The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

"I Love You Nintendo."

Legend Of Zelda, without a doubt my most favorite series of games ever, no game ever has had more of an impact on me then this series of games, when I first heard of yet another new game to the series I was freaking out over it from the time I heard about it until the hour before I picked it up at my local Gamestop. So how does the new addition stack up? Well let’s just say if you were a Zelda fan before Ocarina of Time this game is amazing and really brings you back to the roots. You can probably tell by now this is going to be a positive review and yes I assure you it is, I was disgusted to see all the bashing on the type of graphics they decided to go with and how people were saying this game is “kiddy” if there is such a word, I assure you this game was meant for adults as well as children alike, to be frank some of the storyline I doubt a lot of children would even comprehend. To give this game less then a perfect score is an insult to me, but everyone’s opinion is to be respected, the game is that good. I suppose some critics of the game would probably say this review is bias, but if loving Zelda games and embracing each title as a masterpiece makes me bias then I will gladly accept the title.

GRAPHICS 10/10
Without a doubt the best graphics I have seen on a console to date, this games graphics deserve to be praised, if you understand the difficulty of celshading you will know what I mean, the lighting effects and characters emotions are amazing and color is outstanding, it seriously shows how celshading should be done, I suppose by now celshading is old news, but this game uses them as no other previous title has used them before, Nintendo must really know there way around the Gamecube. The creator Shigeru Miyamoto is in one word a genius, I really like the fact at how much criticism he got that he just shook the critics off like fly’s and went with the graphic style and the end result is nothing short of fantastic, the only complaint I would maybe agree with is how blurry it is, but it only seems to bother people with sensitive eyes, which I don’t have so it does not bother me a bit in fact I think it brings more realism to it which they intended to accomplish in that department, no offense to anyone who judges this game by the graphics, but you are obviously not a Zelda fan to judge this game on the graphics, I wont go on about that cause the graphics are amazing, I will go as far as to say they are the best graphics on any console to date.

SOUND 10/10
A lot of new music, I now found a lot of instant classics; I plan on buying the soundtrack once I get around to importing it. There is a lot of remix parts of previous Zelda tunes and some new ones along with that, the sailing theme in the game at first made me mad because it wasn’t the original Zelda them, but then it grew on me and I like it almost as much as the original theme. Anyone seen the episode of Star Trek where Spock and Kirk fight each other, well if you do you will remember the influx in music as they fight each other of course that show made it cheesy, they use the same idea when fighting bosses in this game, but the music is a lot cooler and it makes me really get involved with melee combat, I love it I cant say more then that just simply incredible the sound in this one is the best of any Zelda game without a doubt.

STORY 10/10
The Windwaker takes place 100 years after Ocarina of Time, and throughout the game it mentions it a lot, the story in this game is amazing to say the least. Every boy when they reach the age of the hero of legend get the traditional garb of the hero which I would assume most of you know what that is and for one day they are to show courage, but the Link in this one was only intended to just be in it for one day, but it looks like he will be stuck in it for awhile as you know troubles brew up and the rest is obvious. I think the story in this game is the most epic of any series in the Zelda franchise, I promise you the story will no disappoint you; I can say that with full confidence.

GAMEPLAY 10/10
I will not give this game the credit of being revolutionary minus the graphics of course, but I will definitely say if you are a Zelda fanatic like me you will not be able to put down the controller, I am lucky not to have grown a beard while playing this game because I finally stopped myself after my stomach started to rumble. Controls are a piece of cake, if you played Ocarina of Time you will know these controls easily and if not then you will master these controls within 30 minutes. So how fun is this game? Well if you don’t have fun while playing this game then you need to see a doctor or you must not like games because this represents what every video game attempts to be, not only does this game have amazing graphics, but its fun as well which is very hard it seems like to accomplish in this era of video gaming.

OVERALL 10/10
Get this game, buy a Gamecube if you don’t have one, this is a hard decision to make, but I would not say this is my favorite Zelda, but it is tied with Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past which are also excellent games that I strongly recommend. Do not rent this game you will not fully beat it with the time you rent it out, a lot of people say this game is short, but maybe that’s because they didn’t do side quests, if you do side quests this game is enormous, out of my whole game collection I found myself addicting over this game as much as my computer games and that says a lot about the quality of the game. I really hope you check this game out if you have not already, it truly is the whole package, I can hardly wait for the next Zelda to come out, if its half as good as this one it will be a masterpiece, simply put the best game I have ever played in years, I hope you check it out and enjoy it as much as I did and if you already own it you should be playing it not reading this review, well anyways I am glad I am done of the review I am going to go play some Windwaker and go through it a second time, thanks for reading this, peace.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/05/03, Updated 04/05/03