I started playing A Link Between Worlds today.
I'll give a few first impressions, but I won't spoil anything. Even the stuff I'll put under spoiler-tags aren't super-spoilery (but rather things that might be more fun finding out yourself). So anyway;
Am about 3 hours in now, and past the first dungeon. First off I agree with Rol that it feels very much like a remake. Naturally, I'm not quite far yet, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt right now. A lot of things remind you about A Link to the Past. Not only the overall lay-out of Hyrule (I haven't seen Lowrule yet, so I don't know how it compares to ALttP's Dark World), but also the music, the enemies and the buildings scattered around the overworld.
Hyrule Castle for example, from what can be visited at the start, is almost exactly the same. The first dungeon also draws a lot of inspiration of A Link to the Past's first dungeon. For some reason I've seen a lot of references to Majora's Mask, like the Mask itself on the wall of your house, the Milk Bar and the bartender there, but I don't know why yet. If an explanation will ever come anyway. Until now, I haven't yet seen anything that's outside of the regular Zelda formula, though I've already gotten a lot more items than usual. I know you're supposed to be able to rent your items at some point, but until now it's just like it always was; can't rent anything yet. The game starts by setting up the story and getting the sword and before you know it you're off to the first dungeon. This game does do it quite fast though, it's probably the shortest intro since Ocarina of Time. That first dungeon had already some original puzzles though, but nothing too fancy yet. It's a good start in any case and I think that bodes well for the other dungeons in the game. I've played around with the wall-merging ability some, and I think some puzzles involving that ability will get quite complicated since the first ones already required some out-of-the-box thinking, so I'm excited to see what's next. You don't have the ability right away, you get it at the end of the first dungeon, and when you get it the game introduces the villain in quite a spectacular way. So I'm satisfied by the story until now, even though any Zelda's story gets a tad predictible by now.
I need to get used to the music still, probably because the original's in my head, but I like how it looks. As seems like tradition on 3DS now, screenshots and videos do not do the game justice. It's actually quite crisp and balanced looking (on an original 3DS anyway). The 3D effect is superb. I know the 2DS was probably the thing that catapulted sales in the last couple of weeks, but this game needs to be played in 3D. The 3D effect makes the world feel a lot more 'alive' and the height differences are easily visible. I especially like how for instance things that jump seem to pop out of the screen. Without the 3D, everything is naturally flat looking and height differences is a lot harder to correctly make out. This makes the platforming elements a lot harder.
All-in-all I know already that it's not going to beat my most favorite handheld title (Link's Awakening) due a slight lack of originality until now, but I think it's promising enough. It at least won't be my least favorite one either!
