After five long years, the next great Zelda game has arrived. “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker” embodies a perfect blend of the technical perfection of N64’s “Ocarina of Time” and the fantastic simplicity of NES’s “Legend of Zelda.”

In this tenth incarnation of the game, the story begins hundreds of years after Link’s time. Your character, the future-link, is celebrating his 12th birthday when his sister is kidnapped by an enormous bird. As her older brother, you will stop at nothing to save her, and with the help of a haphazard band of pirates, you begin your quest.

This time around, the game is set on the open sea, with most of the action taking place on a series of islands. The progression of the game is similar to “Ocarina,” opening with mini training tasks and missions to acquire weapons before moving on to the actual dungeons.

The new plot is noticeably lighter, a throwback to the original Zelda — you have a mission and the soap-opera storylines (although still present) will not overshadow the game play.

The most noticeable difference between this game and its more recent predecessors is in the graphics. Nintendo changed its path from hyper-realistic to cartoon-ish visuals. Everything is simpler, but there’s something to that. In “Ocarina” and “Majora’s Mask,” practically every single pixel was filled with some minute, intricate detail. The lack of that in “Wind Waker” is refreshing, leaving more to the imagination and allowing the player to focus on game play. It also allows for scenery that is more fluid, colors that are more vivid and enemies that are scarier than ever.

The play control is almost an exact replica of that found on the N64 games. The most useful and perhaps single greatest aspect brought back is enemy targeting. At the press of a button, your character locks on to your enemy, making it impossible for it to escape your glare or your weapons. Multiple accessory access and variable view features also make a return.

Perhaps the easiest in the series so far, play time for “Wind Waker” is 20-30 hours, depending on your Zelda know-how. The key to playing Zelda lies in noticing the fine details and thinking creatively. “Wind Waker” makes itself accessible to the younger and less-skilled player with the Tingle Tuner option.

After acquiring the Tingle Tuner accessory early in the game, players can attach a Game Boy Advance to their system. The GBA will give the player tips, hints and access to certain extras throughout the game.

Sixteen years in the making, “Wind Waker” does not disappoint. While retaining the most important advances made over the last few installments, namely sophisticated play control and game progression, Nintendo recognizes, and brings back, what was great about the original – simplicity.

Download “The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker” preview clips below:

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The Legend of Zelda

Trailers & Commercials

Gamecube Official Trailer Windows Media (1:30) 4.6M

GC Japanese Commercial 1 Windows Media (:34) 2.7M

GC Japanese Commercial 2 Windows Media (:32) 2.5M

GC USA Commercial QuickTime (:59) 2.8M

First Zelda Commercial Ever! Windows Media (:39) 1.0M

GC Japanese Movie Demo QuickTime (1:02) 8.1M

Original GC Demo Windows Media (:11) 3.3M

A great clip that’s high quality QuickTime (:48) 6.2M

Game Footage

Island Shot QuickTime (:37) 5.6M

Link has a big Sword QuickTime (:31) 4.6M

Link fights a Boss QuickTime (:33) 4.6M

Link gets helps from the Medallion QuickTime (:32) 4.8M

Link gets launched from a cannon QuickTime (:59) 8.8M

Link meets his sister Arril QuickTime (:39) 5.4M

Something gone wrong QuickTime (:??) 6.6M

A nice village tour QuickTime (:??) 4.5M

Walking through the town QuickTime (:??) 4.9M

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