The Wind Waker was released to frothing at the mouth hatred. A lot of younger gamers are unsure of why this is, but let me explain. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was and still is regarded by many as the best video game of all time. At Spaceworld 2000, this tech demo from the new unreleased Nintendo console was shown:
People literally shit their pants. Keep in mind, Ocarina looked like this:
The Spaceworld demo looked to be the visual logical extension of Ocarina and its direct sequel Majora's Mask. So when the first Gamecube Zelda game, The Wind Waker was announced and it looked like this:
People were pissed. This being pissed-ness translated into bad or luke warm reviews. One reviewer I recall called the Link in this game (there are multiple Links as any Zelda fan would know, but I guess he thought all of the previous games had one singular Link) a little kid dressed like Link and then said its not a real Zelda game. I think this was in EGM, but I may have the magazine wrong (if you know what article I'm talking about, post it in the comments please). Here's a better article on the subject.
So due to all of the hate for this game (and Super Mario Sunshine, I'm serious, people were fucking assholes... I guess they still are). I got over the hate I heard for Sunshine and picked it up and loved it. Wind Waker was different. At the time, I hadn't played any Zelda games, so it wasn't at the top of my list. It fell to the wayside and I never picked it up. I ended up playing Twilight Princess and fell in love with the series (much to the delight of Zelderman/Travis).
Wind Waker HD on Wii U marks the first time I played the game through. I finished the game yesterday morning, and felt a little sad to see it end. I may play it through on Hero/Hard mode, but that will be at least a year from now. This game is great, but what makes it great?
If you judge a game by how many holes you can blow through people's heads and how many times you can say fuck while teabagging strangers on Xbox Live, then this is not the game for you. This game is charming, well built and fun... that should be the bottom line of any game, but I find too many people my age (late 20's) are too obsessed with looking cool and pass up on great gaming experiences.
The basic story is that the Gods of the kingdom of Hyrule, flooded the world (well all of it that you see) to combat the evil of Gannon. They placed the people of Hyrule on various islands to keep them alive as well as locking Hyrule away from Gannon, which keeps him from achieving his full power. The kingdom is forgotten and passes away into legend.
You start as a young boy on Outset Isle, a small island with simple good people. The boy is the new Link (but as other Zelda games, you can name him whatever you want, but I always name him Link). Your sister is kidnapped by a giant bird and Link ends up teaming up with a pirate named Tetra to rescue her. You find a talking boat (I know, weird, but it's one of my favorite characters in the game) calling himself The King of Red Lions. Gradually you learn that evil has crept into the seas and you have to confront it.
Link can sail the oceans with his boat. You use a conducting wand to direct the wind into certain directions so you can sail form place to place. There are various missions, combat mechanics and like all Zelda games, puzzles to solve in order to advance to other areas of the world. I'll not bore you with the specifics of all mechanics, it's explained thoroughly in the game.
The graphics look vibrant and beautiful. The characters are simple looking, but more expressive than in many other more realistic Zelda games. The oceans curve and flow as your boat sails the seas. I thought that this game wouldn't be upgraded that much due to the cel shading, but it has benefitted immensly.
I'm also astounded at the level of freedom in the game. I can use all of my items in my boat at almost any time. I figured that there would be a huge restriction when I was sailing around, but you can get out anywhere, swim, use weapons (as well as a bomb launcher) and fish for buried treasure. There are tons of secrets to find. I didn't get nearly all of the heart pieces, so if that's your cup of tea, have at it.
The gameplay upgrades include a swift sail that changes the wind's direction without the Wind Waker(which you need to get as soon as you can, clues... Windfall, rich, no day), camera upgrades (selfies y'all) and Tingle bottles. Tingle bottles are messages you can send into the internet. You can pick up these bottles as you travel randomly (mostly in the ocean) as well as sending them yourself. You can include pictures in these bottles as well. You can put any image on the TV or Wii Pad into Miiverse as with any Wii U game and discuss said images/posts with friends and randoms. I didn't think the social aspects of Miiverse would affect single player games, but I post and throw tingle bottles all the time (maybe too much).
The Pad acts as your menu system and map. The map is very useful as you can see where you are traveling without having to look at a tiny version or going into a pause menu. The pad can also be used to aim your boomerang, bow/arrows and other aimable projectiles just by moving it around. This is a lot more accurate than using the analog stick. Most flaws in the game were eliminated in the HD version.
If you have a Wii U and haven't gotten this game, get it as soon as you can. It will well be worth it, I promise. If you've played it before, I would still recommend it, but if you want to wait for a price drop, I understand. This is the best game on Wii U that I've paid until Super Mario 3D World drops (though Mario/Luigi U is good and I haven't played through Wonderful 101 yet).
10 out of 10 light arrows through the heart of evil
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