The Incredible History of Handheld Zelda Games | Link's Most Imaginative Adventures Yet

foreign [Music] used to provide unique worlds and experiences that you simply couldn't get anywhere else nowadays there's a much bigger push to Simply take the games that you play on the big screen on a monitor whatever that console may be and take them on the go which is great oh in portable systems like the Game Boy The Game Gear PSP they're all trying to build up their great exclusive libraries alongside the home consoles it really brought on this large lineup of games from recognizable franchises that were all uh different in a wide range of ways the reality is no matter how much you may have enjoyed a lot of these games it was very clear that the big companies were saving all of the big money for the next big console release while the handheld releases were all uniquely experimental in regards to mechanics overall budget even who developed it Ratchet and Clank on PSP was not made by Insomniac like the main game's word the Mario and Luigi series showed a side of this franchise that you couldn't get on console and boy we got some Jank ass Sonic games on The Game Gear boy like Sonic Blast oh my God and hell sometimes you would even get the inverse with handheld Pokemon being the main thing while the consoles got it exclusively uh weird stuff like God Pokemon channel that was that was a weird piece of software right there point being handheld gaming and console gaming despite how some companies are trying to Market them we're two totally different worlds up until like the switch in the steam deck decided to show up and change the entire game I guess literally and of course today we're talking about the Legend of Zelda you know for the majority of this series Life a lot of people were making the arguments that these games were just too similar to each other from Ocarina to Wind Waker to Skyward Sword doesn't matter say whichever one you want they were far too derivative and Nintendo can't make an original Zelda game to save their lives I think that was often said by people who just simply like to complain but it is what it is on the handheld though that couldn't be any further from the truth assuming the switch's console handheld hybrid idea is here to stay then we can officially cap off the portable Zelda lineup at 7 games at least one per console generation of course this is simply referring to the proper Adventures here now like the classic NES series ports of Zelda 1 and 2 those are pretty self-explanatory uh there's Hyrule Warriors that got a 3DS port for some reason always forget Legends exists can't forget about Game and Watch Zelda conveniently ported to Game and Watch Gallery 4. that's nice you know game preservation and all that of course there's the game Watch Zelda not to be confused with the Game and Watch Zelda this is simply game watch Zelda what you didn't know about this oh my God you fake fan also not to be confused with the newer Game and Watch Zelda giving us the worst way to play a few classic Zelda games and also Vermin for some reason there's the link to the past GBA Port that features a handful of changes and even a brand new side quest and dungeon that's pretty cool of course there's both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for the 3DS which feature a ton of changes so much so that people prefer the 64 Majora's Mask to the 3DS one I am not that person but hey they still exist and therefore they're pretty cool but are they cooler than my Nintendo pick Ross colon The Legend of Zelda colon Twilight Princess for the Nintendo 3DS exclusive from the my Nintendo service I did not think so certainly not as cool as that time Nintendo put a Twilight Princess trailer on a DS cartridge for E3 2005 that currently goes for oh Jesus Christ all I'm trying to say here is that portable Zelda and Home console Zelda were two very different things that just so happened to have a lot of elements overlapping yes the console games were changing things up visually with each installment and each one is great in its own right but it was on the handhelds where almost every single Adventure was created to be different than the last as for the multiplayer games like four Swords and Triforce Heroes as well as those weird ass tingle games for the DS well stay tuned those games are going to get their time to shine in the future just be patient I got a lot of my plate for this one video as it is so today I want to show some appreciation for some of the Zelda games that really helps to find Nintendo's handheld Legacy all right listen I know this is on Console it is a remake but it is a console game and some of these games are getting released digitally on the Nintendo switch online app so what makes a handheld game anymore like I get it you know exactly what I'm trying to get at here and naturally there is no better place to start than the very beginning the Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls oh what I'm sorry were you expecting something else I'll never miss an opportunity to talk about frog game many people do know this story by now but let's quickly jump forward to Link's Awakening A game that breaks many conventions of the typical Zelda format including a bunch of references to other Nintendo characters Yoshi Dr Wright from SimCity and even Kirby man hell yeah dude there he is but of course part way through your adventure there's that one house featuring a character named Prince Richard surrounded by a bunch of frogs with a unique theme song to accompany him it's not like Richard has much to do with the plot he tells you to gather some items from the castle nearby and after doing so Richard will give you a dungeon key and then you move on that's about it and alas Richard was not an original character he's from this game boy game that never left Japan thank God for fan translations man now the game is readily accessible and it is so worth it the kicker is before playing it I thought Richard was the main character but uh no he's not the main character of this game it's that random assist trophy little guy in Smash that can turn into a frog and a snake that's the main character Prince Sable that unique and Abstract narrative with a quirky sense of humor that really helped links a Game Boy debut Stand Out is in full force here in frog game it's just a lot easier to say frog game imma be honest with you I mean it's a plot that has you being cursed so that if you fall into water you turn into a frog I figure the whole part about this game having a unique narrative is pretty obvious in general though it is a pretty simple story about needing to save Princess Tiramisu and the story has you traveling through different towns defeating many enemies with uh quote unquote combat which is really just you going into this big old dust cloud and hoping you do more damage than your enemy does it is exactly how the assist trophy handle things and