Genre: Action-Adventure/RPG
Developer: EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Released On: Mar 24, 2003
# of Players: 1-2 Players (via GBA Link)
Memory: 12 Blocks
ERSB: Everyone
Supports: DDPL-II, Progressive Scan, GBA Connectivity
MSRP: $49.99
Also On: None
Website: Zelda.com
GameCube makes love with: Both Link & Samus if you own both games.
A new benchmark for Videogames & entertainment is here. It took some time and a lot of criticism from gamers (including me) but it’s finally here. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the 13th (10th, officially) installment in Nintendo’s ultra popular action-RPG series is finally here on the GameCube. The legend of Zelda has had its ups & downs including 3 horrible versions of the series release on the worthless console CD-i. But The Legend of Zelda has always had more good times than bad. Like its NES predecessor in 1987, to Link’s awesome adventure on the SNES in 1992 and to his most epic quest in 1998 on the N64, The Wind Waker is a game so enjoyable, it has the power to pull videogame players into its imaginative, massive, cel-shaded worlds and refuse to let go for days. When I first got my hands on the import I couldn’t let go for months. Months that eventually led all the way up to the U.S. release of the game, where I hacked and slashed all the way through to the end, this time enjoying the well written & light hearted story.
"A new benchmark for Videogames & entertainment is here. It took some time and a lot of criticism from gamers but it’s finally here."
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Rarely, is there such a perfect mixture of graphics, sound, and gameplay that even the most anti-Nintendo players will admit to others or two themselves that The Wind Waker is one of the best games they’ve come across in their lifetime.
Journey through the massive sea of the Wind Waker and remember… the adventure... is in the Wind.
Presentation:
When you boot-up Wind Waker you’re met with a nicely done intro with the WW logo center screen. As it swings around showing you the most of Outset Island with the coolest music playing. I’m thinking its Bag Pipes playing but I’m not sure on that. Then you’re taken to the classic title screen Zelda stuff. Save slots options, etc… nothing too important. But who cares start a new game already.
When you’re first starting, The Wind Waker’s story feels really separate from other Zelda games. But as you progress through the game it ends up tying in quite well with the rest of the series. The game starts you off on Outset Island, where you live with your sister and grandmother. It’s your Link’s (or whatever you named him) 10th birthday, and he’s reached the age when it’s customary for boys to wear a green outfit in honor of Link, who is now known as the "hero of time" in the legends that speak of his Ocarina exploits (I guess this is the second Link). Shortly after you wake up and don your classical green Tunic, all hell breaks loose in the form when a giant bird carrying a small girl takes off toward the an island, with a pirate ship giving chase and firing cannonballs. Eventually, the bird makes off with your sister, and you team up with the pirates to follow the bird and get your sister back. During this time one of the funniest things in a videogame happens (no I can’t tell you what). One thing leads to another and the very fate of the world hangs in your hand… well better get going.
Graphics
Remember how impressive it was when you skated around in the 3D environments of Jet Set Radio Future for the first time? Yeah most was impressed but I wasn’t. With me being the number one cel-shading hater in America, as well as a major Zelda fan, I freaked when I first saw Link’s big weird eyes. But with The Wind Waker, Nintendo is raising the stakes of cel-shading considerably.
Grandma said not to play with sharp objects...
Once you step into the lands of The Wind Waker, the early morning sun will blind you; you will be mesmerized by the incredible scale and depth of the landscapes. Rolling hills extend all the way to the far horizon, with almost everything viewable in the distance. If you thought Super Mario Sunshine had amazing draw distance. You haven’t seen anything yet. You can see far enough with Link’s cute eyes, but when you use your telescope (you get it quite early) the view is near endless. There are some cases where you’re on your boat and can see thunder storms head your way that’s miles from your location.
The graphics are incredible. Nintendo concentrated on a perfectly executed 60fps in Metroid Prime. But not in The Wind Waker, instead Link runs wild at a locked 30fps. The towns in the game are highly detailed with its animated look. When Miyamoto-san explained it as a living-breathing cartoon he wasn’t lying. Characters animate fluidly and display several different expressions on their faces. Link alone has a good 100+ facial animations that helps you understand what he’s going through. In addition to the many wonderfully designed enemy characters roaming the dungeons and levels, The Wind Waker also pushes the limits of the console with super giant bosses. Add to that the enjoyable real-time rendered cut scenes that shape the story and you have one of the best looking console games ever made. The effects like heat-shimmering and particle explosions, real-time lighting, and motion blur, reflections, transparencies, and more are gorgeous and they all fit with the game perfectly. Trees blowing in the wind, birds flying around, and even bugs zip by to add to the tropic atmosphere. Hell I almost giggled myself to death over the drops of water & wet footprints after taking a swim. But there is one thing I hate. And that’s the water… I get seasick staring at all the blue and white colors the sea is made of. And trust me you’ll see LOADS of it. While the framerate isn’t the best you can find on GameCube, the colors, visibility, & animation are better than games that use motion capturing are the best yet seen on any console period. Add to that the Progressive Scan support and you have one hell of a chunk of eye-candy. Even makes me enjoy the water a little.
