The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was originally released on The GameCube in 2003, and at the time it was somewhat controversial. Fans of the franchise were horrified to find the series’ legendary hero replaced with a silly, cartoony character, and the game’s serious look and tone similarly replaced with a bright and colorful cartoony look. The game was mockingly referred to as “Cel-da”, a play on its cel shaded art style.

By the time the game was brought to the Wii U ten years later in 2013 in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, feelings about the original game had warmed somewhat. While the visuals may not have carried the gravitas that many associated with the Zelda franchise, they nevertheless had a unique charm of their own, and some would claim that the cartoony style has aged remarkably well as technology has progressed. And of course, that’s on top of the inventive gameplay elements Wind Waker added to the franchise as well.

When it comes to those visuals, Wind Waker HD brings higher-resolution textures along with its overall higher resolutions and generally improved framerates (though the framerates can hit slowdown here and there), and this release of the game also features improved lighting and atmospheric effects. However, this is not a ground-up overhaul like what we saw in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D on the 3DS, but more of a remaster with a few improvements to the visuals.

That’s not to say that the visuals are the only thing that is improved here. Namely, this release of Wind Waker addresses two of the biggest complaints about the gameplay of the original game – the tedious sailing, and the late-game fetch quest that slowed everything to a crawl. The former is addressed by an optional “Swift Sail” item that players can obtain after the relatively early quest on Dragon Roost Island, and the latter has been addressed by scaling down the fetch quest to be less of a time-consuming slog.

In addition to this, players can now use the Wii U gamepad’s touchscreen to select menu options, and the Wii U gamepad can also be used for gyroscopic motion control where it makes sense, such as when players need to aim the camera in first-person perspective. This version of the game also adds some other new controller shortcuts to generally provide a smoother, more straightforward experience that has players less bogged down in menus. Oh, there’s also integration with the Wii U’s Miiverse feature, but that’s a moot point since Miiverse shut down in 2017.

Although Wind Waker is vastly improved in this release and many of its issues are addressed, the game still isn’t without its flaws. The game starts somewhat slowly, there are some stealth sections that are annoying, the ocean-covered world can seem a bit empty and dull at times, the dungeons are somewhat more linear than most Zelda games (which may or may not be to your liking), and the game is overall a bit on the short side.

To be clear, none of these are fatal flaws, and Wind Waker still stands head and shoulders above most entries in the genre. Although progression in this game is fairly linear, this is still arguably the first Open-World Zelda game (or second, if you count the original NES Legend of Zelda), years before Nintendo would fully explore that concept in Breath of the Wild. The idea of bringing the Zelda series to an open sea completely upended expectations about the series, and bringing sailing mechanics into the mix was wonderfully inspired. On top of that, bringing counters into combat added a bit more depth, and some of the puzzles and bosses in this game were absolutely phenomenal.

All things considered, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD is clearly the definitive way to play this excellent entry in the Zelda franchise. This version improves on the original with not only better visuals, but by fixing some of the biggest complaints about the original game, and adding in plenty of quality-of-life improvements as well. If you’re a Zelda fan with a Wii U, this game is a must-have. And if you’re a fan of Wind Waker who never got a Wii U, this release may be reason enough to make you reconsider that (at least if Nintendo continues to drag their feet on porting this game to Nintendo Switch).

tl;dr – The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is a superb remaster of an excellent Zelda game, and one that not only improves the graphics, but that addresses some of the biggest complaints about the gameplay of the original. Wind Waker still has a few flaws, but overall this is still an outstanding game, and this version of the game is unquestionably the definitive version.

Grade: A

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