The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap | 
| From: Nintendo
List Price: $30.99
Buy Used: $7.95
You Save: $23.04 (74%)
New (3) Used (37) from $7.95
Rating:  93 reviews
Sales Rank: 871
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Game Boy Advance
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 5 x 4.8 x 1
MPN: agbp b zme
Model: 45496734909
UPC: 045496734909
EAN: 0045496734909
ASIN: B00030GS80
Release Date: January 11, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Challenging puzzles and a new set of enemies to add to the classic Octorocks, Tektites and more | | • | Story-driven action as you explore the Minish world, with animated cutscenes and interactive dialogues for dozens of characters | | • | As you play you'll collect Kinstones to uncover secrets - match them by face and they'll open up new points of the map, new characters and more |
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Product Description
The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap takes young Link into an all-new adventurewhere he'll explore Hyrule and battle evil on the microscopic level. An ancient magical sword releases the evil mage Vaati and he causes trouble all over Hyrule. Link has been sent to restore the sword and seal Vaati inside it -- but it can only be done by visiting the Minish people and getting their help. Linnk will have to shrink to do that - and the strange Minish Cap will be his guide in this new mirco-world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 88 more reviews...
Another great Zelda game... doesn't deserve 3 stars... January 16, 2005
David C (Fullerton, CA United States)
165 out of 167 found this review helpful
I can't believe the scores/reviews this game is receiving in Amazon. Bad graphics? Hard gameplay? not.... fun??? This does not make sense at all and I have to say.. some people just don't know how to play Legend of Zelda.
I got a copy of this game the day it was released and have been playing since then. It took me roughly 15-20 hours beating the whole game, including fusing all the kinstones, collecting all the hearts, and collecting all the figurines. First of all, Minish cap is a short and easy game compared to the other Zelda series. It normally takes me at least 30-40 gameovers to beat previous Zelda games (oracle of times/ages, link to the past) but this game took me only 3 gameovers to complete it. (Where 2 of them shouldn't have happened) The dungeons are fairly simple and short, whereas the field puzzles are quite complicated and time consuming. Monster battles didn't get easier but the one thing that lowered the game's difficulty is the amount of damage Link takes per hit. Usually in the previous games, one light hit costs Link half a heart but in Minish cap, weak hits will cost Link 1/4 a heart!
The boss battles are the weakest part of the game. They are VERY simple, having limited techinques are moves, where the player can easily catch it's moves and defeat it. While I was playing this game, I sort of missed the old Zelda days where I had to challenge to boss again and again until I finally beat it and the happiness and pride you gain from that doesn't exist in the Minish cap.
Next one is graphics. People keep saying this game has BAD graphics compared to XBOX or ps2 games.. which doesn't make any sense at all.. You can't compare XBOX and GBA people.. Maybe comparing this game to another recent release, like Kingdom Hearts, may be a better choice.
Anyways, the Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap's in game graphics have the most vibrant, colorful, and closely detailed visual features compared to ANY GBA game. When comparing his well detailed and precisely dotted graphics to other GBA games, nothing stands a chance at Minish cap. The graphics made me just smile throughout the whole game. Wonderful graphics just make me happy.
At last I want to talk about the special features in this game.. which are VERY addictive. The most well-knowned system is the Kinstone fusing system, where you find pieces of different shaped or colored kinstones and find the right person in the world to fuse it with. If you are successful to find a person(or an animal/object) who have the matching kinstone pieces, you can fuse them together and unlock treasures, new rooms, secret monsters or doors throughout the whole map. There are a total of 100 kinstones you can fuse and each one unlocks a secret. This fusing thing is really fun, because not everybody want to fuse their stones all the time. Some fuses when they WANT to, some fuse only one stone where some can fuse two, and People are scattered all over the whole map big AND small, so you would never stop moving busily around the map. Fusing IS good, because it can give so certain upgrades to your weapons such as the Magic boomerang, remote bombs or even bigger wallets.
The next cool feature is the figurine collection. You can trade off your mysterious shells for figurines. This figurines are just plain AWESOME. They are much like the 'trophies' in Super Smash Bros. Melee, giving you decriptions of characters you got while presenting a magnificent representation of that certain character. (the graphics just SHINES here. SHINES) You can get a total of 130 figurines.. and this collecting business is VERY addictive since these figurines are so darn tempting.