that is amazing actually and also a whole lot of side-scrolling platforming yeah the top down stuff is pretty zelda-like and that it's a lot of exploration and learning what paths to take and what not to take but the plentiful Dungeons and caves in this adventure are actually all platforming based and it feels surprisingly solid all these years later this is a really fun game to play it doesn't feel like it's dated in the slightest but while the main mechanics in this game are definitely sound it's all about what exactly you're doing like eventually you free a woolly mammoth and you have to take it down that's for some reason I don't know I just think that's funny and this is hours after you take a boat ride to an island to visit nantendo headquarters to get help from a scientist that will only trust you if you also like sushi with a lot of Wasabi dude I I am so happy this fan translation exists man God and the music is incredible too like the main theme song when you're exploring the Overworld it's so damn good listen this isn't an adventure that is as open and sprawling as a typical Zelda game it's mostly a pretty linear Affair but knowing how different of a Vibe the Game Boy Zelda games would have in the years to follow and to know that that influence started here it's really cool to see that this is an adventure that stands out on its own and it's still a ton of fun not many Game Boy games have held up over time but easily this game does and it will never not be a damn shame that Nintendo did not localize us back in the day and yet they published stupid Mickey Mouse magic wands God I'm mad now the origins of the handheld Zelda lineup starting off with a different project that is totally independent with frog game is actually very similar to how the Mario and Luigi series started with a different project as well with tomato adventure and I can't speak for everybody here but something about seeing where these series Roots really started from with a fully fleshed out game that's really good I think that's really cool uh frog game highly highly recommended of all the handheld Zelda Adventures out there Link's Awakening is easily the one with the strongest reputation not just for being a new entry in the series but this time on the game boy ooh it's as I mentioned before this adventure lacks many of the core ideals that this franchise was built upon granted this is only the fourth game in said franchise the second of which was already a very weird one but still here we have link waking up on the Mysterious coholland Island after a shipwreck and we have a ton of secrets to be uncovered in this weird new place and while a lot of the core gameplay did remain similar you know you get your sword you'll go through dungeons you'll find familiar enemies etc etc the world that you inhabit and the characters within could not be more different there's no Triforce there's no Ganon and weirdest of all no Zelda you do still get items to help you out along the way but for the first time ever you can have a Loadout where neither button option is your sword granted this is more so due to button limitations than them wanting to actually go about this way but hey it led to some new puzzle opportunities like combining your dash with the jump for some high-speed platforming which is extra helpful for the many side-scrolling sections injecting a little bit of Zelda 2 into a more traditional top down Zelda format there's also this level of self-awareness with the Villagers too like there are these two kids playing catch that tell you how to save the game but for also saying that they don't even know what that means you'll find this father in his house who will warn you that he will be lost later on in the game and sure enough he is this thing like okay so that like there's this weird little Wiggly enemy you know his name is Kook Man by the way found that out that will zap you if you slash it and when you do it'll say a comment like it can display millions of polygons yo what the you can steal an item from the village shop if you want to all you gotta do is uh grab the item and spin around a few times and then when he's not looking boom you're gone but the thing is if you do the next time you walk in the shopkeeper will kill you and then your save file will permanently be labeled as Thief that is amazing and that doesn't even include all the Nintendo references that I mentioned earlier like dude Kirby's here man of course this game is great oh sorry his name is anti-kirby ooh whatever still Perfection dude like wart is in this game and he sings to you it's crazy coholent island is easily the wildest World link has ever explored especially once the story really starts to unfold you see the only way for link to escape is to gather all of these magical instruments from The Dungeons and wake the wind fish on top of the Island's tallest mountain however it is slowly revealed to you as you're defeating the bosses that doing so will allegedly cause the island to disappear as well as all of the inhabitants it really makes for this interesting dichotomy where the world has some of the most charm elements in the entire series but the quest is all about working towards a goal that will eliminate all of it and I'm sorry I took Marin out on a date and watched her sing The Ballad of the wind fish in front of a bunch of little animals in their own little animal Village I want to be with her for the rest of my life but that is realistically all window dressing for this adventure when you really boil this game down to just the gameplay then uh yeah bits it's a top-down Zelda game alright traversal does hit pretty different once you get the Rock's feather and then you can jump and that's really cool but otherwise exploring the world figuring out where your next destination is going off the beaten path for some heart pieces or other items it's pretty standard stuff my only main issue here is that sometimes the path to progression is a bit too obscure like the game does do a decent job pointing you in the right direction but I would be lying if I said I didn't have to pull up a guide once or twice for some really true proper guidance but maybe I'm just an idiot I don't know I sometimes keep forgetting that alrira is right there ready to direct me whenever you run into a phone booth he's always ready to go and I forget to use him also did you know that alvira's house is actually shaped like a phone yo that's crazy although one major problem if I ever see an acorn ever again I will go on a rampage you know what I take it back the worst thing about this game is easily the stupid acorns like you get one of these things and it gives you an attack bonus until you take enough damage and then it goes away and that's all fine and good more attack hooray but they show up so often and whenever you touch one it plays this stupid Jingle the entire time overlapping the rest of the game's great music I