Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker

Platform	GameCube
List Price	$19.99

Published by	Nintendo
Release date
ASIN	B000084318
Availability

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker returns you to the world of Hyrule as you travel the waves to tame the winds! Brilliant combat, fantastic facial expressions and beautiful oceans will immerse you in the land of Hyrule as you face Gannon!

The Legend of Zelda series practically defined adventure gaming for an entire generation. Link, the hero of the adventure games, delighted millions by starring in games for each Nintendo console from the NES and Super NES to the Nintendo 64. Link brings this beloved franchise to the Nintendo GameCube in The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and he's more animated than ever.

The first thing you'll notice about The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker is that it looks completely different from any previous title in the franchise. Nintendo has opted to use cel-shading technology on Wind Waker; the result is that the game looks like a cartoon. Die-hard Zelda purists initially howled at this change, arguing that the game skews too young. I think it's fantastic. The cartoon animation style allows for better expression of the characters, and several of the animations--like Link trying to pick up an object that's too heavy--are so cute that you can't help but laugh a little.

The second thing you?ll notice is a focus on wind. Instead of trotting around on foot, Link travels from island to island on a talking boat, but he doesn't get far without the wind blowing in right direction. Luckily, you'll learn how to change the direction of the wind early in the game, and you'll do so frequently--not only to power your boat but also to solve puzzles. Clever use of wind makes Wind Waker stand out from more conventional adventure games.

The third thing you?ll notice is that the game is just plain fun. Puzzles are innovative and refreshing, and despite some tricky puzzles, I never felt too frustrated to keep playing. The locales you'll visit are invariably exotic and fun to explore, and the host of bizarre creatures you'll encounter (friendly and otherwise) are always a kick in the pants. Moreover, though the look is radically different, Wind Waker feels like a classic Zelda game. Veterans of the early games in the franchise will experience more than a bit of nostalgia while playing it.

The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker is everything you've come to expect from a Zelda game, and it's one of the best adventure games to date. This is a must-have title for any GameCube owner. --Jon "Safety Monkey" Grover

Pros:

New cel-shaded animation looks great
Puzzles and characters are a lot of fun
There's a special place in the heart of any gamer who's ever owned a Nintendo console, and that place is shaped like a Triforce

Cons:

Some Zelda purists may be turned off by the cartoon look

Customer Reviews - courtesy of Amazon.com

The Wind Waker--Pretty Good Zelda

In early 2003, the first new Zelda game for the Gamecube was released in North America. It was called The Wind Waker. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of The Legend of Zelda series, stated that he could produce a Zelda game for "All-ages". Here's my Review:

1. Story- Basically, Link lives on a small tropical island in the middle of a huge ocean called The Great Sea. When a gigantic bird appears and kidnaps Link's younger sister, he sets off on a quest to rescue her with the help of a magical talking boat called the King of Red Lions. There's much more to the story than that, but that's all I can reveal without the risk of giving away a spoiler.

2. Controls- The controls of the game are almost flawless. The Gamecube controller is easy to get used to with a Zelda title after playing Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask on the Nintendo 64. My only problem was the yellow C-stick. When you're sailing on the ocean, you'll use a baton called the Wind Waker constantly to make the wind blow in the desired cardinal direction you want to sail in. My problem was when you are choosing a direction, it was difficult to spin the C-stick and make it stop at the place I wanted it to. However, I got used to moving it, and it was not as much of a problem.

3. Graphics- Wind Waker's surprising choice of graphics and animation was where many loyal Zelda fans moaned and complained. They expected that with the Gamecube, there would be an upgrade in the graphics department making the new Zelda look like a prettier Ocarina of Time. While instead, along with Miyamoto's plan for a Zelda game for all-ages, they got cartoonish cel-shaded graphics. I personally find the new graphics to be beautiful, original, and just plain fun to look at. Also, the redisigned characters, especially Link, are very expressive.

4. Difficulty- This is my major problem with the game. It is way too easy! Because Miyamoto said he'd make Zelda for all-ages, that explains why the difficulty level was decreased so much so that it could appeal to younger gamers. It doesn't take Einstein to figure out the puzzles in this game. The bosses are fun but very simple, and most Zelda veterans have likely beaten bosses similar to these in previous Zelda games. So, because of this, it leaves the older players with little sense of achievement after beating the game.

5. Length- My other problem with the game: it's just too short. The game has a whopping grand total of 6 dungeons, and none of them take particularly long to get through. Most other Zelda games have a minimum of 8 and some even go up to 10 normal-sized dungeons. There is a place in the game where there could potentially have been a water temple, and for some reason there wasn't one. Also, near the end of the game,
Link must get through a tedious quest to collect 8 fragments of the Triforce, which I thought was cheaply tacked-on to extend the game's length. They could have added one or two more dungeons and I would not have had a problem.

6. Music- The music is great. It has some tunes that can get stuck in your head hours later. It also includes many of the classic songs remixed from Ocarina of Time and other previous Zelda games.

Overall, The Wind Waker is a great Zelda game, just not amazing like Ocarina of Time.

Best game on Gamecube

This is my favorite game on the Gamecube. I still go back and play it from time to time. Highly reccomended.

Worth the wait

We spent a long time looking for a new copy of this older game and finally found it on Amazon. It has been great fun and worth our efforts to find it. It was shipped quickly and arrived in perfect condition.

Play the game first before jumping to conclusions

Wind Waker. Yeah, ok so it's cel-shaded. So what? The game makes it work
for itself and besides, it has tons upon tons of things to find and do. You could literally spend hours just sailing around finding secrets. The music-centred gameplay is also a fantastic idea! All in all, it's very fun and a very unique game.

For the Zelda purists reading this review, let me just say that I was once a purist, just like you (well, still am). I pissed and moaned about the cartoony look as well, but I just sat down and played it; 6 hours later I was deep into the game, loving everything about it. Think of this game as a lollipop laced with heroin, or some other equally addictive substance. That is, it may be brightly colored and childish on the outside, but take one lick and you're hooked for life!

First off, the seafaring system is a wonderful idea; however, when it usually takes 10-20 mins to get from point A to point B in the Great Sea, and you have to do that very often (before you get the warp tunes), it can suck the fun right out of the game. There are a lot of really annoying areas that also tend to suck the fun out of it. Aside from that, the gameplay is very smooth, the graphics and sound are phenomenal, and there a lot of very innovative ideas implemented in Wind Waker.

WOW!!!!:)

wind waker is 1 of the BEST games I have ever played!!!!!!! the grapix,music,action! i for one am a Zelda fan this was actually my first Zelda game i ever played, and i still play it today it never gets old!! the only word to describe this game is...WOW!!!!