This is all I got to say.. Minish cap is just another GREAT Zelda game with obviously awesome graphics and improved gameplay. I would absolutely definitely recommend this game to Zelda fans, but those who don't like the puzzle solving, secret unlocking, figurine collecting, real-time monster bashing type of games should reconsider before buying.
 Another great Zelda game January 12, 2005
Bartender Sam (Alexandria, VA)
45 out of 70 found this review helpful
This game looks really good on the Gameboy Advance. It's nice to have a GBA original Zelda title no retread here. THis game reminds me very much of the Gameboy Color Orcana of time and Seasons games that came out years ago. If you enjoyed those games, like the puzzle type situation Link always gets in then you will love this installment.
Classic Zelda, With A New Twist January 15, 2005
GhostHelwig (Middle Of Nowhere)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
If you've played any previous Legend Of Zelda games, particularly any of the ones found only on various incarnations of the GameBoy (Oracle Of Ages/Seasons, Link's Awakening), then you already know much of what you need to in order to grasp the dynamics of this game. I didn't even bother to read more of the manual then the story part. Because really, the gameplay is as simple as it is brilliant - use your sword and different combinations of weapons or items to solve the many puzzles, defeat the enemies, and save the world, as well as a beautiful princess. On the GameBoy, you'll know the controls if you've played the other games; and even if you haven't, they are not hard to learn.
However, this game comes with a new twist; very early on, you acquire a companion, one who enables you to shrink to miniscule size. While this doesn't sound like much at first, the way it affects you & your surroundings is fascinating. I haven't gotten far enough in the game to give a well-rounded opinion of this new ability, but so far it adds a new dimension to gameplay that is hard to even describe. The first time you shrink down and walk through a forest that dwarfs you, only to find yourself on a path where the nuts you previously hacked easily away with your sword are now hanging high over your head, is such a strange, weird experience. You'll find yourself staring around in awe, much as though you yourself were stuck in the suddenly huge world with Link.
As for the graphics that accompany this journey - flawless. The colors are vivid, everything is a cute kind of lovely, as stunning as anything the GameBoy is capable of. The looks of Link, Zelda, & even the King of Hyrule are extremely reminiscent of how they appeared in The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker (available on the Nintendo GameCube). If you enjoyed - or even just didn't mind - the graphics in that game, then this one may be as pretty to you as it is to me.
All in all, I'd say if you enjoy Legend of Zelda games, then you'll enjoy this one. (And if you've never played Zelda before, then this game is not a bad place to start; any adventure fan will probably love it, and as with all Zelda games, the difficulty increases slowly as you go along, so you aren't immediately overwhelmed and frustrated.) Though if you are as big a fan as I am of Link's quests, then you probably already went out and bought it.
it rocks!!!!!!!!!!!! January 12, 2005
videogamemaster (The Great U S of A)
14 out of 21 found this review helpful
this game rocks, it has to be one of the most awesome games ever, i mean you can shrink down and walk under leaves and stuff. you can go in mushrooms and just about anything. this is a great game highly recomended.
The Minish Cap = Uber Awesomeness! January 30, 2005
Zephyr, game mage (In my own little world...)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
Hello peoples! I am here today to tell you of a most fabulous game that comes to you from Nintendo(Even though it's developped by Capcom). I am speaking of course of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Minish as in deminish, Get it? It's da Minish Cap yo! :D) AKA: ZTMC.
Ok, where to start... Where to start... Storyline. It's classic Zelda. As is customary in Zelda games, a long time ago there was a great darkness over the land, which was eventually beat by the great hero, and then they sealed the darkness inside a chest and every thing else we've come to know and love from our Zelda games.
Ok, now it's present day Hyrule, 'bout a thousand years after the evil was sealed away, as always every thousand years somethin' big happens. It's said in Hyrule that every thousand years (What'd I tell ya'?), a doorway between the world of the humans and the Minish (A race of tiny supposedly mythical wood-sprite-ish beings) opens, so every thousand years the inhabitants of Hyrule have a big festival to celebrate this ceremony. We start off at the begining of another festival, with of course everyone's favorite green-clad hyrulian hero, Link! But, this time there's one BIG change. When Link walks into view for the first time -GASP- HE'S HOODLESS!!! Yes, for the first half-hour or so of or adventure, Link has no hat. I know, it's terrible...
