The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Link's up to the call when Princess Zelda gets turned to stone by ersatz Evil Sorcerer. With the power of Ezlo, his talking Minish Cap, and help from some glowing tree stumps (or giant jars), Link can shrink and visit the miniaturized Lilliputs of the Picori (a.k.a. Minish, who make their insect sized abode throughout Hyrule), to save the Princess!

(It's a Zelda game. You push blocks. You have a sword and tools. Lots of adventuring, puzzles and great boss battles. Nothing too original, but great fun, and classic Zelda.)

With great music and colourful visuals, some quirky, funny and annoying voice sounds (everything from Link's annoying "Ya!" sword attacks, to some great individual hello sounds from NPCs), it's a typical, brilliant Zelda game. Puzzles are simple and fun, Hyrule Town is active with minigames, dungeons are challenging, the Minish are varied, and the world is on moderately large scale.

The game starts Chrono Trigger like. The Princess tours with Link at the 100 year old Picori Festival. The winner of some kind of competition there is an Evil Sorcerer (TM), who wants power. And love. Well, just some stuff, but he doesn't get it, so Zelda gets stoned. The magical Minish only talk to kids and animals (we need their help to combat the Evil Sorcerer), and Link's the only man-kid around. There's a magical sword that needs to be forged, a prophecy in stained glass, and shrubs to cut!

This game feels like a quirky A Link to the Past that's not too long to pass (Minus the always loved Hookshot tool.) It does have some flavors of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, and you'll be duplicating Link a few times to conquer obstacles.

Like its predecessors, The Minish Cap is pretty much a series of quests. One of these quests in particular got me a bit perturbed. Link to the library! Collecting books is fun? Becoming the one-boyed IRS for books, you help a library worker reshelf these specific books to form a bridge so you can visit a Picori on a shelf. This is because other books couldn't be shelved in that particular shelf. It's because it's a library and there are rules to be followed. Obviously this is a moral to the children: never a borrower or lender be, keep your room neat and organized, and return your (book) rentals!

A current fad Hyrule is going through is Kinstones. They're magical coin halves that you unite with NPCs and objects. When united (they disappear, and) throughout the world, they reveal power-ups, a special enemy, general secrets; and oh, they control time/space, and the mind! NPCs see them as good luck talismans--which is odd, especially when you summon a deadly enemy; they react very positively. "Oh, I feel my luck getting better!" Yes, we just released an uber golden Octorot into the wilds. Or, they create divine motivation. For example, an idle builder in town will spontaneously react:

"I feel motivated! I suddenly want to make a good sized house in a matter of minutes." Unfortunately it doesn't allow for the three cute single anime girls looking for a house to rent in town to invite you over for some ocarina lessons. And depending on the house, they hang their colour-coded laundry out to dry. Rawrl.

There's your standard fare of enemies and objects here: chickens, wizrobes, blocks and shrubs to cut and throw. There're weird creatures punching and eating rocks, trees to be dashed into, switches to hit, sword masters to teach you techniques, etc. The items are multifaceted--you'll be using them against bosses and puzzles alike, similar to how a power-up in Metroid allows one to explore a new area. One useful tool, the Mole Mitts can break down walls, pull up shrubs, and dig holes in the ground. The newest tool is the Gust Jar, which is a portable lateral vacuum device--great for sucking defenses from enemies, and clearing those shrubs.

If you press the Select button, Ezlo reminds you what your current task is. Good if you use the sleep or save option in game and forget what to do next. The problem with that is it's usually related to going somewhere on the map--which is usually inaccessible because you don't have a certain item/tool. So, unless you're paying attention, or following a FAQ (which I'm guilty of over and over again here), you'll explore all the areas you can on the world map until some trigger is hit, like talking to every NPC in town.

For collectors, there are Mysterious Shells one picks up. Players can trade these in for Figurines, similar to a bestiary list, only for all enemies, objects, NPCs and locales. The criteria for picking up these Figurines: 1) you have to have met or experienced these objects (i.e. defeating a particular boss), 2) collect a certain number of Mysterious Shells, 3) Handing over a certain number of shells increases the probability of acquiring a new Figurine, and each time you get another, you need more shells (i.e. 65%+ 35 shells = 100% probability), 4) Pull a machine that spits out an egg with the Figurine. There are roughly 130 figurines to collect. Completionists, if they do accomplish 1), will be doing 2) for a while, to get 100% at 3), and then 4) just gets annoying.

Despite the very minor grievances this reviewer has, The Minish Cap is a beautifully designed, quirky game. If you like Zelda, you'll love it. If adventure games and bus rides are your thing, pick it up. So long as your audience appreciates the nigh sound of a young Picori screaming "Ya, ya, he-ah!" while madly slicing shrubberies, you'll have nothing to fear from the publics' knee (as it tries to slap your bug-sized body, hopefully not in a bookcase.) Go, push some miniature blocks!

-Stefan Di Iorio

Stefan Di Iorio is a student enrolled in the Video Game Design & Development program at the International Academy of Design & Technology.

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