It'll do!

Now here's a game that (unlike some others) really understands, and builds upon, its forebears. Ittle Dew, aside from having a pretty fun title, is a refreshing and exciting homage to the top-down Zelda formula, and arguably to Link's Awakening and Phantom Hourglass in particular.

The pitch is pretty straightforward: a small-scope island map, with four interconnected regions, each with a dungeon, a magic treasure, and a boss. Dungeon puzzles don't waste any time becoming awesomely devious, and some bonus puzzles scattered around the map - which conceal heart pieces, as well as extra collectibles - definitely push the envelope re: strategic block pushing. Seriously, these are some of the best-designed block puzzles I've ever seen.

One of Ittle Dew's really fascinating twists on the Zelda approach is re-ordering the formula's basic sequence. In a Zelda game, you'll be given some story goal (get the thing to save the person with the thing, yada yada yada), then explore the overworld to get to the dungeon, crawl the dungeon to get the thing, and finally beat a boss to escape the dungeon.

Ittle Dew upends that by first having you explore a central dungeon - ala Phantom Hourglass's Temple of the Ocean King - to collect gold, to use for "buying" a magic item, which causes the shopkeeper to teleport you inside the dungeon where that item lives; then you get the item, solve puzzles and beat a boss to escape, and make the relatively short trek back through the overworld to the hub. It's a bit jarring at first, but this approach has some distinct benefits: like removing the need to retread ground in the overworld, and cutting out the thing-for-person-with-thing bullshit (which, you'll note, had become a blight upon modern Zelda). Ittle Dew maintains a big-picture overall goal, but keeps things light along the way.

This sense of whimsy is reflected in the game's art and writing as well, which is infused throughout by eye-catching designs and irreverent humor. Ittle Dew's characters and elements are weird, but not unsettling weird, like Anodyne's -- off-the-wall weird, like, people in animal costumes; pancakes that fly around; and dungeon obstacles with faces. Encountering an enemy type for the first time will initiate a brief get-to-know-you conversation. Sometimes you'll run into a non-sequitor art detail, like a birdhouse on the wall, and Ittle will pop up a bit of flavor text. The presentation overall is just fun.

Beyond its well-informed gameplay and entertaining aesthetics, Ittle Dew offers a lot of opportunity for additional difficulty via sequence breaking. There are three magic items to collect, but evidently it's possible to finish the game with any combination of only two of those! Dungeons and the overworld are also filled with puzzles that can be accomplished with combinations of items, or with only a single item, if you really want to test your mettle. And then there are the optional collectibles and a pair of bonus dungeons, just for extra challenge. Personally I'm not that motivated to squeeze yet more life out of the game, but if I was, Ittle Dew would certainly be accommodating.

Sadly, all stories must have villains, and the big one here is that the game is short. I wrapped it up in under three hours - including the tens of minutes I spent staring at some particularly fiendish puzzles - and there is a Steam achievement for finishing in less than 15 minutes, so, apparently that's a thing that is possible. Again, there is plenty of extra content, if you're so inclined; but as the crow flies, it's over fairly quickly.

The PC version of Ittle Dew also seems to have a baffling performance issue, which gets exacerbated by the amount of constantly-moving elements on-screen at any given time. It's bizarre, since this is a Unity game that also runs on mobile (there's even an Ouya version). But if you can live with some frame-skipping, it's at least tolerable.

Ittle Dew is a short, tightly-crafted Zelda-like that does some things (block puzzles!) better than Zelda ever has. It oozes fun from all its pores, and never weighs itself down with unnecessary filler. I really, really hope to see more from this franchise in the future.

Better than: Anodyne, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Not as good as: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Less content, but more densely satisfying than: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Progress: Completed the game with all three items.