Zelda Retrospective: The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker Review

A year after the release of Majora's Mask, Nintendo finally released their sixth-generation game console: the Nintendo Gamecube. Finally adopting a disc-based format in the form of miniDVD discs, the Gamecube saw enormous leaps in graphical fidelity which, compared to the leap between the sixth and seventh generation of consoles, were frankly astounding. Better sound, high-poly character models, better framerates, higher-quality textures--I sincerely feel sorry for anyone who was too young to appreciate the improvements in this console generation. And as has been customary of Nintendo's console generations, a new Zelda was soon spotted on the horizon. After an enigmatic trailer seen at Nintendo Space World a full year before the Gamecube's release, the game would later resurface with a different--and polarizing--new look. Fifteen years later, the dust has settled and I think most are able to finally look at this game a bit less overly-critical. The game I'm referring to is, of course, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Review: The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker

By the time The Wind Waker released, Nintendo had largely set the formula of the Zelda series in stone: top-down games on handheld to elaborate on the Link to the Past style, while the large-scale 3D games were the major projects of Nintendo's current home console. With better hardware comes a bigger project, and the leap between The Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time can only be compared to that of the NES Zelda games, as the sheer breadth of the world was staggering. While Ocarina of Time was a generally smaller game than Wind Waker turned out to be, the general idea translated much better into an open world than the likes of Zelda II: Adventure of Link. Taking a small chunk of Hyrule and allowing players to explore a smaller world worked well in the original Zelda and A Link to the Past, so Nintendo would naturally want to attempt bigger and more elaborate worlds when approaching their 3D games as the world could be created with far more detail.

The Wind Waker follows a mixture of the design found in both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask: while the open world is enormous, far bigger than Ocarina of Time, the dungeon count is much smaller and the game length can tend to be shorter as a result. While at a short glance it might feel like The Wind Waker is a worse value proposition, the truth is the design of the world is such that no other full-scale Zelda could work with such impressive results.

Before delving into my thoughts on the design of The Wind Waker, I want to take a moment to address the story. Despite Miyamoto's insistence that Zelda is a gameplay-centric series, The Wind Waker places a much larger emphasis on story and as a result, the very first chunk of the game suffers for it. That's not to say the story is bad, but it definitely feels like a step back from Ocarina of Time.

The game opens with a brief recap of Ocarina of Time, describing (in a very creative way) the events leading up to Ganon's defeat. The people of Hyrule celebrate the victory of the enigmatic Hero, but the peace doesn't last. Ganon escapes the last-minute seal placed on him by the Seven Sages, but because the future Link was allowed to live out his childhood in his own timeline the spirit of the Hero is absent from the future. Ganon conquers Hyrule unopposed, and the story mysteriously implies the kingdom of Hyrule vanished. Years later, young boys across the never-ending Great Sea are given garb to celebrate the Hero of Time while awaiting his return.

The narrative proper begins on the player character's birthday, where the protagonist is given his clothes to celebrate the Hero. A pirate crew happen across the island, chasing their captain Tetra who has been captured by a giant bird. After a series of mishaps Aryll, the sister of the protagonist--known from here as simply Link--is captured in Tetra's place. A member of the winged Ruto tribe give the crew their coordinates: the Forsaken Fortress far to the north. Before they leave, Link has a genuinely sad parting with his grandmother who is probably the sweetest old lady in video game history.

At the Forsaken Fortress, Link is separated from his sword and sneaks through the tower until he recovers it, shortly before discovering the kidnapped girls. The Helmaroc King finds him before he can rescue the girls and brings him before a menacing figure then tosses him across the Great Sea. Link is found by a talking boat called the King of Red Lions, who reveals the figure was the evil Ganon of legend. After the two find a sailthey  make their way to Dragon Roost Island for assistance on their adventure.

This plot set-up works very well and draws the player into the larger world naturally while supplying decent motivation, but the flow of the story is incongruous to the gameplay flow. After Tetra falls into the woods at the beginning, the player has to finish a full tutorial over the combat mechanics before they're given the sword--for such an urgent moment, Link sure takes his sweet time getting to the woods. The first Forsaken Fortress attempt is a decent introduction to navigating dungeons, but it's ultimately pretty frustrating since a single misstep can get the player thrown in jail. It's a very short dungeon, but I say that as someone who has played The Wind Waker to completion more times than I can count. For a new player, the search lights and winding floors can certainly seem daunting.

