The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

"You've heard "Hyaaaah" in mono - now hear the stereo version!"

PLEASE NOTE: When I refer to a "cable", I will be referring to the NINTENDO GAMECUBE Game Boy Advance cable, which is a REQUIREMENT for multiplayer play on this game. Single player may be played with an average controller. THIS IS NOT TRUE FOR MULTIPLAYER.

This game is set in Hyrule. It is unclear whereabouts in the Zelda timeline it falls into (even more so than some of its counterparts) - I can either write a review or an essay on where it might be able to fit. (I'm going for the former option.)

In essence, what happens is that one day, Link gets up and receives a message from Zelda telling him to come to the castle. So far, so Zelda. He goes, she summons some mages, something happens. Link has to take the Four Sword from its plinth, but by doing so, he releases Vaati from the seal which was holding him. Once Link has the Four Sword, he splits into four Links - Green, Blue, Red and Purple.

Now, speaking as a Zelda fan, I think this game is good. It takes the Zelda elements and it does what is required to make them multiplayer. Some people dislike the removal of the overworld, which in games like Ocarina of Time was an integral part of the story and a welcome change of pace. However, I do not believe that this game would work with an overworld due to the fact that it's a multiplayer game - it'd get too confusing, for example.

There are several worlds, each of which is split into three levels. The last level is generally a dungeon whereas the first two are more reminiscent of the overworlds which are found in single-player Zelda games. A level select lets you replay your favourite levels easily - and although no high-score system is inbuilt, competitions with friends in levels and time trials do become easy and fun to do.

Now, we come to the plot. It's typical Zelda. You have to do X, Y and Z in order to save the world. Nothing special - but nothing which is substantially worse than other Zelda fare either, if you're objective about it.

Puzzles are present, and they too are typical Zelda. There are a few new ideas which are welcome, and those people who have not played Link to the Past may find themselves bumping into more new puzzles than those who have - I bought both games very close to each other and I have noticed definite similarities between them.

Graphics, although they look poor, are good. They're not 3D (which to me is a relief, as it shows that 2D is not going to die as the handheld world becomes a 3D playground) and I would go so far as to say that with the little touches which have been added on (things like bomb explosions and fires which are both reminiscent of Wind Waker) this game would have difficulty running on the Nintendo 64, let alone the SNES as those who dislike the graphics would believe.

Action is more evident than in some Zeldas but less so than in others - however no Zelda game so far has allowed you and a friend to team up and face around 50 enemies simultaneously, before plunging you into a fight against each other to pick up the force gems which have been dropped on the floor.

That brings me neatly onto the next part - force gems. Although their main purpose is to charge the Four Sword to be able to repel evil, that can easily be done with many gems to spare. No, the real reason for the gems is to incite a more competitive mood in the people playing the game - and when you've got four Links running around onscreen, it can get pretty manic.

Now, to the gripes, which are essentially the non-Hyrulian Adventure (i.e. main quest) parts of the game. Firstly, Shadow Battle.

Shadow Battle is the all out multiplayer Link vs. Link deathmatch. However, they've not done this right for a number of reasons - the main one being that the arenas are not large enough. The basic premise is that you've got one big field/pool of lava/whatever else and then that arena has two 'indoors' places you can go to, when play will transfer to your GBA. My main problem with this is that it's too small. There's not enough scope for sneaking away and then creeping up behind someone with a bow and arrow, for example.

Nintendo could and should have done this mode a lot better, because although I enjoy pwning my friends on it it's just not large enough for it to work properly. And don't tell me that it needs to be small, or four players wouldn't work on it, because the Temple on GoldenEye was perfect and was absolutely huge. The Facility was small, but there were lots of different doors and passages to go through. This mode needed to be smaller than Temple but needed the winding passages of something like Facility. (I'll stop the analogy now for those who don't know GoldenEye.)

The other non-Adventure mode I'd like to talk about is Tetra's Trackers. This is only available in the Japanese release of the game, and is apparently a very good mode (based on my friend's opinion of it - he went to Japan and a mate of his has got the game). So fi you're playing the Japanese version (which won't really hurt, the plot's not too complicated and if you've got a DS the rumoured Japanese dictionary addon will help) then you can add a point to the score on this review.

And only one last gripe to go - Green, well, that's obviously going to be one of the colours. Red and Blue are both primary colours, so they make sense. But who decided to put Purple in, and leave Yellow out? I would have loved to play as Yellow. Nintendo should have included Yellow and left out Purple. However, that's not a very big thing and shouldn't put you off your purchase.

In summary: if you've got a friend or three, you should get this game, but on condition. Don't buy GBAs especially to play, and they should have their own cables (most games which NEED them have them packaged with them anyways) but if one doesn't, a specially bought cable for about £10 can't hurt if they're planning to play other games as well e.g. Animal Crossing, or Final Fantasy Crystal Chroinicles. But if they've got access to GBAs, and they've got access to cables, you should definitely get this game.

If you don't have any friends, or your friends all hate gaming, or they hate Zelda, or they're Sony fanboys, or they just think your house smells, then think for a while over whether you want this game. Take into account the fact that it's meant for multiplayer, not single-player, and I would advise getting Minish Cap for GBA and Wind Waker for GCN before buying this game (if you're thinking about this game you'll probably like those, as they're both Zelda). However, this is a game that most Zelda fans will love in single-player mode as well as multiplayer mode, and it offers much replayability and a different experience from your regular Zelda game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/05