The Minish Cap

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is the first entirely new adventure for Link on the Gameboy Advance.  The other GBA Zelda game of course being the Link to the Past remake, which included Four Swords, but that was really just a multiplayer side quest, and not an entirely new game.  The graphics in The Minish Cap are improved over the Link to the Past remake, and Link takes on his Four Swords look in the game.

It is fitting that Link takes on his Four Swords look, because The Minish Cap explains a lot of the storyline elements from Four Swords, such as the origins of Vaati, how he gains his powers, and also the origin of the Four Sword itself.  As with most Zelda games, there is a parallel world in The Minish Cap, this time Link can shrink himself and explore the world in miniature form.  Enemies that normally are easy become much harder with link shrunken down.  There are some puzzles that involve switching between shrunken and regular forms.  For example, Link may need an item from a room, but there is no entrance, so he shrinks down and walks through a small hole in the wall and becomes large again in the room to take the item.

The music in The Minish Cap is outstanding.  There are some classic tunes, such as the classic overworld theme and there is also new music, but all of it is well done and fits in nicely with the Zelda series.  The sound effects are nicely done as well.

The dungeons in Minish Cap are done very well also.  Like most Zelda games you find an item, use that item to solve some puzzles, then find the big key and fight the boss.  The dungeons are all pretty long, but that still doesn't completely make up for the fact that there just aren't enough dungeons in the game.  Nintendo did some nice things to prolong the game some and keep it from being too short (which I won't reveal here), but there really should have been another dungeon or two in the game.

The Minish Cap is another outstanding game in the Zelda series, if you're a fan of the series, this game is definitely a must-buy.