{"id":135333,"date":"2025-12-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-195261"},"modified":"2025-12-21T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T14:00:00","slug":"opinion-who-needs-link-this-top-down-metroidvania-is-the-best-zelda-game-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2025\/12\/21\/opinion-who-needs-link-this-top-down-metroidvania-is-the-best-zelda-game-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Who Needs Link? This Top-Down Metroidvania Is The Best Zelda Game Of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Pipistrello<\/a>
<\/span> Image: PM Studios<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you start up a top-down Zelda<\/strong> game, you usually know how things will start. You\u2019ll get some scrolling exposition text setting up the events of the game, and you\u2019ll either be plonked in the middle of a room or a field, ready to save the princess, or wake up after a dream or a shipwreck or something. I\u2019m generalising, but there\u2019s something intimately familiar about how<\/em> an old-school Zelda game often stands out. It\u2019s cosy, it gets you asking questions, and it’s very fantasy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo<\/a> doesn\u2019t do all of that. After your obligatory context dump, protagonist Pippit is sitting in the back of a taxi, yapping away at the driver. He\u2019s talking about his family \u2013 whom he\u2019s going to visit \u2013 and his yoyo skills. And he really loves his yoyo. He\u2019s confident, chatty, but far away from your typical hero with an attitude and a lack of direction.<\/p>\n

Playing through Pipistrello over the summer, I was completely enchanted by its chunky spritework and its sprawling metropolis map. The vibes are the complete opposite of a Zelda game. Except that\u2019s almost exactly what Pipistrello is \u2013 a top-down GBA-inspired Zelda with an injection of energy, colour, and attitude. It\u2019s got sass for days and an extremely fun mesh of platforming, combat, and exploration, all driven by a simple walk of the dog\u2026 and a bunch of other tricks.<\/p>\n

\"Pipistrello<\/a>
<\/span> Image: PM Studios<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No sooner than Pippit\u2019s auntie Madame, head of Pipistrello Industries, is attacked by four frustrated industry owners, is the young bat forced to confront the issues his family\u2019s business has caused. Oh, and because of the battery-power spell used on Madame, his yoyo is now possessed by his auntie, and she frequently likes to speak to him. Yes, this is absolutely a love letter to The Minish Cap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pippit and Madame\u2019s banter makes the game for me in the same way that I loved Ezlo\u2019s snarky nature in Capcom\u2019s GBA Zelda game. And while Link doesn\u2019t talk, I remember thinking of ways to backchat Ezlo multiple times. With Pipistrello, Pippit is already doing that \u2013 and sometimes it\u2019s earned, because while Madame may love her nephew, she\u2019s not exactly supportive of his love of the yoyo.<\/p>\n

\"Pipistrello<\/a>
<\/span> Image: PM Studios<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because Pippit speaks, it immediately gives the game a different kind of energy. Think about the pacing and the world of a top-down Zelda: it\u2019s usually steady, lush and green, and each map is the kind of place you can steadily make your way around, chopping down octoroks, chuchus or patches of grass. Pipistrello might look cute and cuddly, but that electric colour palette only helps bolster the more kinetic movement of the little bat and his yoyo, now enhanced with battery-powered magic and a grumpy aunt.<\/p>\n

Every new attack or skill is based on a real-world yoyo trick, and their uses logically make sense. Round the World, for instance, sees Pippit spin the yoyo around his head, pushing enemies away. He also has a charged attack that will keep the yoyo in-place to do multiple hits of damage. And there are plenty of angled corners everywhere, which Pippit can use to bounce his yoyo off of to grab items from afar or attack enemies on the other side.<\/p>\n

\"Pipistrello<\/a>
<\/span> Image: PM Studios<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Upgrades don\u2019t come in the form of new weapons or upgrades, or even new outfits. Instead, you have to earn them by paying off a debt to your cousin Pepita. Again, something that totally makes sense in an urban environment and within a family that\u2019s fuelled by greed and money. The debt stays with you and half the money you collect goes towards paying it off, but you\u2019re also lumbered with a debuff or two until you pay it off. You might have one heart fewer or be a little slower for a while. Picking the upgrade you want at the right time is crucial, because no one wants to go into a boss fight with lower defenses.<\/p>\n

But I think the traversal is where the game really shines, and the creativity of each trick is so fun to play around with. Walk the Dog is now a kind of auto-run, which pulls Pippit along water and bounces off of angled corners. The UFO allows Pippit to suspend the yoyo in mmid-air off-string, so he can hook onto it and jump over large gaps. Every single skill is hugely important, because each one will lead to a different secret, a Petal Container (a very subtle nod to a Heart Piece), a Badge (think Paper Mario), or a hidden room.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just like blowing up a wall with a bomb, but Pipistrello does it with its own flair, and a dash of Metroidvania connectivity and backtracking. But with how densely packed each screen is \u2013 whether it be dissatisfied citizens or people queuing up to gorge on fast food, enemies hopping around, holes in the ground, traffic, etc. \u2013 this large city feels lived-in. This isn\u2019t a forest and a beach and a jungle all linked together; it\u2019s a metropolis crumbling under the weight of corporate competition.<\/p>\n