see one I feel fear it blocks my pathway sometimes and I want to die and then I have to touch it in order to progress and then I hear the kill me in terms of General quality of life though there are things that the switch version definitely handles better the sword shield and dash abilities are all permanently active making item management so much easier since it's less time pausing the game over and over again to change things out Overworld exploration is no longer consistently having single screens that scroll by it really helps with the game's flow and the map is a lot easier to decipher specific landmarks I like that a whole lot because once again I'm an idiot there are some performance issues here and there which is very strange but even still the switch version in my opinion is the way to go here but it is still nice to go back and appreciate what they managed to accomplish on the Game Boy something that is lost and definitely missed and the switch version is the photo Quest where you can do certain things and go to specific places to activate these cute little photo opportunities that you can print out with the Game Boy printer because oh man that thing actually exists instead in the remake we got a dungeon maker which yeah yeah it's cut it's kind of lame to be honest but regardless whether on Game Boy Color or switch Link's Awakening is a great and Unforgettable Legend of Zelda Adventure just without the Zelda part and it is a great beginning for what is to come in the future just don't even bother with the original game boy version like yeah it's neat it's fine seeing the game with only four colors ooh it's so cool but the DX version is objectively better and features a whole new dungeon based on color let's not pretend like the original version is still worth it okay still good but come on now wow a good Zelda game what are the odds of that despite how different links awaken ing as at the time of release it really what's to come after that is far more compelling in my opinion because while that original game was made in-house at Nintendo that's really cool the next three games were developed by Capcom I know we've all come to accept that but still a very weird thing the Oracle of Ages and the Oracle of Seasons many people discuss these games as if they're simply two halves of a single adventure and honestly that always does these games a really big disservice like whenever people would rank his Zelda games and they would put these two in the same spot like no what are you doing sure Nintendo did go for the same two versions simultaneous release idea that Pokemon did which was two versions of the same game but the beauty of the Oracle games is that they are two completely independent Adventures each with a different main focus ages being puzzles and Seasons being combat the kicker is they do just so happen to have a really cool gimmick where you get a specific code after beating whichever game you play first that you can input at the start of the second Adventure that will not only include a big final boss an extra ending but also throw in a bunch of characters that reference your first adventure and will even provide additional codes to swap between games to unlock item items in both games that's this is wild man this is like some stop and swap from Banjo Kazooie like Tech but actually in a final product for this playthrough I started with ages first it's higher up in the alphabet I figured why not that's good enough of a reason in this story link has been transported by the power of the Triforce to the world of lebruna and before long it turns out that impa who had helped bring you to the Oracle of Ages nehru was taken over by the evil Veron and once thrown aside nehru is taken away for No Doubt nefarious purposes and uh once again no Zelda here that's kinda that's kind of that's kind of cool we're really committing to this and then yeah you go on a quest to save nehru makes sense one thing that's noticeable right off the bat is that this world feels a lot more populated with a wider range of people certainly not as wacky or out there as Link's Awakening was but still just within the first hour you get to explore the minds with people hard at work you get help from this giant sentient tree that has a crush on you that's that's weird but okay there's this baby that you can name early on in the adventure and watch it grow up over time I named mine blimp by the way look at him he's adorable he has my eyes and then later on look at that the gorons are here love those guys oh well Ralph is here too Andy rocks a diagonal belt buckle dude is crazy now contrast this with Seasons which has almost the same exact setup due to the power of the Triforce link gets transported to a new land this time Hollow drum and after a little bit of exploring you run into impa and the Oracle of this time Seasons DIN and then you're partying you're having a good time and hey the sky goes dark and a tornado steals the Oracle away and they are now held captive by the evil anox and then yeah you go on a quest to save din this time the world may be different but a lot of the same perks still apply plenty new characters like these cute little guys in the lava world of subrosia there's another big sentient tree to guide you this time one that doesn't have a massive crush on you at least I think so and since I played ages first I got to see adult blimp right from the very start look at him I'm so proud of him they grow up so fast and hey look at that the Zoras are in this one I love those guys too only downside uh no Ralph no uh no Ralph in sight spoilers I like ages a lot more than seasons for multiple reasons and this is primarily one of the reasons why that diagonal belt it goes really hard but don't get it twisted the premises of these Adventures are definitely very similar but the adventures as a whole they totally stand out on their own coming from Link's Awakening they are very much Cut From the Same Cloth were built on top of the same engine after all so things like customizing what both face buttons do that's still here but also progression between dungeons remains largely the same as well it is still a classic Zelda game after all but this time there's rideable mounts three of them dude at three different points in both games there are three animals that you can help out the dadongo Dimitri the flying bear Moosh and the punching kangaroo Ricky and after you help them you get to pick one to use at your command whenever you want and there are multiple sections of these worlds that require each of their abilities it is so awesome the only downside is yeah you only get to pick one and then once you do you can't call the other two that's kind of a shame I think it was to emphasize playing this game multiple times but I'm not gonna do that uh and it's okay it's not like there's a better choice than Ricky anyway I know this is going to lead to some fighting in the