The gameplay is 10/10, probably the best I've played this year, I am such a sucker for these quick twitch combat and/or platformer games, and this scratches the itch finishing Ghostrunner left hard (which scratched the itch from cluster truck hard). It's complex in its simplicity, there are only four controls but so many combinations of them and so many ways they're used and it all moves at a million miles an hour, the art design is recognisable yet utilitarian; being simple enough to not be distracting and making it easy to distinguish enemies and items when at high speeds.

So, why 4.5 stars? The story. The dialogue in this game is genuinely awful, the characters are bland and flat, about halfway through the game I couldn't take it anymore and just started skipping the cutscenes.

But if you ignore the story and cutscenes this could be one of the best games of the year, even in the afformentioned Ghostrunner and Cluster Truck, or similar games like Hotline Miami, I never bothered to get the high scores on every level, but in this game I refused to go to the next stage before getting the gold on every. Single. Level. It's fun, addictive and perfectly fair and balanced.

Instant recommendation, must play.

Ok negatives first:
So I didn't feel the sense of scale here the same way as in some of my favorite titles from the series, outside of the big battles with evil pac man there is never that feeling of going on an epic odyssey that you get from games like BOTW or Wind Waker, but that's really just a 'vibes' qualm.
A personal problem is that I just don't like motion controls, there were times where I forgot I don't like them here, and the precision sword fighting felt really fresh and different, but I'd be lying if I told you there weren't times where I saw an enemy and got sad because I knew I'd have to put in effort. This game feels like it's being crippled by some inherent and unavoidable jankiness that really drags the gameplay experience down kicking and screaming. It raises up the combat to a pretty unique place but every other element of gameplay either feels lesser than it's predeccessors or sadly sticking to the zelda formula, which I will talk more on shortly.
Despite it's cool combat though, and my biggest problem with the game, is that it doesn't feel like it does anything unique outside of some minor control quirks, it feels like it does very little to progress the series in a franchise where every game has felt like a total reinvention. Even Twilight Princess, which I myself said felt like they were just trying to make Ocarina 2, felt like it really shook things up; outside of a few minor things this feels like it's trying to just fit into the 'legend of zelda' box and sit there comfortably. There were times whilst playing where I thought to myself "this feels like the primary development philosophy was 'how can we make this feel like a zelda game'" which I haven't got from any other titles in this series. And sadly, even when replicating the zelda formula it stumbles. There are things this game uses to try and structure itself, being easily one of the most linear titles out of the 3D zelda offering, but it continuously feels lopsised and disjointed. The evil pac man encounters feel far too scripted and not like a real threat, the dungeons are different lengths and scattered in a strange order, in general this game flounders with both it's controls and structure.

But, of course, there's a caveat to all of this, what I just said seems like a scathing, positively scathing review of this game, but you have to understand that these points are only taking this game in comparison to other Zelda titles. There are no truly bad games in this series and this is no exception. In fact, I can see myself replaying this in a few years now that I know what to expect; and so:

Let's talk positives;
The story was engrossing and compelling, it's not the best the series has to offer but it's got a lot of great characters (groose is a highlight), and Zelda's place in the story is interesting, I just wish she was there more. Moreover, I absolutely loved Ghirahim, he's a lot of fun and feels like a refined version of what Zant became when they decided to actually make him a character in the last third of Twilight Princess. Sadly, unlike twilight princess, zant is clear throughout that he is working for Ganon whereas here it's treated almost as a terrible surprise.
Also good is the watercolor-inspired art design, it's bright and recognisable and, whilst I wish there was more to look at in some areas, really makes the game pop. This is present nowhere more than the time crystals, which perfectly intersect art design and gameplay by allowing for hugely imaginative puzzles and encounters, and whenever I had to use one it was a joy.
Whilst I think the overall structure of the game was poor, the internal structure of each section felt great, and progression within them was always perfectly met and countered.
The beetle; the only major new item addition and it's a doozy, I love me a game that gives you a little drone and this is no exception. Dropping bombs on enemies, cutting spider webs and hitting time crystals was always satisfying, even using it to just grab rupees was a joy.
Production quality; from the cutscenes to every single gameplay section there was a more consistent level of production quality here than I've seen in maybe any other game ever, there's no bad skyboxes, no filler areas, no exposition not worth animating. It's a little thing but it shows a lot of care.
Motion controls; I know I said i don't like motion controls, and I don't, but it'd be dishonest of me not to give props to how well-realised these ones are, even if they are far too pervasive for me.
The combat; Yes, I'm saying it again, I love the combat here, it's not super complex or 'deep' (depending on your definition) but it's compelling and you really have to think at times. I wish every game in this series had combat this engaging.
And Groose; what a fun little guy, these games need better tertiary characters because Groose is now the bar I will judge them by.

Overall this is a great looking game with a great combat system and not much else to offer, missing the handhold just one rung short of being great.

I just finished a 5 hour trial and... I won't be playing more. I left the first game thinking 'that was really well made but it feels more like a starting-off point, I think they can really knock it out next time by refining everything'.

Sadly it seems that they've not only focused on the lacklustre story, but haven't made enough meaningful changes to the gameplay to make this truly feel like anything more than 'more of the same'.
I wanted to see more of the interesting visuals of this world but they doubled down on the most generic parts (at least the raptor and weasel robot designs are great), and overall I'm leaving this feeling sad that they clearly thought what they had with the first game was as good as it's gonna get.

Honestly could become one of my favorite 2D zelda game, it's easily my favorite Zelda on a GameBoy system, it's got charming and well-realised art and animation, the central mechanic is well realised and leads to some really cool gameplay opportunities, especially in boss fights. The dungeons are varied and interesting, and it has a perfect translation of the UI/UX of the big console experiences to a smaller and less powerful system. Also, the biggest surprise was the charming writing, after way too much dialogue at the start it gets really charming and genuinely funny.