Sound:
The Legend of Zelda returns to deliver a whole songbook full of tunes to tap your foot to. Lots of the eerie dungeon tunes from Zelda’s past make there way back in Wind Waker. Even classic overworld themes are here in full force. But what really makes this game are the sound effects. Every location has a multitude of noises, from the splashing of the waves on the beach, the whistle of wind when you’re sailing, to the howling of some angry creature in the mysterious beyond. The sound effects are brilliant. Depending on what you hit with your sword, you hear a cool metal clank, or a thud, the bow and arrow are as convincing as the real thing, and the screams in one of the games Temples are downright scary. Link’s footsteps are as convincing as they can be. In certain locations, thunder can be heard soon a storm will hit and it will start to rain. Just wait until you hear the music of the final battle. You’ll almost piss in your pants. And the great thing is the game is in full surround sound. Yes baby Wind Waker supports full Dolby Digital Pro-Logic II. The big disappointment here is no voice work like almost every game on the market now. Sure I agree with Miyamoto-san that Link with the wrong voice might cause problems with Zelda fans. Everyone has their own thought on what Link sounds like. But Link was never a big talker now was he? Nintendo could have easily done voice-overs for every character EXCEPT Link and it would have worked out fine. That’s something to think about for next time EAD.
Gameplay:
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker leads players through dark dungeons, a massive ocean, and about 50 different islands, all the way to the end to vanquish the evil that is known as Ganon. To say that this game is huge is an understatement. Every time you discover a new island out at sea, you’ll be amazed at the detail, the richness of scenery, the many things to do, and the amount of thought that went into designing it all. For example, players can spend hours just exploring an island village, talking to the locals, solving puzzles to help them, and looking for hidden items & treasure.
As soon as you pick up the controls for the first time and start to explore the vast world that makes up this latest classic from Nintendo’s first class EAD team, you know you’re in for a treat. At first, the control is very if not too similar to the N64 Zelda’s, the games that single-handedly invented 3D action-adventure as we know them, but there’s an old saying, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. But if there’s nothing to fix there’s only one thing to do, and that’s to build on the winning formula. And the Wind Waker does just that. Each action is done with a precision that few other games have.
"Link now has a large variety of different combination attacks to use. All of them being more stylistic than Zelda’s of the past."
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The improvement over OoT and MM is obvious. And don’t think it’s the same old moves, Link now has a large variety of different combination attacks to use. All of them being more stylistic than Zelda’s of the past. Adding to the strategy of combat players can now tap the A button at specific times to perform a special parry move. Some will laugh at me for using the words “strategy” & “combat” in the same sentence for a Zelda game. But fact is it does add depth to the way you have to dispose of enemies. Nothing Metroid Prime worthy (MP has some tough ass baddies) but it adds a nice touch to battles. As in the N64 titles, when you see a character or an object that interests you or you’re being attacked by an enemy, press the L shoulder button. This will bring up a red arrow that locks onto your target. Now, as long as you hold the L button again, the camera will stay on your target, retaining its over the shoulder position. This allows you to circle your enemies and slash at them while side-stepping, back-flipping and shielding yourself from receiving attacks. While you are locking on to a target, the screen will become slightly altered to let you know that the target mode is active. Needless to say that the L button lock-on feature works well just like Ocarina did in the past. Additionally, after knocking down or slaying a beast it’s possible to take their weapon and use it against them, or to break down walls, or to light torches, which is another welcome addition to the Zelda universe.
As usual Link gets his hands on all types of gadgets, essential to the victory of his quest. The classic weapons return such as the old bow & arrows, boomerang, etc… and new like the grapple hook & Deku leaf. Items such as the boomerang have been upgraded so that Link can now target many enemies (as many as 5) with one powerful swipe. While in and out of combat the C-Stick now offers full control of the camera, which is 98.9% perfect and barely needs manual correction.