comments but listen the tried and true theory everyone's allowed to have their own opinion it's totally fine and also have you seen that video of the kangaroo trying to break into that guy's house I would much rather be a friend of a kangaroo than an enemy uh not gonna happen I'm making the right choice here Moosh is a beanbag chair who cares I made the right choice both games also share a very similar Overworld gimmick where you can transport yourself to a different form of the land that you're on when standing on specific pedestals and playing an instrument in ages you swap back and forth between past and present and in Seasons you swap between spring summer fall and winter and this is the primary source of interesting design for both labrina and holodrum learning which of the time periods or seasons is the key to progression and even though we only got two options in ages and four in Seasons the level of complexity is actually pretty identical labrena being time based allows for puzzles that are a little bit more nuanced you get to do things like talking to Goron ancestors to influence how their offspring will act in the present while Hollow drum being seasoned in the base allows for puzzles that are a little bit more simplistic like water being frozen when it's turned into winter and special flowers that are growing when it's turned into spring the seasonal changes lead to more visually distinct Aesthetics while personally speaking the time period changes lead to deeper and more interesting character interactions both are good they both have pros and cons and they're both good at the thing that the other game isn't they do complement each other really well yo at some point in ages there's this one Island where these little lizard people steal all of your gear and you have to go get it back this is prototype Eventide Island from breath of the wild and I will not be told differently tingle baby and the dungeons are also a major standout as I mentioned before ages is based on puzzles and seasons is based on combat and before playing these games for the first time I didn't really understand what that meant but quite frankly it really doesn't get much deeper than that the Dungeons and ages have many more instances of figuring out how the items that you get within are used to flip switches and open doors and whatnot the typical thing you would expect but just a whole lot more of it while the dungeons in seasons have many more rooms that are all about just throwing up a bunch of enemies at you and defeating them is what will open the door Aegis has the switch hook item that lets you swap places with certain blocks to pass over holes and Ledges and whatnot and seasons has the magnetic gloves to push and pull you away from different magnetic poles while also making the most annoying sound in the universe obviously Aegis still has combat and season still has puzzles so while these differences are apparent like these games as a whole they all still feel like proper fleshed out Dungeons and it all comes down to which style you prefer and yes to me I think the Aegis dungeons are some of the best in portable Zelda history The Dungeons and seasons are fine I could see if you really like the style of the combat in these games and you would definitely prefer seasons over ages totally makes sense but uh yeah for me puzzles all the way if anything though the most interesting thing about the Dungeons and seasons is that some of them are almost straight up Recreations of the maps from Zelda 1 on NES and even a heavy majority of the bosses are also from Zelda 1 with some also being from linked to the Past it's a ton of references and I'm a big fan it's funny The Story Goes there was supposed to be a third Oracle game to release alongside the two that actually did release which would feature for Roar as the Oracle and it was essentially supposed to be a full remake of the game that started it all but considering Seasons already has so much of that game's core DNA I wonder what that this game would have been like if a third Oracle game did release and what that Adventure would even provide at all that would set itself apart from the other two but I'm sure Nintendo realized that trying to link three separate games together would lead to headaches for gamers and every generation until the end of time so it was likely scrapped for good reason I mean if you really try to think about it what is another game that released with three versions simultaneously um Mega Man Star Force One you know it's bad if Star Force is the first thing to come to mind apparently during development what was initially proposed was a whopping six Zelda games for the Game Boy Color each of them releasing like four or five months apart and uh yeah yeah yeah you know what I'm I'm really happy that didn't happen a lot of conversation gets muddied with the oracle's duo due to how the two games relate to each other and honestly I really don't think I helped matters here but hey the bottom line is I think more people simply know what these games gimmicks are all about than actually having played them in my opinion it does not matter which of these two you start off with they are both incredibly well done Standalone adventures with a pretty unbeatable feeling during the second game talking about your first Quest that is uh that is that is so damn cool and hey if you do go the distance you even get to appreciate Zelda and Ganon showing up too yes Zelda is actually here but only after linking the games together that is quite the reward for me it's no contest the two Oracle games are the most underappreciated titles in this series and dude Capcom made these what's interesting is while Capcom is the logo at the game's boot up it's important to know that these games are actually worked on by a subsidiary of Capcom at the time Flagship a team that does have a few other titles under their belt for sure but most notably Kirby and the Amazing Mirror and Kirby Squeak Squad what me miss an opportunity to talk about Kirby yeah it's just kind of funny actually you see in Kirby's Squeak Squad one of the copy abilities that was introduced is animal where the main gimmick are your claws that you can not only use to slash enemies but also dig tile by tile in huge piles of dirt oh hey look at that The Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap the third and final Zelda game developed by Flagship and this time for the Game Boy Advance dude this game God this game is so good releasing years after the link to the past to GBA Port further finalizing the idea that this system was basically just a handheld Super Nintendo here comes the Minish Cap an entirely brand new adventure that plays similar to a link to the past but with a sweet shrinking down mechanic that really feels like we're approaching top-down Zelda Perfection here it's been 100 years since the tiny pcori descended from the skies to assist in ridding