Although Shigeru Miyamoto has expressed his interest in revisiting A Link to the Past with the 3DS, it still came as a shock when Nintendo showed that the new The Legend of Zelda for 3DS is in fact a sequel to the SNES classic that takes place in the same world. It’s still unknown to what extent the overworld is the same as before, what we do know is that the dungeons are brand new.

It was a dungeon that I got to try out, a simple one as the build was clearly very early, but it was enough to get a feel of how the game controls, which is to say, it feels just like A Link to the Past. Embracing once again button controls, leaving the bottom screen for the very useful item and map management, Link moves just like he did in the Super Nintendo, his weight feels the same and his attacks as just as fast. The difference this time is that he’s not restricted to 8 directions as you use the circle pad to move and you can also pull up the shield by using the L button. The demo let me use the bow and arrow and the hammer, both doing what’s to be expected of them, but with a slight difference as this time you have a (presumably) magic bar that’s drained every time you use an item meaning you can’t spam the hammer or arrow attacks until the bar recharges. In this build there was no limit to the number of arrows, it’s unknown if it’ll remain the same in the final version.

The big difference here and the thing that makes this game stand apart from its predecessor is Link’s ability to transform into a drawing on a wall and move alongside it while the magic meter isn’t drained. The demo had me crossing chasms, taking a ride on the side of a moving platform and using walls to reach otherwise inaccessible parts of the level. It took me a while to adjust to this power since it meant looking at the traditional 2D screen of the Zeldas of old in a completely different way and I was left assured that this could lead to some very interesting puzzles.

The dungeon itself was pretty much a remix of the Tower of Hera with bits of other dungeons mixed in, even the music was a really good new version of A Link to the Past’s dungeon theme. To advance I had to hit switches that raised blue or red blocks, something that could be used together with Link’s morphing ability and use the Magic Hammer to flatten the Bad Moles so that I could climb on top of them being propelled upwards when they popped back up. All this with a heavy emphasis on verticality, the dungeon had several floors and going up and down between them played a big part. Going on the outside of the dungeon, I had to take a ride on moving platforms and turn into a drawing to help me avoid obstacles and reach new places. As you can imagine the stereoscopic 3D looks really cool when jumping up a floor or looking down below. Obviously the dungeon had its share of classic enemies like the Stalfos, Flying Tiles, Mini-Moldorms and a Moldorm- all straight from A Link to the Past.

The level art style was nothing to write home about, everything was pretty basic, the only element of note is Link itself as he takes a look very similar to his artwork on the NES and SNES’ Zelda manuals. Everything ran super smoothly at 60 fps both in 2D and 3D.

The demo is way too basic to make any informed conclusion about the game, it runs smoothly, controls great, tickles the nostalgia bone, the 3D’s cool and the morphing mechanic shows promise, but without playing more and knowing the game’s structure and how much of it is straight from the SNES game it’s hard to know exactly what to expect. Being a Zelda game though, one usually expects a lot.