So I wanted to rate this 3 stars, as I feel this is a 6/10 game, but I added another to make it really clear that it's only that rating in relation to the fact this is a Zelda game. Because this is a pretty good game, it's just a shame that you can take direct comparison to both Spirit Tracks and Wind Waker, two of the best games in the entire franchise.

I do have personal and genuine qualms with this game, I think the world is uninteresting and the characters are generally dull (other than Linebeck), the repetative and boring dungeons that require backtracking to reach too often, and way too much of a reliance on touch controls (seriously I think there's two functions in this entire game attatched to buttons, and that's switching to map edit mode and.. pause), In fact I think this would play great, maybe even better on mobile (though something would be lost in boss fights).

The thing I couldn't get over though is the grating repetativeness in every aspect of gameplay and the fact that throughout the whole game I could not stop thinking about how this is just an objectively worse and more limited version of Wind Waker, a pale immitation, but not without merit.

I think over time my rating will go down to 6, but I'll keep it at 7 because I know for a fact I'm only being so harsh on it because it's in one of the most consistently outstanding gaming franchises of all time.

I started off playing this on the gamecube version but was convinced to switch to this because the QoL updates are too good to forego.

Holy sh*t? Like what? After I played Twilight Princess I was like 'there's no way Wind Waker can top that'. I was wrong, I'll admit it. This is everything I could want from a game. An open, vast world but with something to find in every nook and cranny, interesting puzzles that balance the difficulty well, fun combat and items that really elevate the gameplay, and you get a ship to take around this world; and weather it be space or sea I am a sucker for a ship, it's my oddly specific thing. Moreover, the story is pretty interesting! It's not quite on the level as Twilight Princess but it has easily the most interesting version of the King and the most engaging version of Ganon that I've seen in any of these games, and this is thanks not just to some great dialogue but some great cutscene animation, seriously Ganon is unhinged in this game and it's so refreshing.

This game is very much it's own thing whereas Twilight Princess' biggest weakness is in trying too hard to be Ocarina of Time.

Anyway, it's not perfect, The final segments of the game feel needless and tedious; collect however many pieces of the triforce by collecting maps to do lame mini-dungeons that mostly ammount to fighting five goblins then five slimes then wa-hoo you win. It's especially bad this late in the game when you already have uncovered most of the map so it's not like you can use this time to explore; it's already explored. It really drags down the experience right toward the end.

Luckily though it doesn't spoil the experience, this is amazing and I'm going to go and play Breath of the Wild right now.

There’s a ‘legend of Silent Hill’ joke here somewhere, with the dark alternate version of hyrule and the fact a lot of the soundtrack literally uses idential soundfonts to SH2.

When the game first started I wasn't into it, it's got a typical overly-long Zelda tutorial, the hylians look ugly and I've been told this is one of the worst in the series. At least it has Midna, but I will say, it's a shame that what might be the most interesting story in a Zelda game eventually just becomes 'beat Gannon' after not even featuring him (and making Zant a really cool and different villain, with a boss fight that feels like a perfect climax to the game) is disappointing, the first half of the game makes you collect bugs too much, and the fishing minigame makes me want to tear my eyes out, but other than those things, something started to become clear...

As the game went on I started getting surprised, not only does this game have some of the most interesting art design, even through some missteps (please don't make me look at the hylian kids) and the lack of colour, some of the most well-directed cutscenes and some of the most varied, richly featured and and epic-feeling gameplay in the entire franchise, and of course Midna. There was a moment about two thirds of the way in where I shot a guy off his horse, stunned him with the boomerang, turned into a wolf, finished him off, then stole his mount and got to where I was going, that I realised that I was having a GREAT time.

The thing that pulls it all together is the story, which I was surprised to find is actually really strong, in a Zelda game, a strong story, seriously let that sink in. It achieves this by making link a fleshed out character, yet still open enough to work as a self-insert, and then shifting the story halfway in to make the main character of the story Midna, who previously was just a smug na'vi that makes me feel strange things. Making Midna the protag and link the Mad Max character to help her reach the end of her journey is really smart and works really well.

The way I'm feeling right now, I've been totally blown away by this after expecting to find it straight-up bad, this could be one of my favorite Zelda games. The story, the scope of the world, the mechanical richness, and even a majority of the art design really stands out and is really something special. Also as a final note; Midna. Take from that what you will. This game is more likely an 8/10, but I'm giving it a 9/10 for now based purely on how much it's absolutely blasted by expectations out of the water.

Honestly I play so many light gun games on my PS3, at some point I should invest in that PS Move case that makes it into a little handgun (my birthday is next week if anyone is interested).

Honestly this is fun but this is the first time ever I've been actively distracted by a story in a LGG, why do they rewrite huge sections of the RE plot? Why did they do that to Nemesis? Is this canon? what's going on?? Nevertheless I'll be playing the sequel next, very curious to see what the story is as this kinda covers most of it.

It's only three hours or so long but this really blew me away. At first I was like 'oh cool, just a little challenge-based photography game', but as time went on I found myself so impressed by not only the aesthetic, but how fantastic it is at worldbuilding and creating a palpable and lived-in atmosphere. The look of this game is incredible and it always feels chill whilst still managing to be engaging. Yes this is still just a photography game, but it's one that really goes above and beyond with giving you something to photograph, a world full of stories and places that feel genuine whilst never leaving the amazing style of the game.

I really can't describe what it is about this game that works so well, but at some point during the second level I became hooked and played through the whole thing in one sitting.