If you own a Game Boy Advance there's no reason why you shouldn't own The Minish Cap.
The plot of The Minish Cap revolves around the back-story of Vaati and the birth of the Four Sword, which were important elements of Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures. Link gets chosen, by the King of Hyrule, to go and search for the mysterious Picori (also known as the Minish), tiny, thumb-sized humanoids, in order to get their help in re-forging the sacred Picori Blade (which Vaati broke) so it can be used to save Princess Zelda from the petrifaction spell put on her by Vaati. The reason the King of Hyrule chose Link for the task was simple; the Minish can only be seen by children. Soon after he embarks on his quest Link encounters a talking hat names Ezlo, a hat that has the power to shrink Link down to the size of the Minish. With Ezlo as his guide Link sets about finding the Minish and stopping Vaati.
The Minish Cap is a great Zelda title for many reasons. Nobody expected Flagship to be able to create a good Zelda game, and they proved they did with the Oracle games, and The Minish Cap follows right in their footsteps. While the Oracle games used the same engine that powered Link's Awakening, The Minish Cap was developed on an entirely new engine which gives the game a look far newer than the Oracle games had. But The Minish Cap is still a traditional Zelda game through and through, sticking very close to the formula of the games before it. The main game again follows Link through many different dungeons (six to be precise) as he fights on to achieve his goal.
The dungeons in The Minish Cap are really thought out well. They may not be the best in the series, nor may they be that over-difficult, but they are really nicely balanced. Because Ezlo has the ability to shrink Link in to the size of a Minish this opened up a lot of different puzzle ideas. All the dungeons require you to switch between both normal and Minish sized Link in order to achieve your goal of reaching and defeating the dungeons boss. Even some of the games bosses require you to shift between the two sizes, and this added a nice touch to a game that was mainly built on age-old techniques.
Link's arsenal of weapons in The Minish Cap is as good as ever. There are some brilliant new items that The Minish Cap brought to the series, and Flagship incorporated them in to the game brilliantly. The Gust Jar, for example, is one of the new weapons which is able to suck stuff up, like grass or enemies, then blows them away. Using the Gust Jar to suck up dust off the floor may lead Link to finding hidden switches that he could otherwise not have found. There's also the Mole Mitts, which have the ability to dig through certain ground so Link can burrow his way deeper in to his adventure. But apart from all the brilliant new additions, there are also some of the more well known, traditional items in The Minish Cap too, like the Pegasus Boots or the Hero's Bow, and while they serve the same purpose as before it's nice to just see them again. There are also some brilliant equipment items too on the Minish Cap, like the Grip Ring, which enables you to climb Mount Crenel, and of course it wouldn't be a Zelda game if Link couldn't upgrade his strength, and the Power Bracelets return enabling Link to lift heavier things.
Equipping items in The Minish Cap is handles like it was in the previous hand held titles, by selecting items to both the 'A' and 'B' buttons. If you had a problem with the limited button control in Link's Awakening and the Oracle games there's nothing here that'll make you start to like it, but I've never found equipping items this way to be a problem.
The Minish Cap also has a fair bit to offer outside of the games main adventure. Side quests have been a staple of the series since A Link To The Past, and I really enjoyed the few side quests The Minish Cap offered you. Some of the more interesting items the game has are Kinstone pieces. Kinstones are like medallions which come in two halves, and when the two halves are formed as one interesting things happen. Nearly everyone in the game can fuse Kinstones with you, as long as you have opposite half to the one they have. Mainly fusing Kinstones does minimal things, like making a chest appear which contains rupees, or making a gold enemy appear which is much harder to kill then normal enemies (and of which rewards you for killing it), but some of them also lead to heart pieces, and some of them are even needed for you to progress though the game. Because of the amount of Kinstone pieces in the game you could put a big amount of time and effort in to trying to fuse all of them. There is also another side quest that requires Link to find seashells that can be made in to figurines, and while this isn't as engaging as the Kinstone side quests it is still a nice addition.
Visually The Minish Cap uses the same graphical style of The Wind Waker, utilizing Toon Link. Of course The Minish Cap is a sprite-based 2D game, so the characters don't look quite as alive as the ones from The Wind Waker but the sprites are really well designed and animated.
Musically The Minish Cap doesn't push any boundaries, but the games music is still quite pleasant to listen to. Of course it's not got the best musical score in the entire series but it certainly still sounds great.
Now I do have a few criticisms of The Minish Cap; it wasn't going to get away without any. One of the biggest things I disliked about The Minish Cap was that the game was very short. An experienced player could blast through the main quest, first try, in about ten hours. Of course trying to complete all the side quests will buff up the games play time dramatically, but the adventure is the main aspect of any Zelda game, and it is lacking a little in The Minish Cap. There's nothing wrong with the adventure as such, it is still good, but the game could have benefitted from been about another five to ten hours longer.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is a hugely enjoyable game. It's well designed, looks great and is pleasant to play. Yes the game has a few short comings, like its relatively short length, but the side quests are enjoyable and add a lot of optional play time to the game. If you own a Game Boy Advance there's no reason why you shouldn't own The Minish Cap.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9.1/10