The gameplay objectives will be instantly familiar to gamers with experience in the series. Push switches/blocks to find hidden rooms, use bombs to uncover secret passages, shoot arrows at certain objects to open doors. Same goes for the dungeon crawling find map, find compass, find keys, find new weapon, use new weapon to slaughter the boss, but all seems, in a sense, fresh. Nothing is ever too familiar and the puzzles are clever & challenging. But there’s one main problem along the way in Wind Waker. And that’s the difficulty. Wind Waker’s puzzles & dungeons are just as challenging as past Zelda games (about the same as A Link to the Past). But the challenge drops during combat. Enemies are simply put too easy to conquer. The A.I. is well done for the most part but it’s almost as they refuse to block your attacks. There offense is great but we all know defense wins the game. And that brings me to another matter, enemies do not deal out damage as they should. Even bosses can’t bring the pain to Link. What is he made out of STEEL??? When a giant lava monster cracks Link directly on the top of his noggin. He should loose a heart & a half not ¼ of a heart. So while you use your brain in all dungeons you have a sound mind figure out the puzzles without having to worry about dying.
A big part of Wind Waker is the ability to sail. About 40min into the game you should have met your sail boat King of Red Lions. A talking boat that helps you on your quest (he also gives you hints through a magic stone… think Navi). Certain weapons can also be equipped to King of Red Lions. Like the grapple hook for finding treasure or your bombs for a very handy cannon. Sailing the massive sea is much fun for the most part. But sometimes it feels like a chore more than a necessity. Using the Wind Waker may be complicated for some so having to change the direction of the wind every five minuets can get agonizing. Lucky that later on you learn a song to warp to previously visited locations. On your boat you have mini-games to play, treasure to find, at sea battles to conquer, pretty much a lot to do. But the fun factor of these activities will be cherished by some & cursed by others. Plus there’s about 5 billion gallons of water to cross so don’t be surprised if you get sea sick.
Lasting Appeal:
The Wind Waker is a long game. But as mentioned before the low difficulty level & lack of Dungeons compared to OoT waters down the main quest from a possible 40hr game to a 25hr game. The advanced gamer could possibly finish the main quest in around 17hrs. But on the good side most major LoZ players who must collect every item in the game will have bundles of time to waste collecting Pieces of Heart, secret treasures, and much more. There’s even a second quest where there are even more items to be found. If you’re the type of guy who has to get the 100% completion of the game can get over 60hr of play time.
Conclusion:
There’s not too many instances in any era of videogames when I’ve enjoyed myself so much. But that’s what The Legend of Zelda is all about. The fighting system is fantastic, there’s just so much more depth in the combat in The Wind Waker than any other Zelda game, or any other action-adventure game available.
"There’s one word to sum up this game “Epic”."
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The new camera system is rock solid with no problems. Something no other game has ever achieved besides the GameCube’s other gem, Metroid Prime. Apart from being cel-shaded the graphics are tremendously well done. The Wind Waker features the best cel-shading to date in a game on any platform, rivaled only by the cel-shaded work in Zone of Enders 2, for Sony’s console. The sunlight and rain storms, the water, the fire, the smoke, the different looks on Link’s face, everything is displayed in vibrant colors and with tons of attention to detail. The Wind Waker should be the main blueprint for all third-party developers making games of its type. The Dungeons are clever & challenging but as long as you have a brain you should be able to finish them. But I miss the “makes you wanna commit suicide” difficulty like the Water Temple of Ocarina of Time or The Shrine of Earth in Zelda’s Adventure (CD-i). Even playing two players via the GBA/GCN Link Cable is a blast. Having Tingle the gay map maker is pretty nice to have helping you. Even though I don’t recommend this until your second time through since it lowers the difficulty of the game.
The fact is, that with its few shortcomings, there was nothing bad enough for me to want to tax the overall score of the game. There is nothing in the game that gets overly frustration or boring. Does it live up to the standards set by Ocarina of Time… no it doesn’t. But Majora’s Mask didn’t either. But both are excellent games 10 million steps ahead of most games of the genre. Sure this wasn’t the ride I expected on the GameCube but it’s a ride I’ll continue to take until the next Legend of Zelda game hits stores. There’s one word to sum up this game “Epic”. Kudos Nintendo you’ve done it again. Successfully gave the gaming public “The Nintendo Difference”.
~ditto~
The Good
+ Inspiring story
+ Flawless combat system
+ Excellent Music
+ Great controls
+ Best cel-shading ever seen
+ Almost endless stuff to do
+ Great camera control
+ Classic Zelda + Modern Zelda = Near perfect game The Bad
- Traveling can sometimes be a chore
- Poor damage calculation
The Stupid
? Huh… there’s nothing stupid about this game
