That One Mook: Blaino

BLAINO





Thinking back on the various game bosses that have troubled me a handful immediately sprung to mind, but only one really stood out, Blaino. He may not be the best choice for this particular subject since he's not an out and out ass-kicker, he doesn‘t even actually kill you when he bests you, but given the chance he can be a bastard. Blaino is a mid-boss from the Turtle Rock dungeon in Link’s Awakening, my favorite Zelda game, one of my favorite games period. He’s pretty much just a penguin with boxing gloves, and isn’t much of a threat if you’re in the zone and put your charged spin to good use, but if you’re just a bit off you can be in some trouble. When Blaino connects with one of his trademark uppercuts the blow sends you sailing all the way back to the dungeon’s beginning.

I’ve played through Link’s Awakening many times, and for most of those adventures Blaino is nothing to worry about, but on a few occasions I can recall he has driven me mad. It’s happened to me as recently as this past winter. For unknown reasons, I’ll foul up and Blaino will connect with Link, sending our elven hero back to the dungeon’s entrance. From there you have the trek back to Blaino. It’s not a difficult or overly lengthy walk, but it’s long enough to give you time to think about the rematch. If you’re on top of your game you’ll take Blaino out no problems with round two, if not you’re sent through the air back to the start again. That’s when the trouble can really start. Like any good boxer, Blaino can start to get in your head.





Trudging past the same enemies and fire pits, you hope this is the last time. You think about what went wrong, and perhaps over think what needs to be done to set it right. It’s a simple game, two buttons and a d-pad are all the controls to worry about. All you need is your most basic of weapons, the sword, to take Blaino down. Yet if you get in a rut of walking to Blaino and getting socked back to do it all over you can get sloppier and it just goes downhill from there.

Like I said earlier, Blaino really isn’t a difficult boss, and I’ve beaten him many times without issue, but on those handful of times where I inexplicably just can’t help but muck up he can really drive me nuts. When that happens it’s best to just put down the GameBoy and let it go for a bit, before frustration leads to rage. So yeah, due to the above reasoning, Blaino is That One Mook for me…


Bonus: Blaino reappears later on in the Zelda series as a boxing gym proprietor in Oracle of Seasons.