When the player arrives on Windfall Island, they're given the first major call to adventure: in order to save Aryll, Ganon is going to have to be defeated. Again, despite a clear motivation the player has to search around the entire island to find Tingle, get the sail, and leave. It's clearly there to make sure the additional content Tingle gives out lands in the player's hands, but considering this is given such a dedicated amount of time when an item as supremely important as the titular Wind Waker is literally thrown at Link's feet makes it seem like the wrong parts were given priority.

After Windfall, the player is forced to sail to Dragon Roost Island, where a slightly smaller village is nestled next to the first real dungeon. The player is allowed to veer right and left on the ocean, but since the Wind Waker hasn't been given by the King of Red Lions there's no way to change the flow of wind and go off course. Since the ocean is so much bigger than Hyrule Field and the boat controls significantly different from Epona, if the player even elected to finish that side quest in Ocarina of Time, I can see why Nintendo might have wanted players to become familiar with the controls even if it is patronizing.

All of these early-game problems are exacerbated by a snail-paced text crawl, which persists throughout the game but seems so much worse when the game is front-loaded with so much dialogue. Furthermore, railroading the player is an obvious tutorial and it can seem very patronizing when the end goal of each tutorial is to teach players how to simply press a button; we don't need to know that pressing A will parry, because the button flashes on screen and is accompanied by a ring when the parry window is open. Each of these examples could have clearly been implemented much more smoothly, but it's all worth it after finishing Dragon Roost Island. After learning the Wind's Requiem, the entirety of the Great Sea is open for players to explore. Like the original Zelda, some areas and events are sealed off from the player but the game doesn't simply hide the content from the player.

This was a problem present in Ocarina where certain events, like learning Saria's Song or entering The Bottom of the Well, required the player to pass a certain point in the story before the event would become available. Instead, The Wind Waker presents the later challenges of its massive Great Sea like a badge of honor: players can swim into an octopus whirlpool completely unprepared, waste all their bombs, and get utterly destroyed. Cyclos can be encountered at any point while sailing over his designated areas, and since players don't find the item necessary to beat him until roughly the halfway point of the game it's likely they'll have to deal with him on more than one occasion.

Players can also approach each island individually and even if they're unable to access them due to a missing item, a rudimentary note-making system exists in the form of the fish. These guys are fantastic additions to the sailing for three main reasons: one, they give the player something to look for while sailing in the early stages of the game; two, the fish give players incentive to explore each of the Great Sea's frankly silly amount of grids; and three, players can opt to only have the fish mark his map on islands of note, leaving the smaller locations for a later stage of the game and keeping the important islands in mind when the opportunity finally arises to investigate them.

The main thematic element of exploration is taken to its most ridiculous, and most fulfilled, level in The Wind Waker, though some islands can be underwhelming. The sheer number and variety should leave most players satisfied, and since the game is overall shorter than Ocarina of Time it's easy to jump in, feel like you've gotten a full Zelda experience, and jump right out.

The shorter length of the game also allows for an interesting approach to the typical Zelda formula. Link is still tasked with finding three objects to prove he's worthy to wield the Master Sword, but the story throws in interesting twists: because the player character is not a reincarnation of the Hero of Time, the only obstacle between him and the Master Sword is simply the fact that Hyrule Castle is completely flooded. Unlike previous games in the series, players now have to explore a dungeon before obtaining the Master Sword and after that, Link challenges the Forsaken Fortress again. When the player is finally bestowed the Triforce of Courage and given the moniker Hero of Winds, it feels like they've accomplished a brand new feat rather than retreading an old one.

The narrative flow feels far more like an adventure than a series of check boxes which, while working well for Ocarina of Time, come off as more of a cohesive whole as a result of the dedicated focus to the plot. Rather than "now I need to collect the Shadow Medallion because I just collected the Water Medallion," the plot focuses more on the bigger picture. The player retrieves the Pearls to raise the Tower of the Gods in order to retrieve the Master Sword so Link can defeat Ganon and save his sister. "This happened because of this, so that will happen after this." The story is a narrative arc this time around bolstered by an unbridled amount of content to explore, and because of the relaxed tone of the game there's never any disconnect between the player wanting to explore and Link just deciding to take the day off to grab some treasure.

