TerrantheHuman

Why Windwaker Still Matters

Here we go again!

HD Windwaker on the WiiU. Great! But does anyone care about a game that came out 10 years ago? Well surely there’s the niche audience that still has retro love, but I mean newer players.  Is there anyone of today who wants to play this newly announced HD remake? I say yes.

My reasoning? Here are 3 to wet your lips:

1. Timeless graphic style, meaning it doesn’t feel dated by a console cycle.

The biggest controversy at the release of Winwaker back in the day was the graphic style of the game.  Coming off the amazing high that was Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, Windwaker was a vastly different style and look that many to this day cannot get over or even say that it’s a proper Zelda game.  Those people are idiots, pardon my bluntness, and they missed possibly the greatest Zelda game we’ve ever gotten.

Amazing vista, a sense of scope, beautifully rendered cutscenes and animations, Windwaker, even playing on a gamecube, still looks amazing.  Much in the line of great art games like “Jet Grind Radio” or “Yoshi’s Island”, Windwaker stands apart as a landmark in innovation on a graphic scale. It wasn’t about how many pixels can be pushed and how many Michael Bay explosions you can have, but rather how stylistic can every shot be given that the angle is controlled by the player. 

The boldness of such a change in a series known for a formulaic genre and style is nothing short of dangerous, as it could have ended the series at any point just because of the style. One thing that suffers from this lately is something like DmC Devil May Cry, the art direction and character was changed so much that some people refuse to give it a try.  We also see this in the metacritic reviews as well; critic rating around 86 where  the user rating is a 4.2.  Telling me that it’s not the game itself but rather the people who are upset it isn’t the same style as the previous.  

2. Amazing scale.  At the time it was one of the largest adventure games around, and still holds a candle in the 20-30 hours of play sweetspot. Not to long to be repetitive, but not to short to be beaten in a weekend.

Length of play is a big deal.  While playing a game that’s 30+ hours some gamers will get impatient and antsy.  Not because it’s a bad game, but because games that are that long tend to be extended just to hair more to do for the sake of sucking time.  Examples of this is EVERY JRPG past decade. Windwaker has this great sweet spot of just long enough to be engaging and the locals different enough to be fresh and the scope large enough to make you want to travel in every nook and cranny.  It was perfect.  

Although it is well known that Windwaker was an unfinished game in that near the end of the game it seems to fall apart.  After you start searching for triforce shards the game comes screeching to a halt and it seems as though the game needed two more dungeons… Something that I would love to see come into the new remake.

3. The gameplay of Windwaker is the first “perfect” 3D Zelda formula.

This is probably the most controversial thing I’m going to say, but Windwaker is the first truly perfect formula that sets the pace of how Zelda games work.  Many would say that Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask would be “perfect” formula but my argument to this is that both of those games have problems.  Be it linearity of direction and how you can play the game, Z-targeting, or even dungeon progression, the N64 games have problems.  

Windwaker fixes all of these things.  The progression of the game gives you a nudge in the right direction rather than just dropping you in the world and saying “Go” like in Majora’s Mask. The Z-targeting was greatly improved to actually be useful and also including a parry feature on ground enemies for extra variation, and dungeouns have been improved and tightened so they seem difficult but accomplishable unlike the insanely annoying Water Temple in OoT. 

The N64 games set the groundwork for the 3D Zelda series there’s no doubt, but Windwaker is what brought it home and gave Zelda it’s mantra of perfect controls mixed with exploration and story.  The game does these things so well that by the end of it’s build up to the final moments they are tinted with almost bittersweet feelings as the credits roll.

Windwaker matters.  Whether you’re new to the Zelda train or not, play Windwaker.  With the HD remake hopefully we’ll get even more to the game than what we originally got and that makes me very happy.  But for now I recommend grabbing a gamecube disk and enjoying the past in the present.  You’ll be glad you did.