The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Review
Total Score: 7.68
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo
2005

Graphics & Sound: I'm a stickler for this.... Old time graphics, and music from previous games. But, I must keep my bias to myself here. Graphically, the game is not very different from A Link to the Past which was released about a decade ago. There are some improvements, some more animations, but really, it's not very original graphically. I really like the little animations that were added in though. Link putting his cap on, Vaati's cape and such. It is an improvement, no doubt.
Now, at this point, I haven't played many Game Boy Advance games, so I don't really know how good these graphics are. But, from my known experience, I'd say they are as good as they can be on the Game Boy. They remind me of Super Nintendo graphics from the mid 90s. So, I know they can be better.
The music is not up to Zelda par. In fact, it's all the same music from previous games, spiced up a bit. There are a few original tracks, but mostly, it's regurgitation. It's very disappointing. However, for someone like me, the eternal nostalgist, it's great. The original Zelda theme is the over world theme, so it's nice to be adventuring to that timeless track. But, they could have been more original outside of that, and I felt they weren't.
Score: 6.75 (Graphics: 8, Sound: 5.5)

Play Control: The game is really easy to get used to. Especially if you have played other Zelda games before. I really didn't have any problem getting used to the controls. As the game progressed, and new items and abilities were added to the game, I went along with it. There wasn't any huge jumps in the learning curve. I felt it was nice and steady. Every item took a little getting used to, but it wasn't like I was struggling with the item for very long. It was more of a 'getting used to' than a 'struggle'.
There were times in the game were I became frustrated, but I do think it was a feature of the game, and not any problem with it. For example, the whole splitting into multiple Links was really cool, and could be really annoying, but that was part of it. It was supposed to be difficult. So, all in all, it was a well designed game. Considering all they had to do was take A Link to the Past, and improve on the known mistakes, the game should play great.
I rather liked the whole Minish bit in the game. It added to the game, and instead of having he Dark world and Light world bit from previous games, you had, normal Link and minish Link. So, it added another layer to the game, and it was well done.
The Kinstones was a nifty idea, and I must say that I liked this idea the best. I really liked the whole collecting and fusing with people. I thought it was original, and a lot of fun.
Score: 9.2 (Play Control: 8.9, Initial Feel: 9.5)

Challenge: This game was, for me, very easy to beat. It took me just over a week to finish. Now, I'm not sure if it is because I have played Zelda before, or because the game was lacking that third dimension (for the most part). I found it, generally, rather easy. There were the times when there was a puzzle that stumped me for a long time, but it was solved by the end of the day, and I moved on. As mentioned, the addition of being minish Link, and adding that other layer to the game (where you can only access some locations as a tiny miniscule version of the hero) really made it more interesting, and caused me to really think about what I could do in the game. I really enjoyed it, actually. Then there were the kinstones. Another really original idea, and a good one at that. I really liked finding the Kinstones (there are, as I understand it, near limitless amounts of kinstones, but a limited amount of people who you can fuse them with (100, I think) and having to find the right people to fuse them with. It wasn't very complicated. It was very simplistic on it's surface, but can bloom into a very complex system. Take the Kinstone fusing mission in the Castor Wilds for instance, and the other kinstone missions (especially the Goron mission).
Personally, I don't know if I'll go back to Minish Cap for another playthrough. I will, though turn it back on now that I'm finished and try to collect the missing 16 heart pieces, and fuse the rest of my kinstones. But I don't think the game is good enough to warrant a replay. It's missing depth. Ocarina of Time, and Link to the Past had huge depth, so much that you almost HAD to replay them to fully appreciate what a great game you were playing. Not the case with Minish Cap, in my opinion. Once complete, you know what the game is capable of, and perhaps you'll want to replay it, but I don't think it'll be replayed as it's predecessors.
Score: 7.75 (Lasting Interest: 7.5, Difficulty: 8)

Theme & Fun: The story was the same old Zelda story, but not spiced up like in Ocarina of Time. Too often, I was predicting what was going to happen. However, Minish Cap is not all regurgitation. The story does have some merit, and some surprises await you. Or, at least things that are not in every Zelda game. The bottom line is, if you like the Zelda series, the game is worth playing, just to see what they have done. But don't expect something as original as Wind Waker, or enthralling and original like Link to the Past.
But with all its flaws (and they were small, but many, like the Minish), the game was still enjoyable. I found myself comparing it to Link's Awakening a little too often, which was kinda unfair (though, I think I like Link's Awakening better). My greatest disappointment was the fact that I felt this game relied on it's predecessors too often. I really like it when a game pays homage to it's previous incarnations. In fact, I don't like it when there are no references to previous incarnations, but I felt Minish Cap did it too much that it was ignoring the fact that is was a game unto it's own. It was not a remake, it was it's own game, so be that: your own game.
Score: 7.0 (Story: 7, Overall Enjoyment: 7)