The Minish Cap

The Minish Cap is a Zelda game for the Game Boy Advance. It is easily the brightest and cheeriest Zelda in the franchise, with a plot centered around little helper elves (called the Minish) that use their magic to help everyone.

If you’ve played Skyward Sword, you’ve seen the Digging Mitts and the Gust Bellows. Both of those debuted in the Minish Cap and they are wonderful. All of the items in Minish Cap have so much general use that it really feels great whenever you get anything.

One of the main things you can do in Minish Cap is shrink down so you can interact with all the Minish. This creates lots of silly puzzles with trying to help everyone out in town or dealing with giant enemies.

Another major mechanic is the kinstones. Basically you find kinstones everywhere and then can fuse them with NPCs. That will open a path, drain a pond, or create a golden enemy or something essentially opening up a nook to look at. I was skeptical of this system at first but I loved it. Gives extra value to all these weirdo NPCs, and it’s genuinely exciting to see what you’re going to find. I would love to see this used in future installments, but it may only work in the cheery world of The Minish Cap.

The Dungeons in this game are very cool and well-designed, with a lot of the overworld with similar tight design space.

The Minish Cap was way better than I was expecting and I had a ton of fun with it. I definitely put it up there with Link’s Awakening. Excellent Zelda game.