After the second Forsaken Fortress attempt, the player must awaken the Master Sword in order to defeat Ganon. Since the sages responsible for powering the Master Sword are long dead, the task is up to the player to revive their spirits. Again, this doesn't feel like a series of check boxes as much as it does a narrative crux: Ganon is too powerful to be defeated by the Master Sword, so players must bolster the sword to defeat him. Instead of anywhere from five to eight dungeons during the second half of the game, the player only needs to awaken spirits from two temples before the sword is powered fully. I don't think this really needs to be said, but the Master Sword power-up is one of my favorite objectives in any Zelda game period. I was always invested in the power-ups in past games in the series and hated to see it all but dropped in Ocarina of Time, so to see it become a major part of the plot feels like fan-service directed to me in particular.

The Wind Waker also juggles an element from the handheld games that I'm finally glad to see done right: players need to explore a very large amount of the Great Sea for specific items or power-ups before they can fully access the next batch of dungeons. Since the player has access to the bow at this point, they can finally take down Cyclos and learn his warping ability. I appreciate fast-travel mechanics which are sort of limited and require players to finish a certain amount of the game before they're unlocked, and this is one of the better examples of that. Furthermore, players can only access the fire and ice arrows through the use of fast travel, though I get the feeling this part of the game might trip up players unwilling to explore all their options. After getting the fire and ice arrows, the player still needs to clear mini-dungeons attached to these arrows before they can enter the next dungeons, and before that they need to find the reincarnated spirits.

All of this is presented with far less interruptions from the King of Red Lions, who is ostensibly the replacement for Navi. The King of Red Lions never interrupts the player while they travel but can still offer information if the player decides to hop out of the boat and ask--for reference, this is pretty much exactly what I wanted out of Navi. I hate being bothered when I know what to do, but if I ever get lost it's nice to know there's an in-game hint less than a foot away from my character at any time. Tetra does give Link a hint stone for help in dungeons and brief tutorials, but it's used very sparingly.

The biggest flaw of the game, and the one you're most likely to hear of now, is the Triforce hunt after unsealing the Master Sword. I'll admit, it's awful. It's simply terrible. The HD version remedies almost all of the headache surrounding this quest, but I feel it's unnecessarily tedious. It's obvious a significant amount of content had to be altered before the game was released, but I can't imagine it would be very difficult to simply streamline this part of the game. What I hate most about this is definitely the Ghost Ship shard, which requires players be on a specific tile during a specific phase of the moon. It's entirely too obtuse to actually be fun and I can't imagine anyone at Nintendo thought it would be. It's nice that The Wind Waker actively pushes for players to start exploring, but each Zelda needs to have a fair balance between exploration and dungeons. At the end of The Wind Waker the game focuses entirely on exploration, and none of the Triforce shards offer better equipment or Pieces of Heart--it feels like it's just there to distract the player long enough for them to feel like they got their money's worth.

I really want to stress this, but a video game doesn't need to be a certain playtime or hit specific marks to succeed. I personally won't buy a game I won't replay at some point; it might be a year or a decade, but if I feel like I'll ever revisit it, I consider that game a worthy investment. Cave Story lasts five hours but even though it can be obtained legally for free, I've still bought the game three times just because I appreciate what it accomplishes and love to replay it. And look at Majora's Mask: the game features far less content than The Wind Waker even without factoring in the Triforce shards, and it's more than earned its place as one of the best games in the series. The Wind Waker deserved either an extra dungeon or two or it deserved to go straight to its ending. Casually throwing in a line about Ganon mustering his forces and creating a barrier at the Forsaken Fortress isn't good enough, especially for such an excellent game.

Speaking of Majora's Mask, I want to speak briefly about tone. The tone of both games seem at first glance to be very different, but if you look at the narrative of both games under the shallowest layer it becomes clear that both games are very dark at their core. While Majora's Mask deals pretty openly in an oppressive atmosphere with themes of death and decay, The Wind Waker takes a much more subtle approach and is elevated because of it. At a certain point, the story told in scrolls at the beginning of the game is finally completed for the player by different characters: after Ganon broke free from his seal, the Gods of the world simply flooded Hyrule to keep Ganon at bay as long as possible. It becomes clear that this isn't simply a particularly oceanic area of Hyrule--the Great Sea simply is Hyrule. In retrospect, the game feels far more apocalyptic and hopeless than anything in past games in the series, though this morbid story element is completely offset by the game's unbelievably endearing art style and hopeful messages.

The Nintendo 64 Zelda games did the best with what they could, but it was hard to discern a specific art style if Nintendo had been aiming at any in particular. In those days, developers had to make a serious choice between stylized 2D sprites and realistic, though ugly, polygonal models. The jump from the fifth generation of consoles to the sixth was enormous, though ugly models didn't go away for several years into the console's lifespan. Let's go a generation up and look at Super Smash Bros. Melee: many of the playable character models look fantastic, but every other model in the game is utterly hideous.

