Full Review

After having beaten The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for GameCube this past December, I became a true fan of the Zelda series. A few weeks later, I saw a commercial on television that was advertising the new Zelda game for the GameBoy Advance, titled The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. This is actually the first (and probably only) completely original Zelda game for the GameBoy Advance, as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was a port of the SNES version.

The story in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is very similar to past Zelda games, although the new twists separate it from the rest and make it one of the most compelling plots ever. As always in a Zelda game, we first learn a little bit about the past. A long time ago, the world of Hyrule and its inhabitants were under attack by a wicked creature and its minions. Hyrule was about to crumble; yet before a final blow was dealt, a small race of creatures that resembled fairies gave of one Hyrule’s greatest and fiercest warriors a sword to wield and end the crisis. The warrior managed to succeed and cast away all of the minions into his sword. This sword was then taken to a castle and locked away, with hope emerging that the sword would never be disturbed.

The present-day story begins with our hero, Link, waking up and learning that Princess Zelda has asked him whether he would attend the festival with her. The festival is a commemoration of 100 years since the Picori, the race of small creatures that resembled fairies and aided the people of Hyrule, were last seen. Shortly after arriving, the King of Hyrule beckons the warrior that won a tournament at the festival to come forward and claim his prize – a gaze upon the sacred sword. Unfortunately, havoc ensues. The warrior attacks the guards, cracks the sword, turns Princess Zelda into stone and vanishes. The evil minions that were about to capture Hyrule one hundred years ago have now been set free again, and it is up to our young hero Link to conquer his enemies, save Zelda and destroy the fiend who unleashed chaos.

The gameplay in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap follows the classic Zelda formula. In a nutshell, you walk around, collect items, buy weapons, defeat enemies, solve puzzles and complete dungeons. As always though, the developers made this game a unique and unforgettable experience. A staple of the Zelda series is that in each game, something can be altered or controlled by Link. In Wind Waker, you could control the wind, in another game, you could control time. In The Minish Cap, you control the size of Link. How is this managed you ask? Early on in the adventure, you will meet Ezlo the Minish Cap, who will prove you with the powers to shrink to a very small size. You can’t shrink to a small size or back to normal at any time though, there are portals that look like tree stumps scattered throughout Hyrule. At these portals you are allowed to alter your size.

When Link shrinks in size, his character will only take up a few pixels on the screen. By shrinking, Link can find tiny passageways that are otherwise impossible to pass through. Shrinking is also useful against a few bosses, as you must actually get inside them to deal damage. Sometimes the camera actually zooms in to make Link appear to be normal size, yet all of the surroundings are gigantic. This set-up allowed the developers to create a few interesting puzzles.

Speaking of puzzles, the Zelda series has always had dozens of them. You have to press switches, pull boxes, light torches and do other tasks to unlock doors or to locate chests. The Minish Cap features its fair share of puzzles, a few of which were particularly entertaining. They involved cloning Link, which double your strength and allows you to solve puzzles that were previously impossible to solve. Despite the fact that you can have more than one Link on your screen at the same time, unfortunately The Minish Cap does not feature any multi-player modes, not even anything similar to The Four Swords adventure found on the A Link to the Past cartridge.

There are plenty of weapons that you will find and use as you progress in the game. As always you get a sword, a shield, a boomerang, bombs, arrows and bottles. There are some items that I have never used in a previous Zelda game however, such as the Gust Jar. This jar is like a vacuum cleaner and can suck in various objects. You’ll also unlock a lantern to set things on fire, boots to run really fast, an ocarina to teleport yourself and other great items. Some of them must be bought with rupees, which are usually found in chests. Some of the items are found by completing side-quests, and I definitely recommend you to complete as many side-quests as you can. Not only are you rewarded well by doing so, it also extends the length of the game. Most of the weapons that you unlock will be necessary when you are battling foes in the dungeons. The Minish Cap features a grand total of six dungeons, with memorable boss fights that conclude each dungeon.

Another way to extend the length of the game is to collect items. Heart pieces are the most important item in the game, as the more you have, the more damage you can take before dying. New to the Zelda series are Kinstone pieces, which are found in halves. By finding a matching half, you will unlock something in Hyrule, such as a side-quest, a treasure chest, a heart piece or rupees. Some Kinstone pieces must be found to beat the game, while others are there for the fun of it. Locating Kinstone pieces is no easy matter, as they are found in treasure chests, dropped by enemies or sometimes they can even be found simply by cutting down grass. There is a total of 100 possible fusions, although completing them all is no easy task.

In The Minish Cap, you will notice that Link collects shells. At first I wasn’t sure what was the point of collecting shells, but soon enough I met Carlov the sculptor. Whenever you have shells, you can go to his house and play a slot-machine game like the one to unlock trophies in Super Smash Brothers Melee. You simply bet shells in an attempt to unlock all 136 figurines. This is a huge and innovative concept, but it is a nice way to extend the duration of the game.

The one drawback to The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is the replay value and the brevity. I beat this game within 12 hours, and I collected virtually every single item and completed almost every side-quest. I no longer have any desire to beat the game again, and since there is no multi-player mode whatsoever, this will basically sit on my shelf and collect dust. Twelve hours is fairly short for a game, and for those that rush through a game will find this adventure to be shorter than 10 ten hours. The lack of replay value prevents this from becoming an instant classic.

Graphically, The Minish Cap looks like a slightly updated version of A Link to the Past. The cover of the game had artwork that was reminiscent to the artwork in The Wink Waker, although you can’t really recreate such artwork for a two-dimensional game. The animations are very smooth and the backgrounds are very nice, although one must always remember that they are good for a GameBoy Advance. If this were a DS game, then it would be considering lackluster. The world of Hyrule is fairly detailed and I believe that this is the best-looking handheld Zelda game to date.

The audio in The Minish Cap is one of the highlights in my opinion. The game features plenty of orchestrated pieces from previous Zelda games, and a few original remixes. All of the pieces sound terrific, and I even recognized a few that were taken from The Wind Waker score. Dungeons feature creepy music, while town areas have more upbeat tunes. There isn’t much recorded dialogue, as the developers of the Zelda games have always been fans of scrolling dialogue on the screen. Link has a few yelps and shrieks that annoying to some, but they didn’t bother me much and the music tends to drone them out a little.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is a very captivating adventure that is a great installment to the treasured Zelda series. It is the first original Zelda game for the GBA, and I was surprised that it turned out to be so good. The lack of replay value and the brevity of the game keep it from being a masterpiece, although all Zelda fans and most GBA fans should pick this up.