The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was ahead of its time. But like all such things, it took us a while to realize that.
Fortunately, Nintendo has recently revamped the 2003 GameCube classic for its new Wii U console; it will release Wind Waker HD digitally on September 20 and on disc on October 4. It's a chance to discover (or relive) one of the company's most visually stunning adventures, a cartoon-shaded world bursting with primary color and exaggerated emotions.
The stylized design was quite controversial at the time; most fans expected a more "realistic" approach, which Nintendo ended up delivering with the next game in the series years later. But I loved Wind Waker and played it non-stop when it was released. I was obsessed. The game's world, an expansive and vast ocean, contained numerous secrets and I sailed the high seas in search of them all. It took me months.
But after I finished Wind Waker, I never went back and played it again.
In the years that followed, whenever my friends and I would discuss Zelda games, Wind Waker would inevitably come up. We all enjoyed it, but you'd never tell by the piles of criticism we threw at it.
"Wasn't sailing such a chore?" one of us would say, while the rest nodded in agreement.
"And how about at the end when you had to hunt down all the Triforce pieces?" another would say, while we all inwardly shuddered at the thought of ever having to experience that lengthy, tedious quest again.
Then we'd sit and think for a few moments, and then someone would pipe up with, "Still a damn good game, though," which would be followed by everyone saying "Yeah, definitely" and "Oh, of course." But there was always the lingering suspicion that maybe we were wrong, and our fond memories were lying to us.
Now, having played Wind Waker HD, I think we simply didn't have the proper perspective with which to judge the game.
Wind Waker was released right at the time that realistic-looking games like Grand Theft Auto and Shenmue were vastly expanding the play spaces of interactive worlds. You could go where you wanted, do anything you could imagine: Blow up cars, stop by the arcade, hire a hooker, drive a forklift. By those standards, Wind Waker's linearity seemed like Old Games, and its cartoon style was emblematic of Nintendo's refusal to grow up.
And yet, whenever someone invokes the cliche of a "living, breathing world" today, I think of Wind Waker.
I could (and have) spend hours walking through the alleys of the game's central town. There's charm to be found in the smallest things. If you run into a specific character's home and start breaking his belongings, he'll be so startled by the sound of shattering glass that he'll yell and jump onto his table. He's the only character who reacts this way.
In the same town, if you give a large number of a certain trinket to a certain character, you will be given the deed to your own private island complete with a cabana and a ghostly butler.
Every part of the game feels like it's been constructed with purpose, not just stuffed with superfluous padding to make it feel more "lifelike."
Other elements that are now commonplace in videogames were done earlier in Wind Waker, like the way that Link's eyes and head would turn to look at people, enemies, or important things happening around him. His facial expressions would also change based on context: If you were in a tense battle for your life, Link would squint his eyes and grit his teeth. When you finally won, he'd sigh in relief. Sometimes it was more utilitarian – Link's eyes would focus in a particular direction, indicating to the player that something of interest was there.
So in typical Nintendo fashion, the graphics were there to serve the gameplay: The exaggerated cartoon style made it possible for the player to easily read Link's face, especially on a 2003 model standard-definition television. Even so, Wind Waker took a lot of heat from fans when it was revealed to be a whimsical, cartoony adventure that would end up looking more like Mickey Mouse than Lord of the Rings.
Today you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't think Wind Waker looks astonishing, especially with the new HD remake. What was once its biggest criticism – "It looks like a cartoon!" – is now its biggest compliment. Link and the rest of the characters are beautifully animated, and so is that ocean: Alone out there, looking into the vast horizon while the blue waves lap at your boat, it's enough to convince you, even if just for a moment, that secrets and mysteries are still out there waiting for you, even in this now well-explored world.
