The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

A Link Between Worlds manages to combine the grand feeling of exploration from the older Zelda titles with some welcome innovations that allow the game to feel fresh and exciting throughout. After beating this game, finding all the Maimais, getting all the weapon upgrades, and almost all the heart pieces I can easily say that ALBW is my favorite handheld Zelda and one of my favorite titles in the series.Music:The music in this Zelda entry is very impressive. The tracks are beautiful and diverse they really help to give the different locations and dungeons a distinct feel. The new versions of old Zelda tracks and the new tracks are all great and they really add atmosphere to the game.Graphics:The graphics really look great on the 3DS and I like the art style Nintendo choose for the game. It is pretty awesome to see A Link to the Past's Hyrule redone with modern graphics. That said I'm used to playing older video games so any graphics that have a good artistic style and are not bland look good to me.Controls:The controls in this game are very smooth and precise. They allow for precision that has been absent in many of the more recent Zelda titles.(The DS Zeldas, Skyward Sword)Story:Nintendo took a more minimalist approach to the story of A Link Between World, akin to the stories of the older Zeldas. There is not a long prologue nor long cutscenes throughout the game and the overall story is fairly straight forward. Many of the characters in the game are not even named, and there is little character development in general. That said the more central characters to the story have intriguing motivations and conflicts that really drew me into the story. One thing that I liked about the story is that it lacked the cheesiness that some recent Zeldas stories have had. I still prefer the stories of Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker but I thought the story fit the game well while motivating the player to reach the end. I also really liked the ending and how they tied everything together. To sum myself up I thought the game was not story heavy, but the story that was told was very good.Gameplay:DungeonsThe dungeons in A Link Between Worlds have some really inventive puzzles and are a lot of fun. The various dungeons are all unique and well-designed. The variety in puzzles and structure keep the dungeons interesting and never repetitive. While I did not really get stuck playing this game the puzzles posed enough of a challenge to be rewarding to solve. The only downside to the dungeons is that they are all fairly short. To be fair, this shorter length is probably better for a portable game and it also helped to keep the game feeling more fast-paced and concise.BossesThe bosses are fun and the strategies needed to defeat them vary immensely. While most of the bosses are basically new, there are a couple bosses from A Link to the Past, but the strategies needed to defeat them have changed slightly. The bosses in this game are substantially easier then bosses in earlier Zelda titles like A Link to The Past and LInk's Awakening and they really do not pose much of a challenge. When I played older titles like A Link to The Past and LInk's Awakening, I had to fight some bosses multiple times before I could defeat them. In contrast, I beat almost all the bosses in this game in one try.(Even though I did have to use fairies at some points) Overall the bosses were fairly easy but still a lot of fun.ExplorationI think one of this game's greatest aspects is the sense of exploration and adventure. The game really encourages you to scour the entire game world in search of the dungeons and collectables. The ability to rent and buy the game's items allows the player to tackle Lorule's dungeons in whatever order they please. This makes exploration a central part of the game and as you transverse Hyrule and Lorule you are constantly finding new things such as dungeon entrances, collectables, mini-dungeons, etc. This variety of things to find and do makes this over world far more entertaining and vibrant then many of the over worlds of the 3-D Zeldas. I felt like I was discovering news things over the entire course of the adventure. As I played through this game I felt as though I stumbling upon dungeons while exploring the world, rather then simply seeking them out.Overall:I really liked A Link Between Worlds and I thought it did a good job of capturing the spirit of the classic Zeldas while incorporating some new innovative concepts such as Ravio's shop and the item meter. I would also like to add that the Merge ability is pretty cool and helped to bring a new dimension to the game, without becoming a gimmick. This game was really fun the entire play through and I do not think I ever came across a dull moment. The Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game series and I think A Link Between Worlds deserves a spot among the best games of the series.Pros:-Grand Sense of Exploration-Great Music-Great Dungeon and Boss Design-Vibrant and Interesting Over worlds-Good Story-Interesting Characters-Cool Merge ability-Cool Upgrades-Lots of Collectables and Mini-gamesCons:-Fairly easy (In Zelda terms, I need to play hero mode next to see the differences)

This is NOT a simple remake. Don't expect it to be. What this game is better described as would be a nostalgic game set partly in the world that was made for Zelda (3) A Link to the Past. The overworld is similar but not carbon copy. Even some dungeons have slight similarities, but I feel this was for the sake of nostalgia and not any bit of laziness on Nintendo's part.My biggest compliment to Nintendo? NO MORE STYLUS!!! If you played the previous DS Zelda games, you probably got sick of controlling the entire game with the stylus. In this game you use the circle pad to move and the D-pad moves the camera slightly.The music is based on LTTP and Ocarina of Time (OOT) but it is slightly tweaked and improved. Control is amazingly fluid. Much improved over the old SNES and DS versions. It really feels like you have good control. You don't really stop on a dime, instead there is a bit of momentum. It makes the game tough at times because you WILL fall off ledges. And you do have a bit of bounce back if you strike things with your sword!Other great changes/improvements? Well the fact that after the first big dungeon, the game is wide open (for the most part) is really interesting. You rent or buy the items such as the bow and mallet. It's expensive and you lose them if you rent them then die, but it makes for a decent challenge. Oh, and rupees are easier to find - but you still have to balance your budget! There is a lot of backtracking due to treasure chests and pieces of heart that require certain tools or multiple tools, but with the witchy warp system, it's a breeze.Also with the item system - gone is the inventory of arrows and such. Instead you have a magic meter which depletes when you use tools (or turn into a painting - more on that in a sec!). It refills slowly, or with little magic vials found in jars.The most interesting little facet of this game is the ability of Link to turn into a 2-D wall painting. It opens up a lot of areas and allows you to travel to Lorule - the reverse world (not the same as the dark world in LTTP). Magic slowly depletes when using this power, so you can run out of magic, pop out and fall to your demise. True story.Speaking of story! A lot of game magazines said there isn't much story, but I would say that the story is on par with Ocarina. Not too fleshed out, just a little overview. Early on you are privy to a lot of the history and story line, and since the game is more or less non-linear, a bit more is filled in along the way. Interactions with other characters are quite fun and add a little comedy or drama. I won't spoil anything, but it seems that this game is set after LTTP since early on in the game, Impa tells you about the history of the last hero that sealed Ganon and found the Triforce of Courage. Again, nothing you don't know 5 minutes into the game.I only have one little qualm and that is that the maps in dungeons are provided when you enter them. Of course you need the compass to see the chests, but also that makes it easier to find all of the hidden items.Difficulty is variable. At times I feel I'm just powering along, other times I just get my rear end handed to me. All part of the more open nature of the game I guess. But with the open structure I felt that maybe a bit of a difficulty reading would help, something saying that particular dungeons would be tougher, so you might want more heart containers... Nitpicking though!What Nintendo just did though was cement the fact that the 3DS is THE Nintendo system to buy - not Wii U - at least not yet. And if you own a 3DS (or 2DS) you MUST buy this game. It is the golden stamp on a terrific year for this system!