Zelda 3, or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has been my favorite installment in the Zelda series for as long as I can remember.

It’s perfect.

The first thing it has going for it is that it’s a SNES game; arguably the best console ever created. Source: me.

It’s a piece from the golden age of RPG’s; there was Secret of Mana/Evermore, Illusion of Gaia, Final Fantasy IV, Harvest Moon, Breath of Fire, Dragonview, Actraiser and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It even spawned countless knockoffs like Light Crusader, Crusader of Centy and Beyond Oasis and those were just the ones on Sega Genesis.

The graphics were pixely, the mechanics were maddening at times, there were puzzles you had to buy a walkthrough guide just to figure out… those were the days.

I love a top-down action RPG, is my point.

In that vein, Echoes of Wisdom does not disappoint. I’ve always hated the damsel in distress trope so it’s awesome to see the princess as the star of this one. It’s probably worth noting I’m not much of a Gamer® but I do love a cute Nintendo game every once in a while, especially with a female lead.

I like it better than Breath of the Wild, no joke. It’s reminiscent of that old school Zelda 3 feel but with more depth and a gnarly story line. There are rifts ripping open across Hyrule and Link fell right into one of the fuckers so it’s up to Zelda to save the kingdom this time around. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail and spoil it but naturally the whole world seems pitted against her. Er… everyone but Impa, anyway. Instead of a sword you have a scepter that can copy and paste objects and mobs. I usually think that kinda thing is cheesy and clunky but it works surprisingly well here.

This isn’t much of a review, it’s just a refreshingly good addition to the series and I like that it isn’t trying to be a big open world Hyrule GTA V like BotW and, I assume, Tears of the Kingdom. I didn’t even buy that one because BotW was already enough of a struggle to get through. I liked it, just not very much. I wanted to make a short post to shout that from the rooftops. Echoes of Wisdom is a sick game.

I’m always hesitant to drop $60 on a game for my beat up old Switch Lite, but this was worth it. If you like old school Zelda, this is definitely it with a modern twist.