Because The Wind Waker was such an important game in the series and even the burgeoning Gamecube's life, Nintendo decided to work with a timeless cel-shaded graphical look. Rather than compromising on detail, The Wind Waker is given a heavily stylized look while maintaining the 3D gameplay innovated upon in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. I still desperately hate the idea of games losing their value over time by virtue of age, but this is the game I'd say highly exemplifies why, visually at least, that argument holds some weight. Weight that I'd argue with and you will never move me on, but when looking at some of the more hideous games of the fifth generation of consoles it's hard for even a contrarian like me to deny it. The cel-shading of The Wind Waker met the potential scourge of aging and went all-in with a unique style which is completely separated from the development issues of its day, and because the style is so striking it's created its own "toon" designation for this version of Link.

Link is far more expressive, colors are bright and stark, characters are all unique and full of life, and every single area of the game is memorable. Since less time was spent on churning out bleeding-edge graphics, more time could be spent on important elements like writing and gameplay. There really wasn't much wrong with the gameplay in Ocarina of Time, but it was a bit barebones and could lead to some long poking matches. One simple addition was made to The Wind Waker in the form of parrying, which allows players to take advantage of an enemy's attack and strike back. It gives combat an interesting dynamic and allows battles to feel engaging without sacrificing the weight of the Nintendo 64 games. And as I mentioned, the writing is simply on a class of its own--just look at Ganon's speech before the final battle to see what I mean. And oh man, that final battle. Set on top of a collapsing tower as Hyrule falls back into the sea, The Wind Waker's battle with Ganon is the pinnacle of boss fights in the series--I'd go so far as to say it's one of my favorite final bosses of all time.

Verdict

While the beginning of the game drags and feels far more restricted than the past 3D Zelda titles, once the game opens up it takes everything up to 11. Gorgeous, endearing and simply a blast to play, The Wind Waker took everything from the fifth generation Zelda games and improved on every single aspect of them. The game clearly had to have content taken out, but the game runs with its own style and never looks back. I sang Ocarina of Time's praises for its contribution to video games, but as a game on its own The Wind Waker is a step above every single Zelda game for me. When going through my list of games I needed to play for this retrospective series, I was most sad to see that The Wind Waker was one of the titles I would have to skip. It's a timeless masterpiece and it'll be there when this is all over, and I hope you look past its unique art style and quirky flaws. If you allow it to win your heart over, you'll find a game that grabs your attention and never lets go.

As for the Wii U remaster, I've linked my mini-review of that below. I really need to reiterate that while all the major gameplay flaws have been completely fixed, the new realistic lighting clashes horribly with the cel shading of the original game and can look outright ugly at times. The original is completely playable, but if the little touches sound important then I'd say just go ahead and get the HD remaster. A Switch re-release with an option for the original lighting and the new would be an instant recommendation, but you should consider your options before picking which version to play. Whatever you do, just make sure you play The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.


Zelda 3D remaster mini-reviews:
http://subjective-objective.blogspot.com/2016/03/mini-review-zelda-remasters.html

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Mini-reviews: Zelda Remasters

The Zelda franchise is one of the most revered series of video games, and the first game was my personal entry into video games as a whole. The series has suffered from some mixed feelings due to a seeming need to innovate, but even a bad Zelda is a pretty good video game. I didn't really want to spend too much time on reviews for these remasters, but enough has been changed that I think a quick overview of them would be useful. These are not reviews for the original games, so if you want to hear a more detailed overview of one in particular let me know. Or don't. Who cares?


Ocarina of Time 3D

The first of Nintendo's 3D Zelda fix-ups and arguably the best, Ocarina of Time 3D fixes many issues of the original while retaining the timeless feel of the Nintendo 64 release. Many of the main character models have been completely revamped, although a negative consequence of this is that many NPC models look badly dated in comparison. Don't let this defer you, though: Ocarina of Time is the game which defined 3D gaming for many people and it is as good today as it was then. The game also implements many improvements seen in later games, a notable example being that the player can now assign the two boot items to a quick select. The touch screen allows for more items to be assigned to buttons than before; as an added bonus, the ocarina has its own dedicated slot. Including this, the player is allowed five items to be equipped at once compared to the original's three. When using the ocarina players are also able to take a look at all the songs collected so far, saving time for those who don't feel like memorizing the buttons. And, most important of all, the framerate has been improved from capped 20 frames per second to a solid 30. If you have a chance to play any version of Ocarina, this is it. If you have a 3DS, this game is essential.

