Zelda: The Wind Waker

Ambush Bug · Post by **Ambush Bug** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 2:47 pm

Here's the short version: This is the Game of the Year. Period. The long version: I went and picked up my reserved copy of ZWW last week, vaguely wondering at the time if it would cut into my time with Pikmin (another kick-ass game). Oh, boy, did it ever. I was a slight bit skeptical of ZWW, mostly because I could not stand the previous Zelda game, Ocinara of Time. OoT was blurry, pixelated, and a victim of the 'we've got 3D hardware, let's use it!' school of game design. Not to mention the plot, for me anyway, dropped off about halfway through. This is not the case with ZWW. The cel-shading, which was also something I was a bit worried about, is done so unbelievably well that it really does feel like you're playing a well-drawn cartoon. I think there's been only one or two times in the last 20+ hours of playing that I've actually noticed polygons, and that was because I jammed up against a wall and the camera got stuffed right next to Link's hat. The gameplay is far different from previous Zelda games, in that you've now got to sail where you want to go. The entire world is one big sea, with various islands poking up out of the water that you have to visit. Sailing is a great way to break up the game between dungeons--you get finished with a big boss, and you have to hop in your boat and sail for a good five minutes or so to get to the next place you want to go. In the daytime, sailing is a relaxing pastime, but at night... well, I'll put it this way--I haven't had that particular queasiness in my stomach since I went and got majorly lost in the nebula while playing FreeSpace 2. The water isn't flat, either--it swells and crests just like a real ocean, and depending on the time of day and the weather, the water changes appearance and behavior to match. And the weather... oh my. Nothing like trying to dodge cyclones in the middile of a heavy thunderstorm at midnight to make for some tense moments! I've had to fight off pirates, escape from giant kraken, and race away from killer sharks to get where I want to go. Another thing: This Zelda game actually has a plot. A good one, compared to the rest of the lot, for which I'm grateful. I didn't mind the lack of plot in the very first Zelda game, but that's becuase it was the first Zelda game. Puzzles: There's a lot of them in the various dungeons, and they range in difficulty from 'cakewalk' to 'damn, can't believe I didn't think of that' to 'curse your festering hide... at least until I get past this part!' Let's just say that if you're up against a wall, you should examine everything you have in your inventory and see if it will help you out. Sometimes you have to think outside the box, and it's refreshing to do so. Animation: Smooth. Utterly smooth. I think I've had the framerate dip on me just once and that was while I had a boss spewing what must have been thousands of individual particles at me, while his lackeys closed in for the kill. Even so, I was still able to keep on trucking smoothly, and hardly noticed it. The really neat thing is how the animation blends in so well with the cel-shading. there's this one enemy, for instance, that's a large humanoid pig with a huge spear, and these fellows plague you all throughout the game. Since you see them so often, apparently Nintendo went through the trouble to make them very responsive to what you do to them. I busted out laughing loud enough to wake the neighbor's dog last night when I stunned one of them with my boomerang (he fell back, eyes rolling every which way, stars circling his head), went around behind him, waited for him to get up, and then smacked him right on the ass with my sword. Said pig proceeds to grab his buttcheeks with both hands and hightail it around the room, screaming his head off--it was pure, unadulterated Warner Brothers, I tell you. Watching Link after he finishes up a Hurricane Spin is comedy gold. The game is FULL of little touches like this, just chock full of them. For instance, the guy that runs the 'battleship' game is one of the funniest things I have seen in a video game, EVER. Sound: Woof. Whoever put together the sound for this game needs a big promotion, a bigger raise, and access to all the scantily-clad members of the opposite sex he or she desires. Everything makes a sound, and they're all unique and appropriate. The flap of your sail, the swish of your sword as it slices through the air, the clang of Darknut armor as you cut its straps and send it hurtling to the floor, the roar of dragons... you name it, everything sounds great. And the music! Woooow! The music is just awesome stuff, well put-together, and there's some great homages to the original Zelda music in there, too. Gameplay: Smooth. Seamless. Intuitive. Once you start playing and get the controls down (easy enough), everything just seems to come naturally. I was recently in a battle with at least eight Darknuts and about twelve of those pig-warriors. Of course, I got to space them out abit, but I was taking on two or three opponents at a time... and you know what? It was challenging, yes, but I never once felt that the controls got in the way. I'd lock on to one guy, do a rolling counterattack as he swung at me (and smacked the baddie that had just entered the spot I'd vacated), come up from the counter, swing around and stun another baddie with the boomerang, lock on to another baddie and jump-attack him, and then land in between all three and spin-attack them all at once. It was smooth, fluid, and it just seemed to come naturally. Ocinara of Time had a similar control scheme, but its implementation just pales in comparison to ZWW. Pales, I say. The Bad Stuff: Yes, there's Bad Stuff about this game, at least in my opinion, but this particular one is a failing of Nintendo's game designers in general, and not specifically a Zelda-only thing. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's games that require strat-guides to get everything. Seriously. The latter half of this game is shaping up to be a gargantuan treasure hunt, and I swear to you that I wouldn't know about half of this stuff if I hadn't peeked a little bit at the indexes of some strat-guides over on GameFaqs. Mario Sunshine was like this, and that's why I stopped playing it because it just got too annoying. Mind you, earlier Zelda games had large amounts of find-the-item, but you know what, the game gave you some pretty good hints about it, and didn't stick the items in the most illogical places known to man, just to make things frustrating. A Link to The Past was a great mix of treasure-hunting and dungeons, IMO, and I wish more games had that particular level of challenge when it came to finding items. Even so, I'm going to end up playing this one all the way through, just because it's so damn cool. I'll probably end up printing out a guide after I beat the game and just getting everything I can, just to say I've done it. If you're looking for an excuse to buy a GameCube, this is it.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 3:42 pm

