06/09/2026
Wario World's review will be up today, but when writer's block struck, I began the NEXT review. I first played Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap soon after I turned 16, and I remember thinking, you know, it was alright. Short. It's been 21 years since I played it and I remember almost nothing besides how startled I was by how short the game was.
Well, I'm tearing through this f*cking thing. I've already beaten the second dungeon, and soon after this I completed two full heart piece cycles. It's one of the smallest-feeling Zelda games, and that's not a pun on the whole growing/shrinking thing. It legitimately feels small in ambition and scale. The overworld especially is very underwhelming. "Uh oh."
AND, I thought the first dungeon was a total bore and I became terrified that I'd end up pi***ng off Nintendo fanboys. (shrug) I think the first dungeon was TERRIBLE. Boring design. Gimmicky with the barrel but pathetic even for a tutorial dungeon. Baby's first 2D Zelda. "Oh no, everyone is going to be mad at me if this doesn't wake the f*ck up." It woke up. The second dungeon isn't a masterpiece or anything but I really enjoyed it the way I do most Zelda dungeons. I'm not sure what happened with Minish Cap but something feels horribly off. Is this really Zelda for children? I know Nintendo had all kinds of internal information that said GBA's audience skewed very young. Did they just go with it?
