The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - Nintendo 3DS Review

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was my first ever Zelda title as well as one of my favorite games for the SNES. Now, 22 years later, Nintendo has released a sequel to the game on the Nintendo 3DS, set in the same world with the same top down gameplay. While this may not have topped the original, it still is one of the best titles for the system.

STORY:

If I was asked to tell anyone what the story of the game was, it would probably go something like this:

I had to look it up. This guy is called Yuga.

"This scary clown man starts to stir shit up by kidnapping the Seven Sages of Hyrule to revive Ganon. Link collects items while traveling back and forth between Hyrule and the dark "Lorule" (Fucking genius), completing dungeons to rescue the Sages and defeat the final boss."



Out of all the Zelda games I have played, the story in Link Between Worlds is probably the most inconsequential. Story was never a strong point of the series and Link Between World's narrative falls flat when compared to other titles in the franchise.

While this may be due to the more free-form nature of the gameplay, much of the feeling of being on an epic quest to save the land is lost and broken down into simply completing dungeon after dungeon to move closer to the ending (but it does wrap up quite nicely).

PRESENTATION:

Taken at 4AM after completing the game.

Link Between Worlds goes back to the top down 2D perspective of Link to the Past while updating everything with 3D models. The colors are bright and all the familiar elements from the original game, such as the red and green enemy knights, are brought out wonderfully in 3D. The game keeps the basic layout of the over-world from Link to the Past and it feels great to revisit these familiar locations.

The music this time around is a fully orchestrated, and while no new song particularly stands out, the music never gets tiring to listen to while hacking away inside the dungeons.


GAMEPLAY:

cr. Kotaku

This is where Link Between Worlds departs most from other Zelda titles. Instead of the regular game progression of "go into a dungeon", "find an item to solve specific puzzles in the dungeon", "defeat the boss" and "move on to the next dungeon", Link Between Worlds allows you to purchase almost all of the classic Zelda items from the begining (hookshot, bombs, hammer) and take on dungeons in any order your wish.

The items are all up for grabs in your home, in which after starting your quest, is converted into a store by a purple bunny man (I don't remember his name either). Items can be initially rented for a fee and then bought for an even larger fee. Rented items are lost should you ever fall in battle, but bought items are permanently kept in your inventory. These items can later be upgraded to more powerful versions with a collection side-quest.

So many elevators. So many floors.

It seems that Nintendo has taken a cue from the recent explosion of rogue-likes with this new open-ended as well as more punishing gameplay system. This also shows in the complete lack of tutorials that constantly bogged down other Zelda games ("HEY! LISTEN!). By this point you should know what an arrow does, if not, try it out.


 
The star of any Zelda game has always been the dungeons, and Link Between Worlds does not disappoint. The puzzles are truly clever, requiring multi-step and multi-layered thinking. The most interesting aspect of these new dungeon puzzles is that as you can bring in almost all the items into any dungeon, many of the puzzles have multiple solutions. There were several times I definitely "brute forced" may way past a spot using an item I'm sure was not supposed to be there.

Walk like an Egyptian

Another new mechanic brought into this game is Link's ability to flatten himself onto walls and become a living painting. This allows him to shimmy to places he was unable to reach before as well as travel back and forth between worlds. This is one new feature that must constantly be kept in mind after hours of trying to figure out a puzzle where the solution is to simply use your flatten power to slide around the outside of a building and through a crack.

BOTTOM LINE:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is a fantastic game. While the story might disappoint, the ingenious puzzles had me playing almost non-stop during my 15 hour completion time. It's the classic Zelda formula distilled into its most basic components and given a fresh new spin for the more mature audience who grew up with the games.

8.5/10