The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

The first thing I noticed when I started playing The Minish Cap were the graphics. It's easy to be distracted by them when the only other Zelda game available for the GBA was simply a faithful remake of a game that came out 13 years prior. The Minish Cap blends visual elements from the GBA multiplayer adventure The Four Swords, and the storybook charm of The Wind Waker. Though the game will introduce you to a few new magic items, everything about it feels comfortably familiar. You've seen these puzzles before, and the entire meta-concept of searching multiple dungeons to complete a set of trinkets to make things right again is nothing new for the Zelda universe.

The Minish Cap begins with Link and Princess Zelda taking a leisurely walk through Hyrule Town. Events transpire, and once again Zelda is held captive by being turned into stone and it's up to you to rescue her. You might recognize the evil wizard Vaati from previous Zelda adventures, but the Minish Cap is set during Link's younger years and so it is assumed that this is your first encounter with him.

Link's age is actually an important part of the story. See, The Minish or "Picori" are a race of tiny people who used to have an alliance with the residents of Hyrule. Things went sour, and now only children can see them. In fact, it got to the point where everyone thought the Picori were just a fairy tale. But after Zelda's unfortunate curse the King requires the help of the Picori, for only a Minish smith is able to re-forge the Picori blade with the Four Elements and free Zelda from her stony prison. So it's up to Link to enlist the assistance of the Picori, in the process gaining a talking hat that bestows the ability to become small, unlocking an entirely different world.

The first dungeon makes you appreciate this microscopic aspect of Hyrule, because the dungeon's boss is simply a common monster you would find in your normal size. Some of the areas you wander through - such as a forest floor where you walk under leaves, or a mountain top where you're dodging rain droplets further these impressions. Solutions to many of the game's puzzles also require you to shrink yourself, revealing some of its most creatively designed environments.

To further spite those that thought multiple Links running around in The Four Swords (GBA) and Four Swords Adventures was simply a gameplay contrivance, The Minish Cap goes out of its way to enforce the reasoning behind why Link can clone himself to complete particularly challenging pushing or lifting exercises. With each new element you forge into your sword, you will gain the ability to create a ghostly version of yourself to aid you in completing some of the puzzles.

The Minish Cap makes an amusing addition to the Zelda gameplay oeuvre with kinstones: pieces of medallions scattered across the land. As expected, Kinstones are very lucky indeed, and "fusing" them with the game's many NPCs will unlock secret areas where rupees or pieces of heart are held, but mostly just more kinstones. It's actually pretty useless in the game's overall scheme, because it's not like the developers can predict who you'll fuse with or which kinstones you'll uncover. One dungeon requires you to fuse kinstones with guardian rocks to open the entrance - but those can be found within the dungeon area. It's not like they pull a Metroid Prime 2 and make you wander the fucking planet.

The Minish Cap's definitive triumph lies in the presentation. It takes elements of Link's previous adventures and makes the entire concept feel fresh and exciting, to the point where it possesses your waking thoughts. Probably the only valid complaint I've heard is the game's length. By comparison A Link to the Past is epic, and playing only the first third of the re-release of Ocarina of Time on the Gamecube shows no end in sight. Though like Link in the Minish Cap, there's something to be said about a pint sized adventure in such a beautifully rendered world.

let the travel begin