Does it really matter?

Well, I might as well kick this review off by getting the graphics issue out of the way. This game is art. It's a masterpiece. It's wonderful. It is the opinion of this reviewer that the style of this game is amazing. You could take a screen capture of the game at any time and it would look a billion times better than anything I could ever draw in my life. It's great to me. However (there's always a however), it is art, and as such is subject to opinion. There are people out there (not necessarily smart people, but people nonetheless) who believe that the new look is "kiddie." And those are the more eloquent ones. The dumbest, stupidest batch of people will resort to simply calling the new style "gay." Jesus. If you don't like the style that's fine. But don't call it gay. That's just showing the fact that you are an idiotic 11 year old. I love it. Maybe you have to be an artist to appreciate it or something.

However, the main focus of any game is the gameplay, and Wind Waker shines in this aspect. Basically, it's just like how you remember for the Ocarina of Time, with some minor improvements. The camera can actually be manually controlled. It can be a bit tricky at times, but using the C-stick and utilizing the L button (which gives a great behind-the-back view that shows what's in front of you) it's always possible to find a great camera angle. The swordplay has also been improved, and definitely for the better. There are tons of ways to fight enemies with this combat, and it's just all around fun. The highlight, in my mind, of this combat system is the parry function. Basically, if you press the A button at the right time you will dodge the enemies attack and give them either a blow from behind or above. Sometimes this is the only way to disarm or kill an enemy. I just get a kick out of doing this. While the whole motion is automatic once you press the A button, the parry maneuver makes you feel more like you're in control of the fight. Now lets talk about some of the bad points in the gameplay.

You see how you're sailing. There's the water. You're looking at your ship, right? Well get used to seeing that, since you will spend the majority of the game sailing the high seas. You can just point yourself in the right direction and put the controller down and go grocery shopping or something, because it's going to be a while before you reach your destination. The developers tried to make things kinda interesting by letting you search for treasure and stuff, but that still doesn't help the fact that you spend forever sailing.

The last thing I'll comment on is the the storyline. The story is great, and, like I said earlier, the graphics and the story go together wonderfully. It's really just a light-hearted adventure story. Actually, I think the storytelling has been vastly improved over that of all of the past Zeldas. The reason for this is simply the fact that the adventure folds out in a less obviously-linear fashion. In every other Zelda game, they basically followed the path of "here's the dungeon. Get the item necessary to get into next dungeon. Repeat." I mean they do that this time, but it never seems like you're just going through the motions. When you get to the next castle or lair or whatever, it feels like you decided to go there for a reason other than that it was the next castle/lair/dungeon/cave/brewery.

Overall, the game is definitely the best adventure game for the Gamecube. For those who just scroll down to the end of the reviews I'll summarize my points by saying: "Not nearly as good as the N64 offerings, but it's a great game with a wonderful graphical style and a fun and interesting storyline." That's all for now. And for all you people out there who like to review games on the Amazon.com reader response or on Gamefaqs.com's review section based on screenshots. Play the game before you give it any kind of score whatsoever.

-Louie out

Overall Score: 1 G chord, 3 lemons, and a partrige in a pear tree