- Tedious and overratedThink back the fall of 1999 when "The Blair Witch Project" was released. The elitist movie critics were in a full-fledged campaign to convince the public and themselves that the movie was the best thing since "Citizen Kane". Back in 1999 so much praise was showered on the film that the voices of dissent were drowned out and ridiculed. Then a funny thing happened: time passed. Like the rest of the superficial Hollywood crowd, the elitist critics have moved on and this has allowed people to freely rethink the movie. Now it's hard to find anyone who's filling to admit they liked the "Blair Witch Project". Why do I mention that? Because the story's nearly the same when it comes to the near universal praise of Nintendo's "Wind Waker" game.
Since "Wind Waker" is a Zelda game, and since the Zelda franchise is amazing, the "Wind Waker" must be amazing too, right? Right? Unfortunately, no, but equally disturbing is how the gaming community answered "yes" to that question. They went into a full-fledged campaign to convince themselves, and the public, that this game deserved a pedestal next to "Link to the Past" and "Ocarina of Time". Only now, years after its release, do I hear consistent complaints about the game. Below is a list of problems with the game:
1) The sailing aspect of the game takes up at least 50% of the adventure and it is extremely tedious. Nintendo didn't even attempt to streamline this process. You can literally set your direction, put the controller on the floor, and sit back and watch the minutes pass as Link sails along to your destination. In order to further extend the playtime of sailing, the user is forced to embark on numerous mini-quests where many must be performed numerous times through the game. The most annoying are the "fetch quests" where you dredge the ocean floor for items. *Yawn* Are we having fun yet?
2) The game consists of only a few dungeons, and some of them are extremely easy. Important aspects of the game were replaced with time-consuming fetch quests from the ship.
3) The game has an unexploited storyline. I can think of numerous examples of storyline elements that seem like they should conclude in something big, but completely fizzle out. (Between this and the lack of dungeons, I am convinced this game was rushed to market)
4) I might as well say it: the graphics are terrible but otherwise fit the overall-quality of the game. The Link model is the worst: a massive head, massive eyes, and eyebrows that somehow float over his hair. At least you spend most of your time staring at the back of Link's head.
5) Before release we were told that the NPC (non playable characters) were going to be far more advanced than others we've seen in the past. I have no idea where Nintendo got off promoting that idea because they are identical in sophistication to those in OoT and just about every video game I've played. They certainly aren't as interesting as those from Majora's Mask.
6) And I've just grown tired of games where you must constantly switch between the game and an item selection submenu. Metroid didn't need this and neither did Star Fox Adventures. I'd love to see Nintendo incorporate something that would minimize this behavior in their Zelda games. The problem is especially bad in The Wind Waker because an entire item slot is wasted on the sail.
7) Fighting non-boss enemies is extremely easy. Just Z-target and swing your sword for a few moments and the green A button icon will change to a green star and flash. Press the button when this happens and Link does an incredible feat of acrobatics and destroys his foe. It looks awesome, but you quickly learn that this ability makes it extremely easy to fight nearly anything. It also makes the game feel like its playing on autopilot and you are just a bystander watching.
So this is a review for those interested in Twilight Princess. Whether your itching for a Zelda fix while waiting for TP or have played and enjoyed TP and want more Zelda, I've just gotta warn you that Wind Waker is not worth the trouble.
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