Despite being developed by Capcom, The Minish Cap is truer to the series than any handheld incarnation so far.
User Rating: 9.2 | The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap GBA
Let's not beat around the bush, Zelda works better in 3D. Because of this, handheld Hyrule has been very neglected over the years. And the few times it has been released, it never really managed to capture the essence of the series. When I heard this game wasn't even being made by Nintendo, it made me doubt it anymore. But somehow, Capcom's urge for The Minish Cap not to be a weak link on the golden chain of the Zelda series must have shined through to make this possibly one of the most, well, Zelda-like 2D Zelda games ever. Yes, like most Zelda games, the Minish cap does have a unique catch to it, which you probably already know by now is shrinking. When you shrink, it not only drastically changes the size of the environment in comparison to you, it also changes the enemies you fight, what you have to avoid (AHHH, RAINDROPS! Look OUT!) and creates some of the most unique puzzles in a game. From turning a barrel into a hamster wheel to walking on lilly pads to find your way across a puddle, they never get old. Sadly, the only real flaw of this is that those puzzles often take a backseat to the stereotypical block puzzles you see in every game. Of course, these "block puzzles" are very well done. But you'll still get the sense of "another group of blocks? Didn't I push things JUST like this around ten minutes ago?" Another Flaw of the game has to be that Capcom doesn't take much advantage of the L and R buttons. Obviously, we all know that one of the biggest flaws of previous 2D Zeldas is that there are only two slots for items to assign to buttons, which include your Sword and Shield. In the Gameboy Zeldas it was obviously because there were only two buttons in general. The R-button works as what the A-button is in 3D Zeldas, various uses depending on what is in front of you, the default being rolling. This is fine, even though it could have a little bit of a global use. The big dissapointment is how they use the L button. The only time the left shoulder is ever used is to fuse kinstones with NPCs (a pretty cool minigame that allows you to get to heart pieces) but you can only do this if the NPC has a thought bubble over their head. otherwise, the L-button goes to waste, and you can STILL only use two items at a time, but this doesn't change how good the redeeming gameplay expierience is. The dungeons, levels, environments, whatever you want to call them, are incredibly well done in this game. (Which WAS the biggest flaw of the handheld Zeldas) These enviroments rank among the 3D Zeldas. Not to mention how incredibly well done the whole shrinking thing is. You will want to move forward to see what the game is going to throw at you next. Which is exactly what everyone wants out of a good Adventure game. Overall, If you've been waiting for a REAL Zelda game on a handheld, you don't need to wait anymore, it's here. And it's coming from a pretty unlikely place. 
