50 best Nintendo 3DS games right now

Best Nintendo 3DS Games – #1 The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release Date: November 22nd, 2013

Synopsis: One day, as Link tries to run a simple errand for the blacksmith he serves, he gets caught up in a plot by the sorcerer Yuga to resurrect Gamon by capturing the Seven Sages and turning them all into paintings. Link inadvertently gains the ability to transform himself into a painting, too, and back again, enabling him to merge with walls, fit through small gaps, and move across flat surfaces to new areas. Link must free all seven sages by traveling back and forth between portals to and from Hyrule and Lorule and clearing dungeons full of traps and enemies in each world.

Series staples such as most of Link’s arsenal (bow and arrow, torch, and more) return, along with familiar enemies and locations from Link to the Past, but with the added 2D portions of gameplay and item rental from a squatter in a rabbit costume that adds a challenge to dungeon adventures.

Why It’s One Of The Best Nintendo Games: The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds is a brilliant homage to A Link to the Past, the game with which Link Between Worlds shares its setting. But it also stands on its own as a brilliant 3DS title. Nintendo’s puzzle design is spot-on as always, with the item rental system allowing a certain level of player agency regarding dungeon difficulty. Do you rent the bow and arrow to make the dungeon easier, or do things the hard way and save your rupees? Boss encounters (for the most part) presented a challenging test of your abilities picked up in the dungeon that boss guarded.

Link Between Worlds also presented a great balance between nostalgia for a world many players already knew well, while adding new secrets and pathways to keep players exploring and interested in what was around each corner, or behind each bombable cracked wall. In a world where Breath of the Wild exists, it seems impossible to love any “lesser” Zelda game. But Link Between Worlds represents the best and most modern take on the top-down Zelda design, and reminds us why it’s worthy of celebration alongside the bigger, open world adventure.