Legend of Zelda, The - A Link Between Worlds (USA)
Nintendo 3DS
🇬🇧🇪🇸🇫🇷
Reviewed in 2013
92
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✪ Reviewed on June 25, 2024
88
A Link Between Worlds on 3DS is an absolute masterpiece. Link can merge with walls as a 2D painting in A Link to the Past's Hyrule. Revolutionary mechanics, total exploration freedom. A video game monument.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player7+
Description
Link discovers the power to merge into walls and explores Hyrule and its mirror world Lorule to save the Sages captured by the painter Yuga. Published by Nintendo, released in Europe in November 2013. Wall-merging to navigate obstacles and access areas, free rental of all items from the start. Multilingual version.
Legend of Zelda, The - A Link Between Worlds review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Hyrule of old resurrected in 3D depth, where Link can melt into the walls like a living fresco. Shimmering colours, readable settings and stereoscopic depth reinvent a mythical top-down view. This luminous reinterpretation, at once nostalgic and modern, enchants through its joyful clarity.
Re-orchestrating the themes of A Link to the Past with pomp, Ryo Nagamatsu brings Hyrule back to life and unveils the dark mirror of Lorule. Broad strings and heroic brass elevate the exploration, between nostalgia and rediscovered grandeur. This symphonic reworking, faithful and inspired, ranks among the finest in the series.
Gameplay
"Masterful"
Melting into the walls to slide along them like a fresco: this stroke of genius upends the whole logic of exploration and feeds puzzles of remarkable finesse. The freedom to tackle the dungeons in any order brings a modern breath to a formula inherited from the classics. Crystal-clear, clever and perfectly paced, it remains a peak of handheld adventure.
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Merging into walls to slide along them like a fresco, renting your items to tackle dungeons in any order you like: this rediscovered freedom breathes fresh air into the top-down adventure. Exploration rewards curiosity on every screen, and the puzzles remain a treat of ingenuity. Brisk, clever and deeply satisfying.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Merging into walls to slip past puzzles, freely renting or buying your items and clearing dungeons in any order sets up an adventure where each room cleared calls for the next. The hunt for seashells and upgrades extends the exploration. The pace is brisk, and this freedom of progression reinvents a classic with an immediate grip.
The NTSC release of A Link Between Worlds had a strong initial print, but collector interest focuses on sub-variants: first pressing without the Nintendo Selects banner, copies bundled with the Hyrule Historia pre-order card or the e-Shop booklet. The game itself enjoys recognised classic status among US players, sustaining demand independent of trend cycles.
Is Legend of Zelda, The - A Link Between Worlds still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2013 on 3DS, Nintendo's project is a direct sequel to A Link to the Past that reinvents the classic top down formula with a brilliant idea, Link's ability to merge into walls as a painting to bypass obstacles. The item rental, which frees the order of dungeon exploration, offers a new and welcome freedom. The nervous pace, the ingenuity of the puzzles and the colourful art direction make for an adventure of great freshness. The relative easiness divides veterans. A peak of classic Zelda, recommended for any fan of action adventure and of elegant puzzles.
