This week saw the Zelda franchise turn 35. The series is roughly 5 years older than me, and I never even experienced one of the games until I was about 10 years old. These games have always been wild and crazy, adding so much colour to the games industry, and often introducing us to brand new ideas. For the 35th anniversary of the series, I wanted to take you through some of my favourite entries and tell you why they’re so good. To kick things off, I’m discussing The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, one of the most phenomenal games in the series in my opinion.
The Minish Cap launched originally for the Game Boy Advance. While you can pick up a ROM version from those sorts of sites, I’d recommend that you try to play it the legitimate way. Playing Zelda games on a Game Boy really is one of the best Nintendo experiences you can get. The Minish Cap was also the peak of Game Boy Zelda games, making it essential for any retro enthusiast.
The game revolves around the tiny people who live in and around the houses and forests of Hyrule. It stars Cartoon Link, and sees him acquire a cap that allows him to shrink to the size of these Minish people so that he can explore new areas. As you can imagine, this makes for some absolutely stunning locations, dungeons, and puzzles. There are houses that look like mushrooms, and bosses that are simply huge versions of basic enemies. You can explore a full dungeon and never leave a tile in the overworld. It’s absolutely bonkers.
It’s such a shame that Nintendo never revisited this game. The world is filled with colourful characters, and you had the ability to enhance the town square by collecting items and bringing them back to trade. You could also spend hours linking stones together to reveal chests and unlock new locations in the world. This is what kept me playing long after I’d finished. The final boss, Gannon, is also a masterpiece. He takes a few forms, each of which relies on various items in your arsenal, and defeating him feels incredibly satisfying. If you’re looking for a new Zelda game to play, look no further.
