The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

 Game Boy Advance
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 481 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 437 out of 481
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 481
  3. Negative: 11 out of 481
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  1. RefinedInsights
    Aug 16, 2023
    9
    Better than most of the console Zelda Games, including Majoras Mask. I liked the dungeons, the story, and the gameplay. Next to A Link Between Worlds, this one is by far one of the best handheld Zelda games.
  2. RDM1414blue
    Jul 2, 2023
    9
    A solid game in the Zelda library and must play for Zelda fans. Minish Cap is full of puzzles, Secrets to find and mysterious shells to find. All the dungeons are different, fun to play and have different items needed to complete them. The boss battle at the end is a high point for me well designed like the rest of the game.
  3. JustinForgueims
    Jun 7, 2023
    6
    It seems a great Zelda game for the first hours but then slowly gets bad.
    It's super colour-ish, good soundtrack, not so bad story, quite creative with the gear and tools, even for a Zelda game.
    A bit more casual than most of the Zeldas. The use of the map for indicating important places is so well made. The difficulty curve is not too well balanced. With super easy parts and some    It seems a great Zelda game for the first hours but then slowly gets bad.
    It's super colour-ish, good soundtrack, not so bad story, quite creative with the gear and tools, even for a Zelda game.
    A bit more casual than most of the Zeldas. The use of the map for indicating important places is so well made.
    The difficulty curve is not too well balanced. With super easy parts and some enemies that you can barely hit.

    The main drawback maybe is the repetition.
    The minimizing feature is overused. It has a super long animation and the need to change from big to small several times in a row to complete the puzzles makes it boring.
    The game needs some extra features to avoid using the minimize that much.

    Then the figurines and kinstone fusions are super tedious. Figurines because there are so many and it's completely useless.
    There are also too many fusions and you need to backtrack a lot. Searching people that will only fuse at a certain moment of the game that you don't know. Then most of the fusion rewards is also useless so it will be better to have less and more worth of this.
    This two topics add a lot of grinding to a Zelda franchise that never relied on grinding.

    Finally adding post-end game content seems a good idea first, until you realize that you get useless trophies and gear that you'll not need anymore.    … Expand
  4. Yojimbo2015
    May 6, 2023
    8
    Another hugely playable arcade RPG with lovely graphics and fun puzzles that effortlessy draws you into its magical world. Easily one of the best RPGs on the Advance.
  5. GreenMenace
    May 5, 2023
    3
    Full disclosure, my first time playing this game was on NSO.

    In my book as a long time Zelda fan, Minish Cap beats out Oracle of Ages as the worst Zelda I've played. I can enjoy A Link to the Past or Oracle of Seasons even today. I think what made me dislike it so much were the graphics. I was frustrated because I had a hard time with the puzzle logic--sometimes you'd do supernatural    Full disclosure, my first time playing this game was on NSO.

    In my book as a long time Zelda fan, Minish Cap beats out Oracle of Ages as the worst Zelda I've played. I can enjoy A Link to the Past or Oracle of Seasons even today. I think what made me dislike it so much were the graphics. I was frustrated because I had a hard time with the puzzle logic--sometimes you'd do supernatural (albeit cool) things you'd never think of, and other times it was nigh impossible to tell height differences.

    The dungeons were a disappointment, but the bosses were fun. I liked the hat and shrinking to a different world was definitely cool. The Kinstones were an interesting addition that I may have been more interested in had I not felt the need to end the game as soon as possible. I do think there were too many--Kinstones as a whole limited exploration. I can see how my favorite entry of the franchise, Skyward Sword, was influenced by this game. In the end, lots of cool, creative ideas were put into this game. But it just wasn't fun for me.    … Expand
  6. greninjaX
    Apr 8, 2023
    10
    one of the best zelda games ever made. this tiny adventure brings massive enjoyment
  7. Dangusse
    Apr 4, 2023
    8
    the game has some frustrating roadblocks, and the pacing of kinstone interactions necessitate an added degree of backtracking that doesn't always feel fluid or organic compared to other zelda games. imo there are also a few issues with the control scheme due to the lack of buttons on the GBA. this makes the introductory experience in minish cap a bit strange, as it's really not athe game has some frustrating roadblocks, and the pacing of kinstone interactions necessitate an added degree of backtracking that doesn't always feel fluid or organic compared to other zelda games. imo there are also a few issues with the control scheme due to the lack of buttons on the GBA. this makes the introductory experience in minish cap a bit strange, as it's really not a conventional zelda title.

    there is also a lengthy trading sequence about halfway through the game which i did not personally enjoy at all and which required a walkthrough because many characters had to be talked to several times in a row in order to get a specific reaction from them, which is not normal for a zelda game. it's very easy to walk directly up to the solution, do the right thing, but have the game not quite accept your action yet, and that's a pretty serious flaw in this title.

