The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
I don't have a N3DS, I played it using Citra.
This Zelda is almost a recreation of A link to the past. Pretty much the same enemies, bosses and locations. I didn't complete everything.
Everything in this game is pure awesomeness. The soundtrack rearranged the same tunes from A link to the past in orchestrated versions. Drawings, art, items. All are excellent. The only downside for me is the non linear design nature of this game. The dungeons can be completed in any order and you have access to all the weapons and skills from the beginning of the game. This way you don't have a clear curve where challenges are presented in a crescent order of difficulty. This is why I don't give this game a perfect score.
All dungeons and bosses are creative. The second screen with a map is very helpful. The move from stock ammo to unified stamina that all special items and weapons spend makes the game much more friendly. The stamina bar self replenishes over time, negating the need to carry potions as in RPG games. The power to merge onto walls is one of the most genius mechanics ever created. It adds a Z axis to the gameplay without giving the character the ability to jump. It must've been really hard to design levels with that mechanic in mind because I could clearly see that barriers were placed precisely where they didn't want the player to bypass obstacles.
This game is a masterclass in game design, boss design, character design, puzzle design and soundtrack design. This game has great accessibility because even if you can't read a thing you can still grasp the mechanics with pure visual information. In hindsight this is where I think Trine 2 has failed. Trine 2 had too many skills available per puzzle and this makes the game more confusing and harder to balance. In Zelda each puzzle is limited to 2 skills at a time. For ex: to melt ice with fire and merge onto walls. Only in the last dungeon they made the levels harder by requiring more than two skills at a time. For ex: you can cross the lava with both ice or the hook. Tomb Raider 2013 had this same principle of limiting each puzzle in each tomb to no more than two skills at a time.
Trivia: I did notice some Mario Kart references. One is the coin pick up sound. The other is the colorful prisms on top of walls in the Dark Palace.
