I remember the day well. Having been a major fan of Ocarina of Time, i could hardly wait for the Legend of Zelda to appear on Gamecube. And then i took one look at the new title, Wind Waker, and one thing came to mind: WHAT THE !@#$?! Wind Waker took a drastic turn from the graphics that appeared in the N64 titles and made what was once impressive and somewhat realistic graphics into cel-shaded cartoony graphics. And after seeing that, i felt like crying. Especially since Nintendo had earlier ads which showed clips that were later used in Twilight Princess, released i think 6 years after Wind Waker. But, it can't be all that bad, can it? Let us see.

Plot: You live on Outset Island to the south-western border of the Great Sea. The sea is comprised of several islands, and somehow, people make a living even though there are no signs of fishing or gardens. You control Link (Again), on his birthday, when he becomes the same age as the fabled Hero of Time (I think Nintendo forgot that they said Link was 10 in Ocarina of Time). For your birthday, you are given the heroes clothes, and a telescope. And wouldn't you know it, all hell breaks loose when you see a pirate ship and a giant a** bird. You save the pirate leader, but your sister ends up getting kidnapped by the giant a** bird. And so, you must venture with the pirates, sword and shield in hand, to save your sister! And later you find out that it was part of a plot to find the Triforce so that Ganondorf could take over the world.... yada yada yada.

Graphics: Pathetic. The cel-shading cartoon graphics are a massive eye sore. But, as far as glitches go, the game was well programmed, so you get few. The sprites are also very well programmed for such an old game. It has better programming than recent X-Box games even. And once again, Link defies logic as you wonder where the hell he keeps all of that gear on him. Especially the Skull Hammer, which is bigger than Link.

Gameplay: Aside from the sailing system which gets boring quickly, the gameplay somewhat redeems Wind Waker. An improved sword fighting system, pickpocket system, the grappling hook, naval combat, and fancy new boomerang system makes it a lot of fun. If they didn't sue the cel-shading, this game would probably have been next to perfect. There is also an impressive enemy A.I. that makes the enemies somewhat more difficult, but somewhat more helpless as you can now sneak up on them with great ease. And the new Great Fairy isn't a screaming freak! She's now-- a freak with black skin and four arms... okay, not much better.

Music: Some of the music is great, but some of it matches the cartoon crap. The sound effects also have a dose of the cartoon crap. But, it is still pretty impressive. The character voices are obnoxious also.

Overall: Well programmed, good and bad musical scores, and excellent gameplay! If only it didn't look like a stoner dream...

Rating: 7/10