but some improvements would be nice to have nonetheless and if it's just some more Warp Holes.
Multiple Tunics
You couldn't swap clothes in the GameBoy original, but with the colored version on the GameBoy Color they introduced the Red and Blue Tunic, which permanently reward you with the abilities of the game's temporary power-ups. If you wanted to swap them again, you had to go back to the end of the Color Dungeon, talk to the fairy again and select the other color.
Ideally, you could choose between all three tunics (including the green one) at any time like in Ocarina of Time. Now, we could take this even further and add a collection of outfits to the game, like in Tri Force Heroes, where some of the items could be gotten from amiibo, like in Breath of the Wild, but lets keep things simple.
amiibo
Speaking of... the game could support all the different Zelda amiibo in some form. Either by giving you costumes or other small bonuses. They could even release new amiibo for Link and Marin in the chibi style of the game.
New Dungeons
There is no such thing as "too many dungeons". To be fair, Link's Awakening DX already has added an additional dungeon to the game with the Color Dungeon, where it's currently questionable whether this will return or not. It really should and if it does, it would be nice to get maybe one more dungeon as a challenge in addition.
Theoretically, they could use the Dream Shrine to add various dungeons without finding a spot for them. They could even use it for randomly generated dungeons, where every time you enter the Dream Shrine it results in a different challenge. Of course the original mini dungeon should still be there, but maybe it lets you chose between different dreams...
This would be similar to Simon's Simulations from The Minish Cap, where a trial cave is always the most trivial thing they could add to the game. They could turn it into a place, where you fight most of the bosses and mini bosses in a row or so.
More Freedom
The original game was rather linear, at least when it comes to the order of the dungeons. Usually you need the item from one dungeon to get to the next. And sometimes there are even special events that prevent you from proceeding unless you've beaten the previous.
It would be wrong to assume that much of this will change, but it's still possible to loosen some of it. Mainly the last three dungeons could theoretically be played in any order, since you only need the items from the previous dungeon to proceed in one single spot. It could mess with the story telling, however, e.g. meeting Marin in the mountains on your way to Level 8.
Nightmare Mode
The "Nightmare Mode" would be this game's "Hero Mode" or "Master Quest". Preferably, it would go more in the direction of the latter, where not only the taken damage gets increased, but the difficulty as a whole by adding tougher enemy occurrences and re-arranging the dungeons. It could even go as far and offer completely new dungeons in this mode, which are larger and more difficult than the original ones.
This is something that every fan of the original game would appreciate, which can be an easy game on multiple playthroughs, once you know all its tricks and secrets.
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