The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

After nearly four decades of being rescued, Zelda does the rescuing. Rifts are swallowing Hyrule, Link has vanished into one, and the princess sets out with Tri, a small fairy companion, and the Tri Rod, which lets her create echoes: copies of objects and monsters she has already seen. Beds, tables, water blocks, boulders and bokoblins all become tools, and the game is built so that almost every problem has several answers.

That freedom is the reason it works. Gaps are crossed with stacked furniture, walls scaled on summoned platforms, and fights won by a small army of copied enemies, while the dungeons, especially the later ones, reward improvisation rather than a single intended key. A swordfighter form lets Zelda borrow Link's moves for a short time, useful but slightly at odds with the idea that she is a different kind of hero.

The toy box art style of the Link's Awakening remake returns and looks charming, though the frame rate dips when the screen gets busy. Choosing between well over a hundred echoes means scrolling a long menu, which grows tedious, and the strongest echoes make the late game easy. The story is slight, but the novelty of Zelda in the lead and the invention in its puzzles carry it.