<a href="http://www.inktank.com/AT/index.cfm?toon=03-28-03" target="top">The Wild Wanker</a>? <img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/> XMEN member Card-carrying DTM OKL Fish-napper Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.  The Tao of Programming

Moses72 · Post by **Moses72** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:08 am

You.......that was the way I read it at first too <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"> <img src="http://www.thzclan.com/hosted/spinningh ... osesav.gif" style="border:0;"/>

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:12 am

(I'd seen that comic when it first went up, so when Bug posted his review, I was prepared. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> ) <img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/> XMEN member Card-carrying DTM OKL Fish-napper Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.  The Tao of Programming

89lb Walleye · Post by **89lb Walleye** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:33 am

Nice i take it you approve of the game? hehe, ill try it out next, and put up a review. <img src="http://www.thzclan.com/hosted/spinningh ...

Limited Reagent · Post by **Limited Reagent** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 3:59 pm

If I had a Gamecube, ZWW would be one of the few games I would buy. That, and probably Metroid. *Sigh* now if I only had a Gamecube...  Here lies the blood and bone of Change. A change that, from the cores of earth and mind, happened, Rocking the world from her stagnate sleep. Entropic facsimiles awoke from their undefined sleep, Destroying the light that Change held so dear.

LoSTimberWolf · Post by **LoSTimberWolf** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 6:32 pm

Zelda OoT was far better then the one after that Majoro's Mask, which was lame since you only had three days to play before the moon crashed down, in game. I don't have a game cube I do have every Zelda game released for every Nintendo game console, none of the hand helds. Some day I will get a Game Cube to get WW and Metroid Prime. -LoS-TimberWolf{FF} Vehicle Specilist

lynxbat · Post by **lynxbat** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 5:15 pm

nice info AB, I have actually been thinking about getting A GC now that ZWW is out. Something I swore I would never do btw. I got your &%#$0@! EZCODE right here.....

Zelda: The Wind Waker

Zelda: The Wind Waker

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