the evil spirits from the land of Hyrule by providing the pcori blade to a hero wearing green and this year we had a sword fighting tournament which was won by the mysterious vati who I I mean I mean yeah he's evil like you can't have a name like vati and not have bad intentions like you were born for this dude vati shatters the prakory blade and opens up the bound chest which had been sealed by the pcori blade unleashing evil monsters across the land and turns Princess Zelda to Stone just for good measure uh yeah now now it's time to go on a quest to save Zelda you knew this was coming but this time with a talking head it's the one thing this franchise had been missing up until this point and I hope in an alternate universe as low and Cappy are friends this is also yet another one of those games where Ganondorf doesn't make a single appearance I'm really loving this move to create new villains that try to stand out on their own instead of just ultimately being a servant again and like I really like this whole thing a lot like yeah the oracles did have Ganon in the ultimate ending but that's mostly twin Rove is doing and like the boss fight is pretty easy like a two minute thing he's an afterthought as far as I'm concerned and hell even in Link's Awakening with the final boss being this like weird Shadow nightmare vision of maybe Ganon leaves a much better impact anyway given that game's dreamlike narrative give uh sorry am I getting sidetracked you see eslo is a Minish and he was actually vati's Mentor at one point but after he was given a magical cap that allows the wearer to grant wishes vati used it to become a powerful sorcerer turning eslo into a cap in the process it does sound pretty Grim but eslow has one magic trick up his sleeve he's a hat he doesn't have sleeves if you jump onto specific pedestals you can now shrink down in size and this is it this is the core concept that Minish Cap is all about and damn it is such a strong win at that the general traversal of the world is as typical top down Zelda as you can get but it is so damn cool shrinking down in size so you can walk these tiny hallways avoiding giant sticks under giant leaves being able to float and push yourself Along on these lily pads and dude the first boss is a stupid choo choo but big this is incredible we got big Yoshi's Island energy here and I'm a big fan of all of the link gets to travel to an alternate version of the main World idea in this entire franchise I gotta say turning small is easily my favorite maybe it's just because I've always loved when games have you feeling really tiny like big Chippendale rescue ranges for the NES Vibes here too love that game but like when you're tiny here you get to talk to animals and that's that's just rad okay but really when you boil it down this is simply a super polished old school Zelda experience almost like a spiritual successor to Links in the past over 10 years in the making many of the items are familiar but then you also get the gust jar to shoot out puffs of wind the cane of though to flip different items as well as create these high jump portals out of these little holes in the ground yo the four sword is here and it lets link duplicate himself that's really cool these new items are sick dude and the dungeon designs are superb here too big shout out to the Palace of winds dare I say one of my favorite dungeons in this entire franchise the music is great the general aesthetic is great and there's an absolutely epic boss in the sky I love this so much hey look at that all the oracles are here too look at them hell yeah man and plus when you really look at this whole thing big picture like it's a game about becoming small and it was released on the system meant to be thrown in your pocket that's just cute that being said though the world does feel relatively small too you check the map here it's like there really aren't that many areas to explore this Hyrule is fairly fun sized but because the play style is so much fun and these areas are so densely packed when you consider the places you can get to just by shrinking down this is far from a problem if anything the main complaints go down to items like the kinstones but honestly I kinda like these too there are these characters all across the land that have at least one half of a Kim Stone and they request the other there's a handful of different colors a bunch of different shapes there are a ton of combinations and you find Kim Stone pieces in a ton of different places and ways too it can get a bit grindy but in my opinion it is fairly inoffensive it's kind of like that part in Skyward Sword where you would slash these blocks with a skyward Strike and then something would happen in the sky like something about this Dynamic I'm really a fan of now on the other hand grinding out the stupid gotcha machine for over 100 stupid figures just to get one stupid piece of heart yeah that's that's trash it's already bad enough grinding for some of the kinstones but this oh God no as good as this game is one of the series best no doubt don't complete it just enjoy the ride at your own pace and then call it quits when the credits roll it is not worth the literal heartache here you may have morbid curiosity and think oh we can't be that bad no no just don't just please just please don't do it simply don't go for 100 completion and Minish Cap will remain one of the best Adventures link has ever gone on and that would wrap up the Capcom Flagship Zelda Trilogy three Adventures built off of the basis of Link's Awakening and a little bit of Link to the Past to show off Hyrule and a few other Kingdoms in a totally fresh way the series was not doing up until that point three awesome games Capcom did a great job High recommendations all around [Music] and then things got weird in a shocking turn of events Nintendo decided to make a direct sequel to The Wind wakerber rather than do it on a console it would be the DS that would become the home to Wind Waker two and three essentially Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks I can kind of see the rationale behind this you know tune Link in the cell shaded art style of this iteration of the universe is able to be adapted to the relatively low power DS more easily than the more realistic proportions of the lame non-tune link so ditch the Sprites and make the character models look decent slap in a bunch of touch screen and oh God microphone gimmicks I'm gonna vomit and go about your Merry way hell these games even have multiplayer and like no one talks about this uh but like I said we'll we'll get to it later kinda similar to the Oracle games both of these Adventures often get lumped together in the same conversation and while aesthetically there is a good amount that sets each game apart mechanically and how you progress through the adventures yeah both of these games are pretty damn identical Phantom Hourglass tells a story with the