The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube)
By: Neal "Petrodon" LeyendeckerDate: Friday, March 28, 2003
Before the 1980's if you were to say the word 'Zelda' to someone, they would tell you that it was the name of a woman, probably in her late seventies, that most likely lived in a house about five blocks from you and had 29 cats. However, a wonderful gem of a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System changed all that. Today if you ask anyone under the age of thirty about Zelda, they will tell you that Zelda rocks and that they totally ownz3d Ganon, who is a little punk bitch. Naturally what they are talking about isn't a kooky old broad with cats, but the Legend of Zelda, one of the most popular series of games ever to grace the various Nintendo consoles.
The newest Zelda game, The Wind Waker, is meant to be an indirect sequel to The Ocarina of Time game for the Nintendo 64. As it happens, that same game was included in a bonus disk given away by the company for buying The Wind Waker, and I truly hope you played it, for a multitude of reasons. The first of which is that by playing the Ocarina of Time will give you a good amount of back story which will help in playing The Wind Waker. But in reality, the back-story isn't that important. What is important is that by playing Ocarina of Time you will learn the controller layout and the methods of fine-tuning your game control. This is due to the fact that in some respects Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker are nearly identical. But not exactly.
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You begin your quest in a lonely corner of the world, on a small island called Outset. As usual, you play a young boy with aspirations of greatness. You can name your character anything you like, but for my own purposes I will name him Link, which is the default name for the hero of the series. In the beginning, Link isn't even wearing his customary green tunic, but soon receives it from his grandmother who informs him that it is tradition that upon the coming of age (age not specified) you are to wear a green tunic and officially become a man. And no, this is a game for everyone; so going to the village madam is not an option. Anyway, you then fall right on into the story, which begins with the rescue of a very short pirate. Don't worry; it'll all make sense when you play it. The story is highly captivating, and relies heavily on the ocean, which is the main center of this game. As you play you will move around the sea in a sailing craft called the King of Red Lions, which takes you to the various locations in which you will swing your sword, do battle, and make the world safe for democracy. Or something like that.
The basis of the game is that an unknown evil has been resurrected and it is up to you to go and stop it, in a manner of speaking. You will sail around the game map to various locations to gather info and power, swing your sword, yadda yadda yadda, see the above, in order to win. This is a huge oversimplification of what will actually transpire, but, naturally, I do not want to give the plot away.
The point of the game is rather linear, you can move from point to point and finish the game within ten or so hours, but the true heart of this game is in the details. The real fun of the Wind Waker is the side quests, extras and the mini-games. While the adventure portion of it is great (more on that later) I found that playing the side stuff was actually more fun. The game definitely does not disappoint in this regard, I found that many of the side stuff made the challenge of the game that much more enjoyable. I highly recommend the Battleship like game on the town island, not only was it fun to play, but it was also hilarious, because of the game's proprietor. There is a nearly unstoppable tide of games to play and other things to do, and while I usually find a few that do not interest me, (Blitzball from FFX comes instantly to mind) the mini games in the Wind Waker are very enjoyable.
The game definitely marks a tremendous step forward in the visuals arena. To date the largest complaint regarding Wind Waker was the fact that the game is cel shaded and very cartoon-ish than any previous Zelda title of late. I must admit at first I was skeptical. That went away in about ten minutes. After playing the game for a few hours I was so enraptured by fun play style and the story that I was impressed with how detailed the graphics were. Making the choice to use cel shading rather than a more traditional art approach actually allowed the developers to accomplish more impressive visual effects than one would expect. Rather then limiting the size of given rooms in order to fully render massive detail, the graphics tend to go for depth and size instead, allowing for some extremely large arenas and rooms. Another example is that there is no cutting on any outdoor map, even the world map. Moving from island to island involves no pausing for disc loading - at all. The seamless transition from map to map cuts the in-game load times to near zero. This game is a great deal faster then most disc based games I have ever played. I would say that even though they are much more cartoony and use more primary colors, the look and feel of Wind Waker easily surpasses that of most platform style games.