    essentially, you can tell that capcom made this game, as they do not seem to fully understand every aspect of the game they are developing from the player's perspective. still, the game improves drastically from there forwards, with some very fun and challenging dungeons, silly npcs, and great boss battles. it also has some really great and colorful pixel graphics that still look good today, and while looking at it directly next to other GBA titles it's hard to disagree that the visuals have a superior degree of artistic polish, and graceful use of pixel art, compared to many gba titles that were still giving everything a thick black outline and struggling on how to deal with the resolution.

    it seems there are quite a few unique optional encounters in this game, which does give me a good feeling about a second attempt. finding out that i can't get the light arrows at all if i don't do [spoilers] was a pretty big letdown though, as from what i can see it may be a bit overpowered to get them that early in the game. still, i can't find precise info on how much more powerful they are, so i will have to try it a second time.

    regarding minish cap supposedly being shorter: you *can* beat the game very fast. at the same time, it's drastically longer than link's awakening and not much shorter than alttp. especially if you have a good memory of the game, you can beat almost any zelda game in one sitting. what's much more relevant is how much content is in the world, and there is a huge amount of it in minish cap. the overworld is small, but if you factor in all of the areas you explore as minish it is actually quite a bit larger.    … Expand
  8. Gugu2423
    Mar 15, 2023
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Great game love the boss and how we need to use most of the tools to beat it and how every boss was fresh.
    Finished 03/15/22    … Expand
  9. Xyldaz
    Feb 27, 2023
    10
    One of the very best of the series. The game is very impressive in its simplicity, as it seems to have understood the core of the Zelda franchise before its time. Aging very well, the game offers beautiful and diverse environnements, with an increasing but never too tough difficulty curve.
    Surely one of the easier games in the series, but that makes it probably the best entry point    One of the very best of the series. The game is very impressive in its simplicity, as it seems to have understood the core of the Zelda franchise before its time. Aging very well, the game offers beautiful and diverse environnements, with an increasing but never too tough difficulty curve.
    Surely one of the easier games in the series, but that makes it probably the best entry point together with Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. The charming world and innovative mechanics truly set this game apart from its predecessors on Game Boy.    … Expand
  10. Onioncreature
    Feb 20, 2023
    10
    Played this for the first time recently on the NSO service and was blown away. It's a fantastic title and I'd rank it highly among the series. The Minish Cap is in most ways appears to be a straight forward iteration of the structure of the 2D Zelda series, but it has an immense amount of charm and great game design which make it stand out. The mechanic of shrinking down to Minish sizePlayed this for the first time recently on the NSO service and was blown away. It's a fantastic title and I'd rank it highly among the series. The Minish Cap is in most ways appears to be a straight forward iteration of the structure of the 2D Zelda series, but it has an immense amount of charm and great game design which make it stand out. The mechanic of shrinking down to Minish size was really fun, and I loved seeing the spritework of objects at this scale. The spritework in general is some of the best on the GBA, and looks great throughout. I had only a few minor nitpicks, such as a lack of enemy variety in the late-game, but apart from that it was a perfect and highly engaging experience.… Expand
  11. giannis2001
    Sep 4, 2022
    9
    What I love about Zelda games is that they don't age. I recently played this game and it's amazing. The Minish mechanic is another original that gives new puzzles to solve and a new aspect of the overworld. Must play.
  12. Jobni
    Feb 14, 2023
    8
    It’s a nice game but not one of my favorites. I don't think it's particularly difficult and I don't think it takes long to complete the game. The only time I was a little bit challenged was against the final boss. But as always there is a good storyline and it’s fun to play.
  13. leosenra
    Jan 12, 2023
    9
    este jogo pode não ser um dos melhores da franquia, porem não fica atrás pois é um excelente game mesmo que tenha sido desenvolvido pela capcom e não pelo miyamoto. Cada templo nesse jogo e muito bem trabalhado e ideal para que não tome muito tempo do jogador e nem pouco tempo, o jogo pode ter uma curta duração mas cada minuto vale muito a pena.
  14. nelvin
    Nov 19, 2022
    8
    Minish cap has really good side quests and the kinstone are really cool.I like that it barely focuses on the story but it's boss fights dungeons are really good. The world and the characters aren't as good as the other 2d Zeldas and there are alot of cryptic bull **** that makes no sense
  15. DanielGG91
    Nov 15, 2022
    7
    Uno de los pocos Zelda de dispositivo portátil que he jugado y está muy bien, mantiene la esencia Zelda en todo momento.
  16. hector_bcn98
    Oct 31, 2022
    8
    Mazmorras de un alto nivel, no así el mundo exterior. La historia no es tan potente como nos tiene acostumbrados, se nota que no lo hizo totalmente Nintendo.
  17. joadson
    Jul 1, 2022
    10
    The best zelda for game boy advance with a very good story and new characters 10/10