same link and Tetra from which Waker while spiritrax takes place 100 years later with the new end shockingly identical looking Link and Zelda pH link and Tetra are on another seafaring Adventure before an evil ghost ship ambushes them taking Tetra and causing link to fall overboard St link is working to become Zelda's official Royal engineer but when you become warned of the suspicious Chancellor coal and his evil intentions you get it Cole cause it's a train game haha he violently Reveals His evil scheme by eliminating the Spirit Tracks ha and his assistant burn uh kills Zelda foreign she's not really dead she's just like kind of dead it's actually pretty funny in context like Zelda really hates being a ghost of this time around and you know what can't blame her both of these stories give serviceable enough plots as a meme to get you started doing the typical Zelda thing but again props for continuing this portable Zelda trend of not relying on Ganon to get your point across I love this even though you know Chancellor Cole and whatever the hell is at the end of Phantom Hourglass like who even cares I appreciate the attempt it also spiritrax has trained people in it with like Ace Attorney level punny names you know the main one is named Angie like engine I'm a I'm a sucker for this dumb stuff man once you get the initial story out of the way and the game started I feel like these games are a little more similar to each other than the Oracle games are mostly just the visual dressing and the main form of transportation being the primary differences see the main thing now with these games is everything is done with the touchscreen like God it's like basically everything moving attacking utilizing items like drawing a path for the boomerang and aiming where your arrows go it's all via touch and like listen I love gimmicky Nintendo nonsense as much as the next guy Rhythm Heaven for the DS all touch screen you don't see me complaining Metroid Prime hunters that's already pushing it but here the problem soon becomes apparent that this control scheme simply makes it more difficult to be as precise as you know you could be if you had actual button input and that's ignoring the fact that your dumb fat fingers are already blocking part of the screen at all times attacking it can be kind of precise you tap the enemies you want to go for slashing is already kind of a mixed bag but tapping I mean that works but moving and trying to not jump off of a ledge by accident yeah not so much heaven forbid you try to push and pull blocks at a decent pace too like God it's so slow and you gotta tap and hold on the direction you want to go it's not intuitive at all oh God an in Phantom Hourglass rolling was done by making tiny Circle motions at fast speeds on the edge of the screen it sucks it sucks a whole lot it became tapping the edge of the screen and Spirit Tracks thank God but still not great the thing is though considering games like Metroid Prime hunters and Kid Icarus Uprising also exist with very similar problems your mileage is going to vary with any game of this style the DS brought along with that a lot of gimmicky ideas some of them worked and some of them didn't it's just a matter of how open you are to them but all things considered there are still really clever uses of these gimmicks like at any point you can pull down the map and write down Clues something I wish every Zelda game had there's this part where you have to literally blow sand off of a sea chart before you can use it and that's just cute oh and my God like one of the coolest Parts about this game there's one part we have to imprint a label onto another chart and you do so by closing the DS shut to transfer the location onto the map it only happens once but it is so damn cool remember when you would close a DS during a Mario game and he would go bye-bye God I missed the DS so much man dungeons will sometimes have these really neat puzzles too like here in the temple of Courage where you have to draw out which part of the invisible floor is actually a walkable path microphone gimmicks on the other hand when it comes to the DS typically I hate them like one of the first items in Spirit Tracks is this Whirlwind thing where you not only aim the Direction with the touchscreen but you can only use it by blowing into the microphone for an extended period of time it sucks but hey you know what the Pole's voice enemy is here and you can only attack it by first blowing into the microphone to stun it which is a reference to the original famicom game where you could defeat them by talking into the second controller's microphone because yes the second controller for the famicom had a microphone that's really cool but then like you think you have something good on your hands and then this is one part where you have to yell into the microphone to get a discount from a shop and you actually kind of have to do more than just prank the microphone by blowing into it instead you have to actually say something really loudly into it and that's that's less cool I'm the hero of time ultimately though if you put aside the controls let's say you're a big fan of them there are still two big problems that plague both games I was considering saying the dungeons but truthfully they're just kind of fine they're unremarkable but they're fine at best they just don't have much in terms of fun and memorable set pieces but for what they are they get the job done except for the fact that you do physically carry the big key to key to the boss door now because you're so tiny and oh that key is so big the real problems are the way you transport from location to location and the required Temple that you return to in between every dungeon in Phantom Hourglass you got the boat and in spirit tracks the train now in Wind Waker I love exploring because I'm always in control and it is so satisfying saying ah well let's see what's this way and just going there here though you forego any control you draw out the path that you want to go with the boat and you stick to pre-assigned paths with the train you click go and you just go you do have choice in what direction you go but it's still weird that you're just letting the thing go and you just kind of let it happen it's a damn good thing the theme song for the train Overworld is as incredible as it is in spirit tracks because man this is such a pace killer it's crazy so much of these two games are spent just staring at the screen and tapping the enemies that they throw at you as a means to ensure that you don't fall asleep they even threw in collectible bunnies into Spirit Tracks to help with that as well and I gotta be honest it doesn't really work it's cute that there's a new side quest here to worry about but still almost falling asleep and then the temples oh man the Temple of the ocean King is one of the worst things in this entire franchise it's bad enough that you return to this place