Publisher: Nintendo
Ages: nine and up.
Parental
Advisory:
Arcade violence
Editor's Choice
One of Nintendo's longtime aces has been Zelda. And with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendo delivers a superb adventure game that offers a fantastic experience and appeals to a wide audience.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is an epic adventure game where a young boy saves the world from forces of evil. And while the basic plot sounds like every other in this genre, the title does an exceptional job of mixing action and adventure elements with challenging puzzles and a good, in-depth storyline.
Link, the young boy, sets off on an adventure across a mysterious sea. Aided by a magical conductor's baton called the Wind Waker, he faces an array of monsters and explores dungeons and meets other characters while searching for his lost sister. Using the Wind Waker, Link can compose songs that control wind patterns, allowing him to sail by way of air currents, navigate through ocean gales and even summon cyclones.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has excellent graphics. The attractive toon-shaded graphics and facial animations let the characters express emotion, and there are well animated enemies and detailed environments.
The controls are intuitive-much like those of its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (there's little reason to change a good thing). A lot of the play involves sailing around the game's world and obtaining key items. And this is most apparent in the latter half of the game when players have to search for and obtain the items that they need. As an adventure game, the title features lots of fighting, but the violence is mild.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a one-player game, but a second player can participate by using a Game Boy Advance and cable. By attaching the Game Boy Advance to the GameCube (no additional software is necessary), a second player can use the Game Boy Advance to summon the mapmaker Tingle and help the primary player. Tingle may be used to uncover hidden secrets, heal, restore magic, drop bombs and more. This Game Boy Advance connection gives Zelda added depth that lets family members play together.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker not only rides the significant coattails of its predecessor and walks in its shoes, it is an outstanding game that takes significant steps of its own. As such, it offers the most compelling adventure play on any platform.
4/23/03 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
