The Best and Worst of Zelda: Ice Dungeons

Season’s greetings readers! Brian here with the nineteenth installment of “The Best and Worst of Zelda,” and today we’ve got a special Winter theme! Today being Christmas Eve, I thought it fitting to have our topic represent the coldest season (at least up here in the Northern Hemisphere)! Frequent reader Patrick Starman suggested this as the specific topic, so much thanks to him! If you’ve got any great ideas for a future editorial, just leave it in the comments section below.

In the same manner as water-themed areas, ice dungeons are a real hit or miss. Pulling off decent ice mechanics is not an easy task, but when done well, it can be truly outstanding. Sadly, it is often done poorly leading to slippery controls and unhappy players. Today we’ll be looking into which games not only utilized ice well mechanically, but also thematically and atmospherically.

Although with most editorials, I prefer to start with the older games in the series, I’m going to jump ahead quite a bit to Twilight Princess. If you’ve read past articles, it should come as no surprise to you that Twilight Princess is far from my favorite Zelda title, but that being said, the game surely has its moments. One of it’s strongest sections, I would argue, is the Snowpeak Ruins. The dungeon is thematically quite interesting; it is the home of some very large snow creatures who seem very interested in making you soup and leading you the wrong way. The music is… icy? I don’t know if there’s a very easy way to explain this, but the chime of the melody is very clear and sharp, nice and serene, calm: icy. The enemies also played in to the ice theme, as ice skeletons and giant, stationary ice monsters focused on attacking you all over the dungeon. Unlike in many past ice dungeons, there isn’t ice all over the place. You aren’t constantly slipping and sliding, trying not to fall off of ledges and cursing at your television. Of course, there’s a bit of that involved (as there should be), but the real ice in the dungeon is more of a theme, more of an atmosphere. As for the boss, I found Yeta to be surprisingly easy to beat, but the build-up and the backstory, as well as that “NOT TAKE MIRROR” were simply epic! Snowpeak Ruins gets an A+ in my book, and I consider it to be my absolute favorite dungeon in the game.

On the other end of the spectrum, let’s have a look at A Link to the Past, I game that I tend to think of as the best Zelda game ever released. But as with Twilight Princess, every game has its ups and downs, and while this game is certainly full of ups, the Ice Palace is nothing short of rage-inducing! I have many memories of watching my older brother play A Link to the Past when I was younger, and I can vividly remember screaming, controller throwing, and plenty of rage-quitting upon even attempting the Ice Palace. And no doubt, upon playing the game myself years later, I got just as angry! Every single surface is ice. Uncomfortable, frictionless, cold ice. And although you may say “but Brian, it’s called the Ice Palace. Don’t complain about the ice,” I don’t think a dungeon made of ice was completely necessary to convey the theme and presence of ice. The enemies, which were legitimately frightening, were quite icy, and having a few floors made of ice may have been a better way to convey that theme. But instead, you go through the many floors in fear that you’ll slip off an edge, or into one of those enemies that deals massive damage, and unless you exhibit the most extreme caution, it’s inevitable death. I understand the appeal of a challenge, but I don’t like to be challenged in a way that makes the game feel less fun. It’s really a bad dungeon when you can’t wait for it to just end already.

And here’s where I think our newest title, A Link Between Worlds, comes in to save the day. I came into the Ice Ruins with pretty low expectations, seeing as the game had remained rather true to its predecessor in many ways. The thing about this dungeon that I so much appreciated was that it figured out how to keep the dungeon challenging, but not angering, while keeping the entire thing covered with ice. In fact, just like in A Link to the Past, nearly every surface is slippery and lead to some odd controls, and again, there are many places to fall, but by putting the emphasis on puzzles instead of heavy-hitting, ridiculous enemies, the problem was solved. I would consider it in my top 5 dungeons of the game, as I was nicely surprised by it’s quality.

The only other full length ice dungeon is the Temple of Droplets from The Minish Cap, a personal favorite game of mine, but not usually the most interesting when it comes to dungeon design. Sadly, I don’t believe the Temple of Droplets is much of an exception. I like the idea that you’re a Minish in the dungeon, so everything is quite a great deal larger than you, specifically the uninspiring mini-boss and boss. The return of the lily pad was a bit annoying, and all of the ice block puzzles got on my nerves, but it isn’t by any means a bad dungeon. It just isn’t anything that really stands out to me. I think this is rather typical of this particular game, and while it’s a bit disappointing, seeing as the game is great in general, it could be far worse.

Well, that’s all we have for this week. Remember to check back every Tuesday at 11 AM Central time for more. Have a safe and happy holiday, and as always, thanks for reading!