Rejoice Legend of Zelda fans! The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is here for the Game Boy Advance and it is a first-rate Zelda adventure game that harkens back to the 2D origins of the series. There is little to say against this entertaining jaunt into the world of Hyrule and much to recommend it. This game may very well be the best adventure game to grace the GBA for the life of the platform.

This Zelda game follows the same pattern as most Zelda games: Princess Zelda is in danger and Link must save her. I swear that girl goes missing more often than my wife’s car keys. (I’m probably going to get in trouble for that comment.) At least this time Link doesn’t have to go looking for the damsel in distress. She’s right in front of him … just mobility challenged. In fact she has been turned to stone by an evil sorcerer named Vaati and can only be revived by collecting the elements needed to reforge the shattered magic sword originally given to the people of Hyrule by the Picori. Thus starts Link’s new quest.

Along the way Link will pick up an annoying talking hat named Ezlo that will feed him information and keep him on quest. He’ll also find out the secret of the Picori, or the Minish as they call themselves. There are also items to collect and detours that may be taken along the way. Overall, the story is engaging and should entertain anyone who enjoys a good adventure yarn in a fanciful realm.

In addition to the standard topside world to explore and the underground dungeons to crawl through, there is also the tiny world of the Minish, which Link learns to shrink himself down to the size of early in the game. This makes the world to explore rather extensive. At normal-size Link can travel from one border of Hyrule to the other very quickly. But when he shrinks down to the size of the Minish, as Ezlo said, “A mud puddle becomes like a bottomless swamp.”

All the action is controlled superbly. The simple controls for attacking, defending, using items and conversing with other characters could not be easier to pick up and play with. The puzzles are easily manipulated with basic control combinations, like holding the R button to grasp something and then dragging or pushing it in a direction with the directional cross.

Graphically The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is as good as we have ever seen on the GBA. Though a simple 2D presentation, the characters and backgrounds are well detailed and animate smoothly. Sound is every bit as good and has some great, non-annoying soundtrack music to offer. The repetitive, tinny music so often stuck into GBA games has been a pet peeve of mine for some time. The Minish Cap is refreshingly free of it. About the only nitpicking thing I can find wrong with the game is that it is so faithful to the early 2D Zelda games that it has the feeling of having been done before. But when the production values are taken into account and the freshness of the story considered, the complaint does not rise to the level of being worthy of docking a full point. So for Zelda fans everywhere who want some super Link-playing fun on the road, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is a must buy. For a real visual treat, pop it into a Nintendo DS and enjoy the game with true backlighting.