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The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Zelda games: they’re like the comfiest pullover you own, the one you take no small amount of pleasure in snuggling into when the cold, dark nights start closing in.

A Link Between Worlds is no different, offering all the usual, familiar Zelda elements – dungeons, Master Sword, hookshot, etc – but spruced up just enough so it doesn’t feel like the moths have been at it since you last put it on.

Zelda: Link Between Worlds

Top down dungeoneering

It’s a sequel of a kind too, in that it revisits the Dark World, a land that those of us who braved the classic A Link to the Past – and who hasn’t? – will fondly remember.

As before, the Light and Dark Worlds, or Hyrule and Lorule, are reflections of each other, albeit with geographical anomalies that mean a dead end in one might be dealt with by popping over into the other.

A nice gimmick, particularly when handled with Nintendo’s usual flair. So too is a brand new power that hands Link the ability to literally blend into walls. Here our hieroglyphic hero can span chasms where there is no bridge simply by merging with the cliff face itself.

Zelda: Link Between Worlds

Kitsch-en sink drama

This same power aids Link’s passing from world to world as he edges through cracks in the fabric of each. Dungeon exploration benefits from the trick too. Truly, Nintendo has pushed the feature far to create whole new ways to bamboozle.

In 2D mode, this 3DS game’s tremendous musical score switches, noticeably, from stereo to mono. An almost incidental touch, but one that illustrates the polish applied throughout.

Fans will also appreciate a move away from a linear path through the game. Zelda games usually dictate the player’s next move by bestowing Link with ability-expanding items one by one, but not so here.

Zelda: Link Between Worlds

Link’d in

Instead, Link can hire, and eventually buy, nearly every item – bombs, bow, hookshot, boomerang and more – from the game’s beginnings. It’s a small shift that at once puts the choice of where to explore next firmly in the player’s hands.

Perhaps the best way to recommend A Link Between Worlds is to say it’s the best top-down Zelda title since A Link to the Past on the SNES. Indeed, given the imagination on show and its surprising toughness, it’s probably better still. ®

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