The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is an action-adventure game in the Zelda series. It's the seventeenth game and spiritual successor to the 1991 game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. A more open adventure with a novel world-jumping mechanic makes this an unusual and popular game in the series.

Set years after the events of A Link to the Past, you play young adventurer Link on a mission to restore peace to Hyrule after Princess Zelda escaped Yuga's clutches through a rift into the parallel world of Lorule. This sets up the game's world-switching play, which makes use of the Nintendo 3DS 3D feature to let Link turn 2D and slip between universes.

Play involves exploring the world to battle enemies and find items that lead to the different dungeons. Each of these dungeons are large labyrinthine areas that offer a different and self-contained challenge. By switching between the two kingdoms (Hyrule and Lorule) you can gain access to different areas of the map and advance the story by meeting and helping characters in both realms.

Unlike many Zelda games, you can clear the majority of dungeons in any order. Also, rather than earn weapons you can instead just rent them. If you die your items are returned to the store. As you progress you can some permanent items like your shield and sword. You can also increase your maximum life energy via hearts.

The result is a novel and beautifully crafted world-spanning adventure that is more open-ended than previous Zelda games.