The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

This is probably the most underrated entry in the Zelda series. While most folks would rank A Link to the Past higher, I think it’s the best of the 2-D games. The mere fact that you can move diagonally is enough for me. In addition you have all the usual tropes of a Zelda game: you must save the princess from the evil wizard, a cutesy sidekick that guides you on your quest, lots of puzzle-based gameplay, and each dungeon gives you a new ability.

The main hook here is the ability to shrink down and explore the world from a bug’s eye view. In the end, this feature is not used to its full potential. It becomes just another limited-use dungeon solving ability rather than a way to explore the same environments in from another viewpoint. Nevertheless, the way in which you are depicted as a dot with a word bubble icon is very clever.

It may not be the most groundbreaking game in the series, but it is one of my favorites.