after every dungeon that's already kind of repetitive the same thing happens with spiritrax Tower of spirits but in the ocean King you have to repeat the floors that you've already completed in order to get to the part that you couldn't progress through last time it's not like a straight shot to the next floor either you have to redo the puzzles why ah but don't worry a checkpoint does pop up to skip some of the floors once halfway through the game why only once oh and dude these sections are timed you get it cause Phantom Hourglass ha it's the title of the game and on top of that it's stealth based so you gotta try avoiding detection else you get chased and if you get hit by the things that are chasing you not only do you have to redo the floor that you got hit on but you also lose time and however much time it took you to get to that checkpoint is gonna be how much time you start off with when you jump into the checkpoint when you're return next time so if you didn't have enough time left when you jumped into the checkpoint the first time then you have to redo all the floors anyway to have a better time this is horrible thank God for the Tower of spirits man they removed everything that made the ocean King one such no more time limit no more needing to redo floors unless you want some extra items and since Zelda is a spirit now she has the ability to take over Phantoms once you get enough of the tears of light and you can use that for puzzles that are exclusive to this Tower making it a little bit more exciting to return to this whole thing is actually really cool when she's taking over a phantom she's invulnerable you can use her to get to high places she can distract other Phantoms for having a Zelda game where you finally get to have Zelda by your side the entire time they did a damn good job making her cool owenda also Lineback is here he's kind of a dirt bag in both games one in Spirit Tracks as many generations on but he's still the same Dirtbag as he was in Phantom Hourglass he's really cool uh I like him a lot he's a dirt bag but I don't care he has my vote but he's no Ralph damn it at the end of the day while Spirit Tracks in my eyes is a vast improvement over Phantom Hourglass and they are neat Novelties if you want to see how a full Zelda Adventure translates into a fully gimmicked out DS game these still end up being pretty low in the franchise as a whole to me Phantom Hourglass I would say is my least favorite Zelda game outside of Zelda 1 and 2. I love and appreciate a lot of what these games represent and you can tell the developers really tried utilizing the hardware to the best of their abilities with both of these titles and there are plenty of bright spots that show that like these little musical flute segments and Spirit Tracks they're really charming and they do require the touchscreen and the microphone at the same time but for me when it comes to comparing it to all of the other games in this video These are at the bottom of the Zelda portable ranking list I know many people love these games still I do I know you're out there but I'm sorry I'm not that guy but hey once again Lineback was here listen listen okay these games are still good just relatively speaking compared to the other games we talked about in this video they're not as good in my humble opinion the angry mob is still coming isn't it while I may not be the biggest fan of the DS games I can still appreciate them as more experimental takes on the typical formula definitely better to look at them in that light as opposed to a proper evolution of Zelda like we got with the jumps between the Game Boy Color and The Game Boy Advance but after fulfilling its purpose it's time for the final entry in the dedicated Nintendo handheld console lineup foreign The Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds hard to believe this game is over 10 years old now sorry for making you feel old in the process by the way but damn it this game has not aged a single day Minish Cap may feel like a spiritual successor tooling to the past but I can't believe that Nintendo made a full-on actual sequel to A Link to the Past as a part of their process to revitalize 3DS sales in 2013 and they released it the same day as Super Mario 3D World like oh my God the Xbox One released the same day that's what did that console in man not the other Shenanigans it's that deadly Zelda Mario combo pack holy and immediately we are back to a traditional button layout now plus we have smooth analog movement for link which god it feels so so good the speed and reaction time that you have between pressing the B button and the sword slashing is so damn quick like dude this game feels great but yes this is in fact a sequel to A Link to the Past I mean for crying out loud in Japan the game has a big old tool on it Hyrule is virtually the same layout as it was back on the Super Nintendo and while it's not the Dark World this time around low roll plays a very similar role as a slightly modified and Visually darker variation with an incredible theme song to accompany it or rather than just being the same game all over again we got a handful of gimmicks and changes to the Zelda format that make this adventure fresh for one we got wall mechanics now thanks to the new villain Yuga who happens to be able to turn people 2D what a power they took Super Paper Mario and made it a guy love to see it you see this new bad boy has not only tracked Zelda into a painting but all of the sages as well and for any normal plebeian that means you're trapped forever but for link and his brand new magical bracelet we can just pop in and out whenever we want this means that we now have a whole new world of walls to latch ourselves onto for traversal and this is awesome sorry uh this time link becomes a wall sounds like the dumbest idea ever conceived but wow leave it to top tier game developers to make this an incredible mechanic attaching yourself to moving walls to travel over gaps being able to easily rap to the opposing side of a building simply dodging certain enemies in Boss attacks like there's this one boss that is a wall for a shield you attach yourself onto it and then he pulls it behind him like oh where did he go and then you slash him from the back it's it's God it's so cool this is such a simple idea that is really used to its maximum potential here and it spices up a world that you thought you knew from the 16-bit days but arguably even cooler once you pick up the master sword after a few dungeons you then have the freedom to tackle the remaining seven dungeons in any order that you want rather than relying on the old style of getting an item from a dungeon and using that to get to the next one you now have the option to rent nearly every single item super early on thanks to the newcomer ravio and yes uh rent is the proper word because if you die you lose your items and have to rent them again or spend even