  18. TSNintendogamer
    May 5, 2022
    9
    I love this game and it's one of the best games of all time. It may have a few flaws like it being too short or one particular part like the library book part being too criptic with the rest being pretty easy but other then that it's a great game. Me and my brother got the game when we were 11 years old and my brother beat it with the guides help but for me, I did it without theI love this game and it's one of the best games of all time. It may have a few flaws like it being too short or one particular part like the library book part being too criptic with the rest being pretty easy but other then that it's a great game. Me and my brother got the game when we were 11 years old and my brother beat it with the guides help but for me, I did it without the guide. I beat the game after my brother and it was a good experience and yes the game doesn't too much to innovate but if it aint broke, don't fix it. It borrowed alot from four swords but they really went all out with the engine. The graphics are very good to look at expecially if you're on a giant vine or when you're small. The vine part reminds me of when I was at tahoe and I was looked at the lake from afar when I was skiing. I would say the biggest problem with the game is that it's only 6 dungeons long but there is things to do between them.… Expand
  19. GitanoUrbano
    May 1, 2022
    10
    Es una aventura divertidisima llen de mecanicas originales donde las horas se te pasan volando
  20. Ironrulo
    Jan 11, 2022
    9
    Buen game play, visualmente hermoso, buena dificultad y buena música, sin duda un ejemplo de cómo tener tu fórmula clásica pero más vistosa.
  21. Felozity
    Dec 8, 2021
    10
    First Zelda I played and one of the first games i had as child on my gba. So many memories
  22. JoeyPL5
    Nov 16, 2021
    9
    I'm jealous of people who got to play this as a kid. I thought it was incredible as an adult, 17 years after it was released, so I can only imagine playing it as a kid when it came out.
  23. ylnylmn
    Oct 4, 2021
    9
    The game was very fun. I tried to do all the sidequests etc. I'm probably 95% done. There are many things to do in the game. Collecting shells, learning various sword techniques, I learned all the techniques and the game became incredibly fun. Especially searching and fusing Kinstones was my favorite thing in the game. I spent a lot of time in Hyrule town because it is constantly changingThe game was very fun. I tried to do all the sidequests etc. I'm probably 95% done. There are many things to do in the game. Collecting shells, learning various sword techniques, I learned all the techniques and the game became incredibly fun. Especially searching and fusing Kinstones was my favorite thing in the game. I spent a lot of time in Hyrule town because it is constantly changing and the town is so alive. Dungeons are easier than previous 2D zelda games. You can move forward without getting lost. Except for the last boss, other bosses are easy. Graphics are good. Story and characters are good. A nice zelda game where you can spend your time.… Expand
  24. konjakthesober
    Sep 23, 2021
    10
    It may be my favorite zelda because it is the one I played the most. It anyway one of the best games for the gameboy.
  25. Nachocagna
    Aug 25, 2021
    0
    es imposible pasarse este juego sin una guía, hay partes en la que es imposible saber a dónde ir en partes porque el juego no da indicios, ademas es inentendible porque el juego es fácil en su desarrollo pero al final se vuelve imposible de pasar. Curva de dificultad mala, imposible saber que hacer en partes y nada innovador. Muy mal juego.
  26. WhoDaDev
    Aug 6, 2021
    10
    This game is leagues better than Link to the Past. Honestly the best 2D Zelda so far, with Link between Worlds cutting pretty close to this one, although Kinstones kinda suck in 2021.
  27. Melon_man
    Aug 2, 2021
    8
    Great 2d Zelda. The shrinking mechanics add so much depth to areas such as Hyrule town. Using the kinstones is a pain though.
  28. 6oni
    Jun 21, 2021
    9
    They are not real puzzles, you are going to spin more than a spinning top, but the hero's journey runs through the tales of classical culture
  29. brawler795
    May 31, 2021
    9
    This game is such a classic. The world, mechanics, story, art etc all work so well. It is definitely worthy to be considered a sleeper top 5 Zelda game. My only real issue is how short the game is because everything about it had me wanting more. It's a game worth replaying time and time again to revisit the Minish, or to simply absorb the charm of the game once more.
  30. Ozzy01
    Jan 11, 2021
    10
    Its my first GBA and Zelda game. This game is just adorable. I still cant understand why this game is 89.
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best Game Boy Advance Game of 2005
2
#2 Most Discussed Game Boy Advance Game of 2005
2
#2 Most Shared Game Boy Advance Game of 2005

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 56
  3. Negative: 0 out of 56
  1. GBA Central
    100
    The game may be short by the franchise's standards, but every minute of it is breathtaking.
    Read full review
  2. NTSC-uk
    90
    Thankfully, longevity hasn't been sacrificed for the sake of beauty: the main quest alone will take the average gamer a minimum of fifteen hours and that's without spending a single moment delving into the fabulous subquests, which will double, even triple that time...A stunning and wondrous game.
    Read full review
  3. GMR Magazine
    90
    Outside of a slightly boring midgame stretch in which you're tracking down overdue library books (no, really) and an overly tough final boss, this is a flawless portable adventure. [Feb 2005, p.91]
See all critic reviews »