A Link Between Worlds

Haven't done one of these in a while. 

I ended up getting LOZ: A Link between Worlds for Christmas and I've been playing it on and off since then. Kind of. In between Super Mario Brothers dream team and other things. 

So what's the game like? Well, it's basically a top-down Zelda game, which is something we haven't seen in a while. 

It's very very reminiscent of the old Link to the past game. The world map is basically the same and it's probably set somewhere further down that particular branch of the LoZ timeline. Zelda fans will get what I'm talking about while for the rest, it's just way too complicated to explain without dedicating one whole blogpost to it. 

So a new Link gets called to become the Hero of Courage once again. And to do that, he must go around collecting items so he can get the Master Sword, grab various items and destroy evil generally. LoZ is probably never going to break any new trails in story-writing so just enjoy the gameplay.

And how does the game play? Pretty decently. Sure, you don't have all the new 3D movements or dodging/rolling about you had in TP or WW or even OoT. Like every other Zelda game, it's a mix of adventure and puzzle solving. You hack and slash enemies when you need to; not because you must because there's no LVL system in the game, so really you're just killing them because they're in your way. And every dungeon is more like some sort of simple rubics cube that you have to solve in the proper manner and with the proper tools.

Ah yes,the tools... The staple of every Zelda game. You'll end up collecting a bunch of various tools in the course of the game and every plot dungeon will require you to have ONE of those tools to proceed. The non-plot dungeons are a lot more flexible in terms of what tools you need to complete it but the plot ones seem to require that one specific effect from that one specific tool. 

Not to mention there's the new walking between worlds mechanics. To be honest, I found that pretty interesting, especially since there are areas in each world that can only be accessed if you walk to the alternate world and then dimension-jump over to the other world. 

Overall, I'd rate this game pretty high. It was fun, if simplistic at times but it provides enough of an entertainment value that I would recommend getting it.Also bonus points for evil alternate dimension Zelda. Evil, hot, purple-haired alternate dimension Zelda...