You might want to take note of two specific complaints some players have with this release. I personally don't see these as issues, but it's enough for others to view as detracting from the original. The first criticism is aimed at the new lighting system present across the entire game. Some believe the new lighting detracts from the atmosphere of the original; while I agree somewhat, I don't know that it's as big a deal as is presented. This isn't Silent Hill, the brown fog in many areas of Ocarina is simply a relic of low draw distances and, personally, I didn't even notice it was gone until someone pointed it out. Another complaint is that the Gamecube version's Master Quest mode has been toned down dramatically, although I would argue that it is a bit less frustrating while still presenting a better challenge than the original game. The new Master Quest flips the entire world similar to Twilight Princess on the Wii, and this is going to come up a bit later but in all honesty, just trying to go through Ocarina in a flipped version of what I've grown used to for two decades now is a challenge of its own. Given that these are the only two complaints I can think of and how heavily subjective they are, I don't think many people are going to mind.

The Wind Waker HD

The Wind Waker HD is the second of Nintendo's remasters of 3D Zelda games, this time on the Wii U. Like Ocarina this HD re-release presents substantial improvements over the original with a few caveats. Wind Waker was always one of the more contentious games of the series; while I personally believe it is easily the best 3D Zelda, many were put off by the games cel-shaded art style, proving once and for all that style can be wasted on the masses. This version of the game offers improvements of its own that are equally as massive as changing boots to quick items in Ocarina of Time 3D: the player can now buy a sail that dramatically increases speed while sailing from island to island while cutting out the need to change directions of the wind, although this trivializes some timed events that require precise sailing. The infamous Triforce hunt at the end of the game has been massively overhauled, giving a far better and less time-consuming experience than the original. As an added bonus, Nintendo even fixed the original game's inverted camera. I hate inverted cameras and you should too.

Like Ocarina, Wind Waker HD "corrects" the visuals of the original release, although this time I'm not quite as enamored with the visuals as I was with Ocarina of Time 3D. The original's distinct, flat cel-shading has been replaced with a global, realistic lighting system that is a bit less appealing than the original. HD Bloom effects are in place and it's some of the most egregious use of this lighting that I've ever seen, even worse than the Xbox 360 version of The Elders Scrolls IV: Oblivion. However, this is a heavily subjective complaint and given all the improvements, it's not worth it to look over this version. I have to admit though, unlike Ocarina 3D not much has been done in terms of framerate; in fact, in some areas framerate is dramatically worse as visual effects begin filling the screen. The original wasn't perfect either, but given that so much work was put into this game I'm surprised Nintendo didn't try a bit harder to touch up the framerate. All in all though, if you haven't picked up Wind Waker this, like Ocarina 3D, is the version to get.

Majora's Mask 3D

Here we have a game that's not quite as impressive as the rest, and while I'd also say this game is improved over the original it's not by very much. Majora's Mask 3D adds several new features, such as a much streamlined Bomber's Notebook which makes many of the game's sidequests easier to handle--if you haven't played Majora's Mask before, this is definitely an improvement. Sidequests are the majority of the game, so being able to track them down with better frequency is a plus. This game also adds a tutorial stone like Skyward Sword, the rightfully-maligned most recent console game in the series. I used it myself for a few of the peskier hidden items in the game, but it's out of the way and you can avoid it completely if you want. Another improvement over the original is that the player can now save at any of the owl statues in the game; in the original these were presented as quick saves which were erased when you picked up the game again but in the 3DS release these statues are the primary method of saving, which is far better than having to reset to the first day every time you wanted to permanently save your file. The updates from Ocarina 3D are all present, and if you're playing with a New 3DS you can even use a brand new third-person camera. 

With that comes a few complaints that are much more present here than in Ocarina 3D. First off, that game's lighting really does affect the atmosphere of Majora's Mask. Notably the tonally darkest game in the entire franchise, Majora's Mask is actually hurt by the inclusion of brighter colors. Fewer characters were given radical model overhauls as Ocarina 3D, which means you'll see far more dated characters than in that game. Majora's Mask 3D is something of a less creepy game than its original release, which is kind of a bummer for people who are only going to play this version. Boss fights are tweaked in very weird ways, especially the third dungeon's Gyorg. The third dungeon, as well as the area around it, show off two of the more annoying changes in the game: in the original release, the player could use ice arrows to create a makeshift bridge across bodies of water. It was kind of a novelty gimmick, but players (specifically speedrunners) could use that feature to skip huge portions of water-based puzzles. In the 3D remake, players can only create ice bridges on designated sparkling areas in water for seemingly no reason at all. An even more annoying change that has absolutely no bearing on the game at all is that Zora Link could hop above water like a dolphin--you can still do that, but only by using precious magic to speed up while swimming. Why was this even deemed worthy to tweak?

