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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

by Steven Rodriguez - May 22, 2002, 12:16 pm EDT
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Zelda is finally playable on the E3 show floor, and we have the first impressions fo.,. aw, screw this formal crap, LINK KICKS ASS.

After a few years of waiting and a graphical overhaul or two, Link’s newest game is on the floor. There were five different demo courses available: Adventure, Dungeon, Stealth, Sailing, and Boss. I got the chance to try out the Adventure and Stealth modes, which I’ll get to in a moment.

First, the big question. What about the graphics? Throw out everything you assumed about cel-shading, because it looks damn cool in action. The levels have a distinct look to all of them, and any interaction Link has with it is amazing. When Link picks up or drops something, little poofs of dust come up. When you battle enemies, sparks fly when you clash metal on metal. When you defeat them, the explode in a black and purple cloud of smoke, which is quite possibly the coolest effect in the game that I’ve see so far in the game. Link looks just as good when he opens his eyes in amazement or comes in screaming with his sword in a jump attack. Every time he does an action, his expression is different. I didn’t see a repeated facial expression once. It’s amazing.

Control is dead-on, as you’d expect from Nintendo. A is your main attack button, while B and R are action buttons; You now have two options as to what to do with an item. (You can either throw a rock you pick up with R or you can drop it with B, for example.) R is the shield button when you don’t need to perform an action. L is the targeting button, and X and Y are buttons you assign items to. Having only two items available to you doesn’t seem to be a problem, because there didn’t seem to be any situations where you needed three different items out in the N64 games anyway. The C-Stick allows you to set the camera where you want it to, and it will stay in place, even during fighting and targeting. This will put an end to anyone who had camera problems with the N64 versions.

There have also been a few new gameplay additions in the game as well. Now Link can use weapons other than his sword by picking up the weapons of his enemies after they’ve been defeated. This is both damn cool and necessary to go into new areas, because most of the easier enemies carry wooden staffs, which you need to light torches with to open locked doors or reveal hidden treasure boxes (which is also a sight to behold). Link can also do a quick spin and a spin swing with his own sword, like in the previous games, but this time, his spin swing will go on for about 5 seconds… in which time you can just cut through anything in your way. Awesome.

We’ll have more hands-on time with the game later on in the week.

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Genre Adventure
Developer Nintendo
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Release Mar 24, 2003
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: Zelda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto
Release Dec 13, 2002
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Release May 03, 2003
PublisherNintendo
Rating3+
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