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PRE-GAME

The evil wizard Vaati has released the sealed evil, and Princess Zelda needs rescuing. It’s up to Link to gather the treasure, find the ultimate sword, and rescue the Princess before Vaati destroys the world.

Damn, is there ever a time that Princess isn’t in danger. No, you can’t go back to bed Link! Now get out there and save Zelda again.

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK:  Well, if you’re a long time Nintendo fan boy like me, then you must have played at least one of the Legend of Zelda games. You should also know that the Zelda games have a long standard of being some of the best video games ever. Now I’ve played, if not beaten, every Zelda game there’s been on a Nintendo system, so when I heard about Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, it wasn’t a question of if I’d get it, it was a question of when.

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS: Add a generous helping of Wind Waker, a pinch if Four Swords, a dash of Ocarina of Time, and a sprinkling of originality, and you have Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. The character designs for Minish Cap are based off the cartoony style of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the Gamecube, and despite what people may have said, that was a great game, and the designs translate quite well to the Game Boy Advance. The game also has a few elements that first showed up in Ocarina of Time back in the glory days of the Nintendo 64.

This game take a large cue from the recent Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords, the multiplayer mini game included with the Game Boy Advance release of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, as well as from Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on the Gamecube. You’ll find panels on the ground in this game that let you spilt Link up into up to four copies of himself. This allows you to move certain objects, push multiple switches, and it even comes into play during some of the boss battles in this game.

To spice up the mix, Minish Cap adds in some new game play elements. The most obvious of which is the Minish Cap. Link uses the cap to shrink down to miniscule size at the many shrinking portals found throughout the game. This allows access to places unreachable by full size Link, and it also allows Link to interact with the Minish, a race of tiny people said to hold the key to Hyrule’s salvation. Some new items are also thrown into the mix. The Gust Jar lets you suck up various items, like rupees, hearts, jars, skulls, and even some monsters. Things like jars and skulls can then be shot out as projectile weapons. Another new item is the Cane of Pacci.  This shoots a magic spell that will flip certain things over, some of which can then be used as shrinking portals. All of these new elements add a fresh new feel to the classic Legend of Zelda universe.

HOW IT SOUNDS: Minish Cap features all your favorite Legend of Zelda sounds. From Link’s standard war cries, to the classis Legend of Zelda theme, this game has all that and more. There are some pleasant new music tracks, and the new items all have great sound effects. Also, just about every character in the game has a small voice clip. Usually nothing more than a single, simple word (can any one say ‘Hey’,) they all sound nice and it’s a unique addition to the Gameboy Advance Zeldaverse. Over all the sound in this game is top notch.

EXTRAS: Nothing much here. There’s a few optional weapons, and you can finish the game without learning all the sword techniques, and that’s about it as far as Extras go.

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: There’s a couple of still picture cinema’s describing the back-story of the game, and a few in engine conversations between characters, but that’s about it.

BEST PLAYER: Link’s the best! He’s the only one, and he has all the cool items!!

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED: Unlimited Rupees- First get mole mitts, then go to the door of your house. On the left side of the door dig to get 20 rupees. Go in your house and come back out to repeat the step. The 20 rupees will always be there.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT: A code to reduce the amount of time it takes to charge your sword and step on the multiplication panels would be super.

OH MAN! MOMENT: When you realize how short this game is going to be.

GLITCH ITCH: Strange wall in links house- Right to do this glitch you have to go to smith’s room in links house. Then start tapping along the bottom wall with your sword until you here a bomb wall sound. After you hear it put a bomb down next to the wall that made the bomb wall sound letting it explode. Doing this will cause the wall stop making the strange sound walk out the room then walk back in the room to start up the glitch again.

END GAME:

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is a great game! It’s just too short. Still, what’s there is pure Gold. Minish Cap marks Links first original game on the Gameboy Advance. The story opens with Princess Zelda coming to Link’s house to wake him up so he can take her to the town fair. Link’s uncle asks him to deliver a sword to the winner of the sword fighting contest. The winner turns out to be a powerful wizard named Vaati, and, like most powerful wizards, he wants to take control of the world. So he breaks the seal of the sacred Four Sword, releasing the monsters into the world, and he turns Zelda to stone. Thus begins Link’s journey to restore the Four Sword and free Zelda from Vaati’s curse, but like most Zelda games, there’s more too it than that.

Link sets out to first have the Four Sword repaired by the Minish, and along the way he finds a mysterious talking hat names Elzo. Elzo helps Link out by providing useful information as well as allowing him the ability to shrink to minish proportions. In order to fully restore the Four Sword, Link must recover the four elements: Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. To do so he’ll travel to various locals, such as the mountains, a forest, an ice cave, and a swamp. He’ll utilize his various items along the way in order to make it where he needs to go. In the end, though, this game only has about 6 dungeons, including the final dungeon, making it feel quite short.

One of the new things you can do in Minish Cap is fuse Kinstones. Kinstones are items you find throughout the world by killing enemies, cutting tall grass, and finding some in treasure chest. You’ll then start meeting people with thought bubbles above their heads, indicating they want to fuse Kinstones. When you fuse two Kinstones, something nice happens; a treasure chest will appear somewhere, a new path will open somewhere, or a special golden monster will appear somewhere. Kinstones can also be fused with other things, so keep an eye out for those little thought bubbles.

This game is a bit simple for the most part, though there are some tricky parts. Still, this game features only six dungeons total, so the game seems to be over before it really gets going.

What’s there is great though. Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is the worth the price if you’re a fan of the series, or if your looking for a great game on GBA, and you don’t mind the short length. If you’re a gamer on a budget though, you may want to look at renting or borrowing this one. Still, its well worth the time to play through it, and is a great game overall.

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