The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is one of the most underrated Zelda games

06.11.2023 - 18:57 / polygon.com

In the world ofThe Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap,the people of Hyrule live side by side with a hidden race of miniature beings called the Minish. Although some Hylians have heard tales of these tiny, gnome-like forest dwellers, few have seen them. When asked about his prior knowledge of the Minish, Link admits he’s never heard of them. “That’s so strange,” one Minish muses. “We Minish are all over the place!” Overlooked and forgotten, these little guys reflect the larger place of The Minish Cap itself in the Legend of Zelda pantheon. It’s an overlooked Zelda game bursting with charm, replete with clever puzzles, and a firm grip on excellent pacing. It’s an underrated gem of the Legend of Zelda series.

Nintendo releasedThe Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on Game Boy Advance stateside in 2005. I’ve been replaying it on Switch through the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack catalog. In this adventure, Link meets the titular talking hat, Ezlo, who grants him the power to shrink down to the size of a pea. As you play, Link can use specially designated objects, like a tree stump, to shrink or grow back to his regular size. Instead of teleporting back and forth between light and dark worlds, the parallel land of Minish Cap is one hidden in plain sight. The Minish community makes its homes among the spines of books, spools of thread, and the diagrams of a shoemaker.

This Alice in Wonderland-esque dichotomy between big and small allowed the developers to conjure up a sensorial and vivid world. The first time Link shrinks down to his miniature size, he walks through a tranquil clearing in the woods. As he takes his first steps as a small creature, he walks amid giant acorns while beams of sunshine peek through the leaves above. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun against his skin, as we take in the splendor of the forest floor. At another point, Link shrinks down during a storm. The raindrops, which beat down furiously at Link at normal size, now pose an even greater threat. Each plop of water lands with an almost thunderous boom and damages Link if he gets too close.

Developer Capcom strikes a cartoony style with its environments and characters. This Link appears to take influence from the hero’s design in The Wind Waker, with a similarly bumbling demeanor. You can almost see him grit his teeth as he cautiously glides through the air; his eyes bulge as he rides a minecart. When he sleeps in a bed, you’re treated to a small animation where he removes Ezlo and tucks the sentient hat into bed next to him. Other NPCs, like the sword master Swiftblade, have the goofiest lines; he fully narrates the sounds of swinging your sword around and instructs Link to shout “Hiyaa!” to successfully pull off an