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Review: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

I’m not the biggest Zelda fan, dear readers. You see, I’ve never played The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on Nintendo GameCube. Though, to my credit, I have played its direct sequel The Phantom Hourglass on my trusty DS and loved every second of it.

Well… most of its seconds, at least. I did get a bit bored having to backtrack and go through a temple more than once. That and combat felt a bit repetitious only a few hours in.

You’re judging me already, aren’t you?

At any rate I feel as if Nintendo has peeked into my brain when getting The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD off the ground. Not only have they given me an excuse to actually play with my Wii U, they’re letting me do it with a game I’ve always wanted to clear out of my shame pile. Best yet, they’ve tweaked it a bit to get rid of some of the cumbersome padding that’s caused me to avoid the franchise in the past.

The Wind Waker HD is truly gorgeous. From the moment you take control of Link, speak to his ball-of-sunshine sister and parade around his village, you can’t help but smile. The game is vibrant and so encapsulates all of what makes Nintendo truly good. Forget about the lacklustre Wii U sales. Rid your mind of the stupid 2DS. Instead, don that green cap for the first time alongside Link (cause let’s be honest: that’s the name you’ve given yourself in-game, yeah?) and lose yourself as you get to work cutting down fields of grass, hunting down your kidnapped sister.

The game’s cartoony feel comes off as childish at first… but that doesn’t last long. Just look at Link’s face as the story plays out in front of you; it’s amazing to see how expressive his cel-shaded face can be.

Our hero isn’t alone on his quest; he’s joined by the sassy Tetra and a talking boat going by the name of the King of Red Lions. Link gains control of the titular Wind Waker to move the King around the sea. Thankfully, Nintendo’s realised how annoying it was to use The Wind Waker every time you wanted to change direction – or so I’ve heard; one has to read up on the original game and its flaws before playing an HD remake – so Nintendo’s added in a new sail called the Swift Sail to fix that problem.

Kind of.

Nintendo’s done a great job getting The Wind Waker to look and sound amazing. They’ve simplified a long fetch quest at the end of the game so it’s not (as) annoying. The Swift Sail? It’s a great tool… provided you know where to find it. I didn’t originally. I had to sacrifice a bit of time to revert back to a save I’d made in order to complete an optional auction mini-game to get the sail in the first place. Whilst most of the new and improved Wind Waker HD changes are seamless, I’d argue that one of the most important surely wasn’t.

Thankfully, that’s one of the only qualms I have with the game. Backtracking is still an issue, but let’s face it – would a Zelda game really be a Zelda game without that? Whereas I got through scant hours of Twilight Princess and stopped due to boredom, the charm of The Wind Waker makes up for it. The game’s combat helps too; you’d be surprised how tactical you can be with only a couple of different sword strikes and a truly powerful counter. Most enemies can be taken out without the counter, but it’s a great idea to get good with it in order to handle Wind Waker’s bosses.

In short, this is a game that’ll ease buyer’s guilt for those of you who’ve bought a Wii U and haven’t used it. For Nintendo fans who’s been waiting out, this is the time to buy your console. Sure, it’s a Zelda game that puts a bit of spackle over some of the annoying gameplay features of the franchise while not doing a terrible amount of work to completely overhaul them, but does provide for an HD enhanced version of a game that’s rightfully considered one of gaming’s finest.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.