The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Genre: Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Gamecube
Release: 2003
Rating: E

- Graphics -

Wind Waker's graphics, while widely criticized for not following Ocarina's legacy, were in my opinion a welcome change. Nintendo has finally brought us back to the series' roots in terms of the intended design, and the comical animation worked well for the game.

Graphics: 10/10


- Story -

Once again, Ganondorf is after the Triforce. Once again, Zelda is kidnapped. Once again, Link must save her. However, the overall aspects of this version are much different than before: for one thing, Zelda isn't even introduced properly until about halfway through; Link only begins his adventure in the first place to search for his kidnapped sister.

Another interesting fact is that Ganondorf seems to somewhat regret his past, and even purposely doesn't try to kill Link at first. The first real battle with Ganondorf is merely a test, and Ganondorf even chooses to merely knock Link out during a cutscene.

For a good (and funny) description of this, I'd recommend Hiimdaisy's Comic, however the images are currently broken. I'm providing the link anyway in the event that her site updates are fixed soon :)

Story: 7/10


- Gameplay -

While the rest of the game was great, the plot-related gameplay was somewhat lacking. Only 5 big dungeons, most of which were not highly puzzle-based as was the previous standard, and very easy bosses. The second half of the game consisted of running around looking for 8 Triforce shards, which tended to be a huge hassle for players who didn't have an extensive amount of patience.

Exploring Hyrule's seas was an amazing journey, however, and the absence of loading times made it that much better! There are always new things to discover on the 49 different islands of the Great Sea!

Gameplay: 6/10


- Music -

Wind Waker's soundtrack is probably my favorite out of the entire series. The choice of instrumentation (although obviously synthesized) is very fitting for each area, and almost every theme is fun and memorable (the exceptions mostly only being main dungeon themes)

Music: 10/10

Total Score: 8/10

Not available for other systems.