The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is one hell of a risk.

More than two decades after The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time, Nintendo is doing the unthinkable with a direct sequel. There are no nebulous allusions to hidden timelines. There are no cute winks or nods or maybes. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds takes on all the expectations and danger of direct acknowledgement of its predecessor.

But A Link Between Worlds takes the fundamentals of the series' 16-bit era and flips its design conceits on their head. Nintendo has taken its most sacred cow and pushed it out into a more open world with all the terrifying freedom the series has never had.

The result? The best Zelda game of the last twenty years.

A Link Between Worlds is set in the same Hyrule as A Link to the Past. Sure, it's a few generations later, but for fans of the series — which, let's be clear, should be you — everything will be right where you left it. It follows the adventures of a new Link, a new hero of Hyrule. Pulled into a strange conspiracy involving a villain who turns his victims into paintings and spirits them away to a dark shadow world called Lorule, Link is saved by a mysterious magic bracelet. This grants Link a special gift: the ability to transform into a painting himself and move along walls in 2D.

But here's the thing: before going two-dimensional, A Link Between Worlds re-establishes the series' former tropes and mechanics as quickly as possible. There are no five-hour tutorial phases, no hand-holding. You go from waking up in your bed to swinging a sword in all of five minutes. This new Zelda doesn't waste any time getting you to play it. And it plays incredibly well.