Umm... Sorry, rambled on a bit there... I'll get more to the chase now... Ok, evil wizard Vaati, breaks the seal on the chest, releasing the evil back upon the land. And as if that weren't enough, he then goes and petrifies Zelda (Who's Link's friend at the time) and then vanishes. ...Stupid Vaati... So the King (Zelda's father) sends the nearest kid (Because 1. the Minish only appear around kids and old King-y needs them to make the sacred sword so that he can get Zelda back, and 2. The nearest kid just HAPPENS to be Link.) and sends him off to find the Minish. Along the way, Link rescues Ezlo, who is basically the classic green Link-hat except alive and with a beak and eyes. Ezlo also allows Link to shrink down to the nearly micrscopic size of the Minish (You go from around 100 pixels to 5).
Ok, from what you read you probably think that I'm not a big fan of the story. Not true. I LOVE this story! It may be nearly the same thing we've heard in every Zelda game, but it still makes you gasp when you're supposed to and leaves you wanting more, and isn't that what a good story's all about?
Umm... My review is already huge and I only covered one thing... This is gonna take a while...
FINALLY MOVING ON!!!! Gameplay, the deciding factor for every game, and ZTMC doesn't dissapoint. The controls feel like you will Link to move somewhere, and he does. You'll get so involved in playing that you won't even realize what you're doing. Little quips from Ezlo don't interupt gameplay at all because most of them are funny or helpful! Link never moves too slow for the game to get boring, and there are plent of baddies to slice up along the way. The really fun thing about this though, is when you shrink down to Minish size and go into temples. Small enemies like Octoroks and Chuchus become towering behemoths, and you end up having a hard time fight bugs! The best parts of the game are the temples, puzzle bound and enemy-laiden, these will not dissapoint. Most temples are focused around the item that you find inside it's walls, the first for instance, uses the Gust Jar (Which is probably my favorite thing ever!), a blue jar that sucks in enemies, rocks, grass, you name it, to solve puzzles.
Now, if you've played any other Zelda game, you'll know that it's the items that shine. My two favorites in this one are the Mole Mitts (Gloves that let you dig, which is WAY more fun than it sounds, or should be), and the previously mentioned Gust Jar (Which is way too much fun!). Although you have to press start to change items, it doesn't interupt gameplay, it actually gives you a second to think if you're in the middle of a big battle. Speaking of big battles, let's move to the Bosses.
While the bosses aren't hard (If you're okay at the game and know what to watch for, all of them except for the final boss are a snap!), all of them are SO much fun! All of the bosses are pretty smart (Except for the whole, exposing their one weakness right when you can shoot it thing.), and the third and final ones will make your head hurt from trying to figure out how to hurt 'em.
Now, another important factor is grapics, of course. The graphics in this game are bright and colorful and everything moves along at such a smooth rate. I don't think that it would have been possible to do some of the funniest animations if it was on the GC, for instance, when you first meet Ezlo, he throws himself at Links head (Which made me laugh!) and squirms around as Link recovers. I don't see how they could have done that if the graphics were in 3-D.
Alas, amongst all the candypops and lollycanes (Wait...) there are a few problems. One: Although the map does provide you with a marker for where you go next, the game doesn't give you enough clues in some spots, sometumes making it really hard to find out what to do. And 2: The final boss doesn't give you an inch until you know EXACTLY what to do.
This doesn't bring the game down THAT much though, it actually gives you a great sense of accomplishment once you finally figure out what to do (Or, if you looked it up online like me! I didn't want to, it was just to confusing! ;( ) and the ending is one of the best EVER.
I have a couple favorite moments in the game, I was rolling on the ground laughing the first time I got into one of the mine carts in the second dungeon. The cart takes off at an alarmingly fast rate, and Link screams his head off. Then when it's over, Ezlo comes out a nd says: "Jumpin' jellyfish that was horrible!" Another of my favorite moments, is the first time you use the Mole Mitts, they're truly satisfying with the crunching sound you make, and for some odd reason, digging around is one of the most enjoyable things to do!
As I look back on ZTMC, I know that this is one of those games that years from now, I'll pop back into my GBA and still find a rewarding, funny, and just plain fun time.
This game really is a masterpiece. If you have a GBA and you don't have it, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!?!? Go buy it now! This is a must-have for all GBA owners.
I give it five out of five.
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