They had an awesome Iwata asks for this game. Miyamoto basically trashed the early drafts of the game which would have been another WW portable based game. He was the one who told them to base it on ALTTP. Thank you Miyamoto.

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/a-link-between-worlds/0/0

They came up with the wall idea first, and they were originally planning it to be another Wind Waker game.

Iwata: What was Miyamoto-san's reaction?

Tominaga: He tore it up! (laughs)

Shikata: Again! (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Tominaga: But he didn't just criticize, he also gave us a hint. He suggested basing it on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Iwata: That was when A Link to the Past first came into the picture?

Tominaga: Yes. And right after Aonuma-san said, "What if we base it on A Link to the Past, and try pairing entering walls with a point of view looking down from directly overhead?"

Iwata: So you based it on A Link to the Past because of suggestions from Miyamoto-san and Aonuma-san?

Tominaga: Yes.

Aonuma: Actually, Miyamoto-san had been challenging me to do something ever since the Nintendo 3DS came out. He suggested making a 2D Zelda game like A Link to the Past playable in stereoscopic 3D.

Iwata: Oh.

Aonuma: But simply taking a 2D game and making it 3D isn't interesting at all.

Iwata: It's just like, "We made this 3D."

Aonuma: Right. That was a problem we were facing for a while and I wondered what to do. Then, when I first saw Shikata-san's gameplay of entering walls, I was surprised, but as we played for a while from an overhead, diagonal angle view like in Spirit Tracks, that surprise faded after a time.

Iwata: Why was that?

Aonuma: It didn't look different enough when you entered the wall. Then, as I was discussing various things with Tominaga-san, we considered placing the camera directly overhead and fixing it there, and we made a test version. It felt really intriguing when Link entered a wall and the view switched from a top-down view to a side view. Miyamoto-san had given us the task of turning 2D Zelda into stereoscopic 3D, so...

Iwata: It connected with that.

Aonuma: Right. It fit perfectly, and I thought, "This is it!" I also suggested to everyone that we should use the landforms from A Link to the Past instead of starting from scratch.

Iwata: Did anyone say that it would turn out like a remake even though you had this new idea of entering walls?

Aonuma: They did. Everyone gets skeptical when they simply hear about it in words.

Iwata: Sure.

Aonuma: So I used a tool myself to render the landforms of A Link to the Past into 3D.

Iwata: You did that yourself? (laughs)

Aonuma: Yeah. It took about three days.

Tominaga: I think it took a little longer...

Aonuma: Did it? (laughs) I wasn't sure it was right for a producer to go that far, but I thought showing the actual thing would be more convincing and made three-dimensional landforms. I had them place Link and move him around. When they saw that they all marveled out loud and were convinced that it works. When we showed it to Miyamoto-san, he finally gave the okay. About when was that?

Tominaga: It was two months after Miyamoto-san ripped it apart in May of 2012. The first presentation was no good, the second one was okay, the third was no good, and the fourth was okay, so it went through a cycle of bad to good.

Iwata: This project was both trashed and praised. (laughs)

Tominaga: Yeah! (laughs)

The ironic thing is that Miyamoto decided to go with the idea of being like a game from 20 years ago...

I think my bro will freak out if I show him this game. I don't think I've shown him Ocarina 3D yet.

Not many impressions to give out, I am still in the hand holding stage of the game. Graphically it is super impressive, say what you will of the art style, when you see this baby in motion at 60 FPS in full 3D you will say wow. It moves so perfectly and the animation is so beautiful, its like ALTTP has come to live in some strange 3D way. Oh and the 3D is extremely impressive, I put it to 2D and there was no benefit at all, no frame rate increase, it just looked worse cause the fog layer was now pasted to the screen instead of floating above it. Wait till you hear the music, oh the memories.

The map is the same so I know where everything is but of course there is new stuff everywhere. So far I am just running errands and getting the story going. I am tired so I will play it tomorrow on the plane. Oh the touch screen is used as a map where you can place up to 20 markers, now I can keep track of all heart pieces I see but cant reach. Changing gears and seeing items is done with the press of a finger all very nicely organized.

This is stupid to do but if I had to compare the first 10 minutes of both games ALTTP wins easily, ALBW is too busy pushing me around.

I put in a full hour and finished the first dungeon, oh man this game is special. The first time you go into a wall and fit through a crack only to see you are on the outside wall of the dungeon which you can wrap around to a balcony is a moment of awe. This game makes you think of 3D space in a way no 2D Zelda ever has and the use of 3D is such an aid. There are puzzles about height and think of the world in a 3D way, it's different from most Zelda's. I have a feeling the painting mechanic will be one of the best this series has seen.

Wait till you hear the music!!!!! It's like a full orchestra is playing inside your DS! I have never heard such great music in a portable game, I feel like I am playing and at a symphony all at the same time.

Having all items is interesting, I am pacing myself so that I don't run all of hyrule to get all secrets. And man are there a ton of secrets, a few optional mini dungeons too.

My God, this game is quite special.  It's everything I've wanted from a DS Zelda but never received until now.  I cannot tell you how much the flatten mechanic changes things.  I feel like I am cheating, reaching areas that I'm not supposed to until way later into the game.

gamingeek said:

How do you have all items D?

Cause you can rent them all. Well all the sold items, there is gear and a few other stuff you find.

If this game was any better, I'd need tissues and a cigarrette after I was done playing.....I might have gone too far, but this game is so good.  I've only completed 2 dungeons in Lorule so far, and have done some moderate exploring in both worlds but that said if the rest of the game keeps pace this could be the best Zelda game we have seen in over a decade.