Link and the rest of the characters are beautifully animated, and so is that ocean: Alone out there, looking into the vast horizon while the blue waves lap at your boat, it's enough to convince you, even if just for a moment, that secrets and mysteries are still out there waiting for you, even in this now well-explored world. What was once its biggest criticism – "It looks like a cartoon!" – is now its biggest compliment. Today you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't think Wind Waker looks astonishing, especially with the new HD remake. Even so, Wind Waker took a lot of heat from fans when it was revealed to be a whimsical, cartoony adventure that would end up looking more like Mickey Mouse than Lord of the Rings. So in typical Nintendo fashion, the graphics were there to serve the gameplay: The exaggerated cartoon style made it possible for the player to easily read Link's face, especially on a 2003 model standard-definition television. Sometimes it was more utilitarian – Link's eyes would focus in a particular direction, indicating to the player that something of interest was there. When you finally won, he'd sigh in relief. His facial expressions would also change based on context: If you were in a tense battle for your life, Link would squint his eyes and grit his teeth. Other elements that are now commonplace in videogames were done earlier in Wind Waker, like the way that Link's eyes and head would turn to look at people, enemies, or important things happening around him. In the same town, if you give a large number of a certain trinket to a certain character, you will be given the deed to your own private island complete with a cabana and a ghostly butler.Įvery part of the game feels like it's been constructed with purpose, not just stuffed with superfluous padding to make it feel more "lifelike." He's the only character who reacts this way. If you run into a specific character's home and start breaking his belongings, he'll be so startled by the sound of shattering glass that he'll yell and jump onto his table. There's charm to be found in the smallest things. I could (and have) spend hours walking through the alleys of the game's central town. By those standards, Wind Waker's linearity seemed like Old Games, and its cartoon style was emblematic of Nintendo's refusal to grow up.Īnd yet, whenever someone invokes the cliche of a "living, breathing world" today, I think of Wind Waker. You could go where you wanted, do anything you could imagine: Blow up cars, stop by the arcade, hire a hooker, drive a forklift.
#Zelda wind waker randomizer with story series#
Wind Waker was released right at the time that realistic-looking games like Grand Theft Auto and Shenmue were vastly expanding the play spaces of interactive worlds. After Wind Waker, Twilight Princess gave some fans exactly what they wanted out of a new LoZ game.It had a very interesting art style in comparison to a lot of the other games in the series and showed exactly why going 3D was the right move for the franchise.Seeing it played out on the Switch would be a dream come true for fans. Now, having played Wind Waker HD, I think we simply didn't have the proper perspective with which to judge the game.
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