more to permanently own them but quite frankly after you get enough Hearts dying is rarely an issue at least for me so never really was a big deal but if you're bad at Zelda uh you probably you're probably gonna die and rent these items a lot I just suck sorry about that not only does this turn the rest of Hyrule and the entirety of low rule into an open world there's also the hidden Maya my quest this Maya my mother lost 100 of her babies quite the irresponsible parent but that's neither here nor there and these children are everywhere and it is so rewarding just seeing one on a wall hearing one nearby and finding them under a rock you get one like every 10 Paces if you're paying attention what's also cool is that you also don't have all of low rule accessible at once it's chopped up into different segments where it's required to find the portals in Hyrule to travel through which then leads to more exploration meaning your chances of finding more Maya mire greater and remembering where these bombable walls are or something else along your journey it's easier than ever before and God the moment-to-moment gameplay here is damn near Perfection it's worth mentioning here too that low rule has its own Princess Zelda taking the form of Princess Hilda I like her she's kind of cute like let's be honest here the story in this game is pretty simplistic I would argue more simple than like every other portable Zelda game thus far the main focus of this adventure is just getting on with it and letting you free into the world though that being said the production values whenever the cutscenes do play out are honestly pretty impressive like this game looks really freaking good okay Zelda is taken rabio gives you items Hilda gives you some advice go who cares stop reading text just go Ganon does finally play a prevalent role in a portable game here but Yuga is still a pretty strong antagonist because hell even with to Ganon back he soon merges with Yuga to become a brand new thing it's kinda just a means to have a visually similar final boss fight with a ganon-like character but now with wall attacks and that's fine because hey the entirety of these portable Zelda games did something different with the Final Bosses still even though Ganon is technically here every Zelda game in this video had a different antagonist and that's amazing and plus we got this brand new sweet artwork replicating the classic Super Nintendo style so any complaints I have about throwing Ganon back into things should really be thrown out the window because this artwork is so beautiful I love this so much it's a shame link doesn't have pink hair in this one but you know what I'll still take it the pacing man the pacing of this game is ridiculous you are always moving you are always finding new things always slamming face first into every wall you possibly can just for the hell of it you never know and you're maybe thinking to yourself well what if I don't care about the mayamai and first off Woody a heartless look at them second off when you buy items from ravio you are then able to upgrade them by returning batches of 10 baby Maya might to their mother making them a lot stronger and more useful this is great honestly I don't even care about the whole renting versus buying thing it's just a mean to turn the game from a typical linear Affair to an open world playground but the item upgrading really elevates things to the next level and man I love it so much and since the main focus here is just getting to the next dungeon it does help that said dungeons are incredible since now you can only enter the dungeon after having a specific item instead of getting the item part way through it that means that we have dungeon designs with cool item-based puzzles as soon as you walk in clearly this game doubled as a test for breath of the wild when it came to taking the typical Zelda conventions and changing them up and building a new adventure around those new ideas and while I think ultimately I may still prefer Link to the Past because I do prefer the typical Zelda conventions it is hard to deny that A Link Between Worlds is not only one of the best 3DS games but one of the greatest handheld games Nintendo has ever produced also there's baseball best Zelda game you ever see that image of how Nintendo managed to nail the top-down look for this game and it shows a link doing the that's that's beautiful with the switch being a Home console and handheld hybrid and Nintendo sticking to completely unique experiences for the dedicated handheld mobile scene I think this is where we can end the lineage of handheld Zelda games sure you can now play Skyward Sword in handheld and we never know what the future of weird interesting Zelda ideas will take us but come on you know that's not the same thing these adventures all really try to do something different with each entry as the Scopes kept growing for the console games trying to be more and more epic with each one the handhelds were just trying to do their own thing they were filling in the time between the next main console game but at the same time they were doing something completely original yeah some of these ideas are certainly dated but it cannot be stressed enough that there was a lot of impressive things that were attempted and achieved with these seven games that saw the light a day and also frog game do not forget about frog game if there's any takeaway out of this is that you haven't played frog game yet and you should probably play frog game it's really good then yeah all that's left are the tingle games which are obviously Zelda adjacent as well as also on handhelds and then all of the multiplayer games which primarily made their homes on the handhelds as well we're gonna get to all of it in due time don't you worry I just covered eight games in one video okay I need a little bit of a break and before anybody gets on my case for not going really in detail with the games I scraped the bottom of the barrel to talk about I wasn't going to talk about every single handheld Zelda thing that ever existed okay wow you talked about the game Watch but didn't go highly in depth with it like what do you want me to say all right it just sits right here this is a handheld Zelda game video you don't it doesn't you don't my wrist sitting games okay duh foreign [Music]

Channel: AntDude

Views: 391,637

Keywords: AntDude, zelda handhelds, zelda game boy, zelda gameboy, zelda ds, zelda 3ds, handheld zelda games, portable zelda games, legend of zelda gameboy, zelda link's awakening, zelda oracle of ages, zelda oracle of seasons, zelda minish cap, zelda phantom hourglass, zelda spirit tracks, zelda link between worlds, legend of zelda retrospective, legend of zelda tears of the kingdom, zelda tears of the kingdom, tears of the kingdom review, zelda portable review, zelda series review

Id: lbq66dNtJL4

Length: 48min 0sec (2880 seconds)

Published: Tue May 16 2023