The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Everyone knows the Zelda series, young or old. It, with the Mario series, basically has been a fall-back for Nintendo ever since Nintendo has been in existence. Shitty console? Make it cool with Zelda! It worked for us, because the old Zelda games had so much work into them, they could make the worst system awesome (With the exclusion of the CD-I games).

Enter the Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker. Originally known as "Zelda for the Gamecube", this was the Zelda game that has been awaited for by Zelda fans ever since the word "Next-Gen Dolphin" entered every N64 gamer's mouth. Originally, this game was a tech demo to show off the Gamecube: a realistic looking Link hacking at a realistic looking Gannon with some kickass amazing graphics that made me want to pee myself.

Now lets look at what REALLY happened. Gone are the realistic graphics. Gone is the interesting plot lines theorized by forumers back then. Gone is the whole adult feel of the Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time. Rather, Nintendo opted to have a very childish look to this game, making it look like a drawing an Anime creator would be embarassed of.

Everyone knows I'm biased about this game. This game was the final nail in the coffin to me about my new hate for Nintendo. I used to be a huge Nintendo fanboy, playing only Nintendo systems and Nintendo games, never ever thinking of purchasing a heathen PS2 or XBOX. Slowly but surely, my Nintendo Power magazine became a big advertisement magazine full of Nintendo blowjobs and childish advertisements. Slowly, my Nintendo 64 choices at stores were full of Pokemon games. Slowly, every advertisement I saw for Nintendo was always trying to tell me that I should go beg mommy for more money to buy the latest Mario game. Slowly, I began to not care.

And, god bless Nintendo, they decided to be utter assholes and put out this game. This was my last hope for Nintendo- the only game that would set them apart from the person who made Razor scooters, or the people who market Digimon. However, they screwed it up. They took a decent, adult-looking game that looked like a perfect extention of The Ocarina of Time and screwed it over.

Case in point: Look at this (Huge) picture:

Note: Link does not look like he belongs carrying a sword or anything of that matter. In fact, Link pretty much looks like exactly what Nintendo seems to be targeting: 10 year olds kids. This game is rife with cell shading, cheap quests, easy dungeons, and childish bosses.

I have a theory about this game. The Gamecube is an extremely powerful system. However, I suspect that the graphics shown to us when the Gamecube was being presented at E3 were bogus. Either they were not truely generated by the Gamecube, or the Gamecube cannot handle a game with such complex graphics. There was NO reason for Nintendo to take this game into a childish realm. In fact, I don't think they realized that Ocarina of Time sold so well because a kid or a grown up could play it. This game, definately out.

Feeling like a Game Boy Zelda gone s***ty, this game really shows nothing that Nintendo hasnt done before. Boomerangs, a sort of Hookshot, a Bow, etc- the only real new thing here is the Deku Leaf and the Wand-ish instrument, both feeling like they really contribute nothing of their own. Rather, this game just takes a new spin on the traditional Zelda series and perverts it into this island adventure.

Then comes the actual new ideas in this game. You basically have a ship to go around the islands with (Go figure), which you must control the winds to get to where you want to go. While a good idea on its own, the game is plagued with the following problems because of this:
1. It takes forever to go anywhere without any kind of warping
2. The water gets old to me, and Link's limitations on swimming make it worse,
3. The question arises: How are these people eating?

Overall, a good idea gone boring. The battle system is, of course, nothing new- it feels just like the OOT one, without the fun. In fact, this game is exactly what would happen if you took Ocarina of Time, took out the adult bits, took out a step or two of difficulty, and replaced all of that with cel shading. You think I'm kidding.



The story is another pet peeve with me. Myamoto basically made it obvious with this game that there is no "One Link", where each character BECOMES Link to save whereverthehell he is. Of course, this sounds interesting, until you realize that Myamoto is blasting this BS only because he doesnt want sequels. I don't want technical sequels either, but I seriously think that doing that little "Someone becomes "Link"" thing is a little.. well.. dumb.

Now for the few good points of the game. The game is relatively long, so I don't think this game is a short-and-sweet game, unless you ignore everything. The collecting minigames and sidequests, though irritating and childish, do expand the game. And, because the ocean is so big, there is an expansive feel to the game, giving you the feel that you could travel anywhere and find something relatively new.

However, this still doesnt relieve me of my anger about this game. The only good thing I got out of purchasing this game was a disc of OOT and OOT:Master Quest (Harder dungeons), which means I can spend time figuring out the Master Quest game, rather than wasting my time with Wind Waker. Otherwise, this passes me as just... another... sequel. Nintendo sure seems to have difficulty procuring a game that isnt a sequel, but this is lunacy- if you're going to make a sequel, make it decent.



Overall, I'd recommend getting the OOT Master Quest disc off of Ebay or something, and skipping this game over. If you are new to the series, you might enjoy this, but overall, this is a horrible addition to any longstanding Zelda fan, and I would jam 100 electric needles in my eyes if Nintendo would make a decent Zelda game.

(Note: There is a happy ending to this review. Nintendo is making another Zelda game, with help from the guy who directed the Resident Evil games, as well as fully realistic characters, and there is a distinct possibility that it might be rated Mature, or at least Teen. Thank the good lord they have seen the light.

1 star(s) out of 5

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