Most software companies have selling points for their games, such as amazing graphics or good physics or character abilities, etc. etc. With Nintendo games, these things are taken for granted. The graphics are like an interactive Disney cartoon, the physics are stunning, and the number of things that Link can do makes the selling points for Lara Croft games seem laughable (especially if you've actually been unfortunate enough to play a Tomb Raider game).
Whilst other companies try to sell their games with these gimmicks, Nintendo concentrate on making fun games.
This Zelda game was always going to disappoint however - no game could live up to the expectations we had for it. That doesn't mean that it's a bad game - by the standards of any other company, it's an excellent game - but by Shigeru Miyamoto's standards...
The best thing about Zelda games is the dungeons. Ocarina of Time had dungeons in Spades - Majora's Mask was sadly lacking, and so too is Wind Waker. It seems bizarre that Nintendo can create such a fantastic game world, and a character with so many abilities, but then fail to create scenarios in which you have to make best use of those abilities. For example, Link can now "sidle" along walls and peep around corners - but there is no point in the game where this is necessary or useful. He can also hang from ledges and move along them - but there is only one point in the game where this is necessary. Why did Nintendo bother to create these abilities if you are hardly ever required to use them?
Although the game is nowhere near as good as "Ocarina of Time" when it comes to dungeons, the game itself has improved in lots of ways. The main improvement is the battles. In Ocarina you would sometimes face two enemies in battle, but one of the enemies would wait politely for you to despatch the other before they would attack you. In "Wind Waker" there are often five or six enemies attacking you at once, and amusingly hitting each other by mistake. This makes the battles much more exhilerating, and it's nice to see that, although short on dungeons, the game isn't short on battles.
There is also a lot of humour in this game - for example: if you finish the game, and save your progress, you will find that when you load your saved game, you have to start from the beginning (though you get to keep your camera and any pictures you took) - but there is a rather amusing surprise when you go to see Granny at the very start to get your new clothes.
I also find it highly amusing that Nintendo would create 3-dimensional characters, who hold 3-dimensional models of 2-dimensional pictures in front of them as props. The image below is taken from Spectacle Island, where you can pay to play a cannon-firing game - the shopkeeper holds a picture of a pirate in front of him, with a hole cut in it for his face to show through.
But if you go back to the island when the shop is closed, you are greeted with the same man holding a picture showing him wearing a nightcap, and holding a teddy-bear, and you can hear him snoring.
The game is full of these things, and I have to applaud whoever it was that thought of them - I haven't laughed aloud at a game since... erm... the cut-scenes in Ocarina of Time.
The first half of the game is good fun (unless you can't figure out how to "warp" to different areas) - but then things start to go downhill. The latter half of the game involves using treasure maps to locate other treasure maps, which in turn lead you to areas of the sea where you can lower your grappling hook to retrieve 8 pieces of the Triforce. This is not entertaining. Once the Triforce is acquired, it's on to the ending, which again is sadly disappointing.
In fact the main problem with this game is that it is set on a sea-world with various islands that you have to sail to. This was done with the annoying "Skies of Arcadia", and whilst it means that you don't have the dreaded "Loading" message on screen between locations, it has to be said that it seems a bit of a cop-out, since most of the islands are pretty basic, with very little to do on them.
Not only does the game borrow from Skies of Arcadia, but it borrows from Grandia II as well - you can now knock cups and plates off tables - which was an amusing diversion in Grandia II, but is actually required in Zelda to solve a certain quest (that I won't spoil :)
I have read that Nintendo had to drop a couple of dungeons in order to get this game out according to their schedule - whether this was due to the pressure of needing more console sales or not - I don't know. Ocarina took 4 years to make - I can't help feeling that Nintendo should have taken longer over this game. Here's hoping that the missing dungeons will turn up in a new Zelda game - but this time done properly!
Mario may be Nintendo's traditional mascot - but since Ocarina, Link has been carrying the flag - there is simply no other video game character that comes close to the charms, skills and sheer joy of controlling Link. But after all these years, it really is time that someone took Shigsy aside and suggested that he allow people to skip certain text messages that we've already read dozens of times!!!
CONCLUSION:
By anyone else's standards this is a fantastic game - it has to be experienced - but it should have been so much better.
9 May 2003