All of this and they didn't even include a Master Quest or Hero Mode--yeah, once you beat the base game that's it. For the rest of these releases to have one of these two additional modes (even Skyward Sword and the absolute perfection of A Link Between Worlds had Hero Mode!) and Majora's Mask 3D to be missing it is a disappointing oversight that harms the remaster's appeal. If these changes to the game seem like a drastic overhaul then take note that they are, and in many ways it's less impressive than the original. However, the improvements to framerate and ease of use might be all you're looking for, so please keep all that in mind when deciding on playing this or the original version. If you want the original, do keep in mind there's a fairly rare Gamecube disc and if you're too lazy for that and don't want to dig up a Nintendo 64, that version is also available on the Wii (not Wii U) Virtual Console. Of all the re-releases, this is the one you might want to seriously think about before deciding on a version.

Twilight Princess HD

The most recent release in the Zelda 3D touch-ups, Twilight Princess HD is something of an anomaly as it adds very little to the original game. If you have forgotten, the Wii version of Twilight Princess was flipped on its vertical axis, making Link left-handed--if you couldn't tell, this is an HD re-release of the Gamecube version with minimal improvements. Textures appear to have been reworked all over the place and it's nice to see Twilight Princess in its intended form and in widescreen, but compared to the other titles there aren't a whole lot of improvements. The Tears of Light moments in the game have been reduced, but that's not nearly the same as Wind Waker's Triforce hunt. The rupee wallet has been increased in size and the game doesn't patronizingly remind you rupee size every single time you load your file, nor does it make you close rupee chests if you can't hold anymore in your wallet. A new item has been added to streamline the Poe hunting sidequest in the game, if you're into that.

All that aside, the game's framerate isn't quite as stable as the Gamecube or Wii versions. Some areas in the game have notable dips, although they're typically only in areas with a large amount of fog. They're not as bad as some of the framerate problems seen in Wind Waker HD, but they're curiously still present. This game is simply a case of whether or not you really want to play Twilight Princess again, as it's not exactly the best game in the franchise--it's not the worst either, just very by-the-numbers. Like I said, a mediocre Zelda game is still a very phenomenal video game, so if you want your fix this is as good a game as any. If you have the original version or if you're a masochist who has grown used to the Wii controls, I don't think it's a necessary upgrade. With its new textures, though, you might notice just how jarring the cartoonish character designs are as opposed to the overwrought dark new Hyrule. Wind Waker might have a cartoon art style, but characters in Twilight Princess look like cartoon characters dropped into a Lord of the Rings knockoff and it's frankly a bit ugly. Should have just keep the Wind Waker style and told the naysayers to deal with it.

I personally think it's a better version simply due to the unobtrusive HD remastering (as opposed to Wind Waker HD) and that, curiously, I have never been able to play the game without severe audio crackling. Thankfully, that's not present here. I hinted at this when discussing the earlier games but Twilight Princess HD has its own Hero Mode; however, much like the game's design it heavily borrows from Ocarina of Time in this respect. This game's Hero Mode is vertically flipped, so if you're used to the Wii version or if you want a challenge then it's available from the beginning. There's also some meaningless amiibo support, although the Ganondorf amiibo allows you to take double damage if you really want a challenge. The thing is, so little has been changed here that I would only recommend it for people who had gripes with technical issues of the Gamecube release--if you're fine with that version, this isn't going to do much for you. Unless you're picky about fine details, you can take this one or leave it.

The Verdict(s)

Nintendo has painstakingly tweaked every single entry in the series, although in some places they fixed what wasn't broken or went backwards in some respects. Ocarina of Time 3D and Wind Waker HD are dramatic improvements to games that were great to begin with, but Majora's Mask 3D trades nearly every positive for minor, though persistent, annoyances. Twilight Princess HD adds almost nothing to a game that really needed a few ounces of personality that would require a complete overhaul. Each case is different and almost all of them take away something from the original release, but Nintendo did their best with what they had and if want to revisit these amazing games or haven't played any of the originals, I'd say the remastered versions are the way to go.