The game uses music as a major theme, so the music has to be good right? Well, yeah. The music for Wind Waker is, as customary for a Zelda game, quite well done. The designers brought back the composer of the themes for Ocarina of Time, Koji Kondo. Mr. Kondo has made some significant adaptations to the music themes from Ocarina of Time that were included in Wind Waker, however, many themes are similar if not identical to the Ocarina of Time original. There is a good mix of both old and new themes, a few variations, but many die-hard fans will be happy to hear that there still exists an original overworld Zelda theme. One particular favorite is the opening music, which is a well-done full Irish Jig. You have to hear this one, I played the opening through a few times just to hear it again.
The gameplay of Wind Waker has taken a dramatic leap forward in the years since the original. Like I stated previously, Wind Waker makes liberal use of the Ocarina of Time controls, but that is pretty much where the similarity ends. For starters, the environment in Wind Waker is much more interactive then ever before. In order to simply finish this game you will need to learn to disregard standard conventions of what you can do, and what you can and cannot interact with. In Wind Waker the creators have taken pains to make sure you can never get stuck in a loop, or a stopping point because you are limited by skill, they do this by making each puzzle or scenario able to be solved in multiple ways. Or, in other words, if what you're doing isn't working, try something else. Sometimes you will need some guidance as to which pieces of the environment you can interact with, so a good rule of thumb is, if you are getting stuck, watch Link's eyes, he will guide you to what it is you need to use or investigate. The motion of the game is precise and fluid, I would say better than many games I have ever played. The game has some old favorites in terms of weapons, such as the boomerang and bow and arrow, but it also has some new ones, many of which I would have desperately liked to have in other Zelda games, such as the Grappling Hook. Unlike the old standby the Hookshot, the Grappling Hook is used primarily for swinging between platforms. The game is packed full of new object such as these, and many have some fun and interesting uses.
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This game is absolutely huge. One thing I never quite liked about Ocarina of Time was the restriction of movements based on the area map and room map. Playing that game gave me the distinct impression I were playing a game that was highly linear (although not as much so as the original NES game which was nothing but a series of boxes intertwined). Zelda games have often pushed the limits of originality and Wind Waker is no exception to that rule. Moreover, I find that the new and exciting ideas, as well as the size make for a massive leap in the architecture and design of video games. One thing that I find about PC games is that, while they push the technological limits of the computers that they are played on, many end up being simple rehashes of old concepts. This new game with these new ideas has got me highly charged for gaming's future.
Wind Waker also has some interesting multiplayer concepts. Though the main game is at heart a one-player adventure game, there is one way that you and a friend can play the game together. The Wind Waker has the ability to have another player link up to the game via the GameBoy Advance GameCube link cable. In this cooperative mode, the linked player can act as an ally of Link, Tingle. The ability to link together is not in any way vital to playing the game, but it does allow you to play even more mini games. Oh, and if you are in a bind, Tingle can help you out by physically bailing you out of danger or helping with much needed powerups. All in all, this is a great addition to the game, and can allow for just a taste of multiplayer in a one-player game.
This is the part of the review where I usually tell you where the snags or problems with this particular game are, and this review will be no exception. The only thing is, that I couldn't find any. Not one. No technical flubs, no gripes about the gameplay, no annoying little bugs that made me say, "Well, damn, this game would be better if THAT wasn't here or THIS were." Nope. I enjoyed every single facet of this game. It wasn't too hard, it wasn't too easy. It is, without a doubt, the best NGC game. Ever.
So, in conclusion, you must have this game. I would say that Wind Waker is a very good buy, especially with the fact that you can get two free games along with it. But even if Wind Waker stood alone, which it does in many ways, it would still be worth every penny you pay for it. The one overriding characteristic of the Wind Waker is that it is fun. And even if I had to sacrifice graphics and sound to make it fun I would still be reasonably happy, but for a refreshing change I didn't have to do that.
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|  | highs No load times, huge game map, many hours of play, interesting concepts, good story, excellent graphics and sound, added multiplayer; | | lows I can't visit the Village Madam. Other than that, this game rocks. | | stability Stable learning curve Low | ||
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