Quick Look: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Yes! Finally my time to be first post. Too bad that quest isn't here anymore.

Edit: I've never played a zelda game. Should I start with this? Should I go grab a Wii U and play zelda?

Extra Edit: I will also say that from not seeing much of any other zelda/link game that this art seems great. People who are harshing on it seem to be splitting hairs and bending straws. This game looks great. Not sure if it will make me pick up a WiiU though.

It's also a bummer about the frame rate which is why I love gaming on PCs. You get like zero frame rate issues (that can't be fixed by turning down the settings) with a decent rig . Watching Load our Last Souls Part 2 and watching as Vinny ran up that ramp was really painful to watch.

I'm glad that the bloom isn't terrible as it was in those first screenshots.

fart post

I would buy a Wii U just for this if not for the new consoles.

I'd say A Link to the Past is the best starting point.

Brad bought a Wii U, what's next

The wind's asleep again. Who wants to pour ice water on it?

Sneaking out a Quick Look during the Live Show? I love you guys! :D

Hour long? Surprised it's that long. Not much to show really.

Nice to see this though, right after the stream finished.

awesome, but still never gonna buy a wii u

Windwaker > Watching paint dry > Twilight Princess

I'm thinking of picking up this bundle this weekend, it's such a good deal, and I'd say there's a solid half-dozen fantastic Wii U games already out with this, Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, ZombiU, Rayman Legends, and we've got Super Mario 3D World and Donkey Kong coming soon.

@mjbrune: this is as good a starting point as any, really. My favourite Zelda game behind Ocarina.

Stealth night Quick Look!

Also, just want to say, Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game, by a pretty wide margin.

I'd play the shit out of LoV: Wind Breaker

lol at brad being overly skeptical of tp and ss and having ever played them

The "Citizen Kane" of games can go to hell, this game is better.

He's aware of popular opinions of those games. I know when I played TP, it was my first time thinking "This Zelda game is not nearly as good as the one before it"

Its still kinda annoying and Brad tends to do that often. He decides an opinion towards games he hasn't played of what others said. I think its quite problematic to have that approach.

@mjbrune:

I'd say that this is a great starting point for 3D Zeldas. Don't tell people but Ocarina of Time has aged poorly in comparison to Windwaker, due to it being the first 3D Zelda, and a testing ground for ideas that were refined in later installments. Still a great game, but I think Windwaker is the more assessable of the two.

I get a little woozy whenever people bring up Twilight Princess. Am I the only one that remembers it receiving universal acclaim when it came out? Where'd the divisiveness come from? It's clearly one of the best of the series, and probably beats Ocarina of Time for me.

@brad Personally, my problem with the lighting isn't really the bloom. In HD, whenever characters are in shadow or lit by a nearby light source they entirely lose their harsh shadows and instead take on a smooth (and more realistic) lighting model that didn't exist in the GC version. I personally think it really ruins the art style in spots and kinda bums me out. Definitely agree that the game is pretty gorgeous all around though.

I don't get this either, Twilight Princess is an unbelievably good game, and got rave reviews...I think Brad's making something up. It was basically an upgraded version of Ocarina of Time. Skyward Sword was the only mainline Zelda I can recall some people not loving.

TP was also really long and had some complex dungeons, I swear it was better recieved when it came out than Wind Waker....with EGM calling it the best Zelda ever if I recall. Just kinda dumbfounded by what Brad said, cuz I've never heard it.

this game was a big deal for me as a kid.

Best game of 2013

Also, They land on Bomb Island at 14:47.

I can name a dozen pc games that received mod updates equal if not better and yet they were free. You have to respect Nintendo ability to milk the hell out of their library and get top dollar no matter what.

@counterclockwork87: Skyward Sword has its fans and high review scores. However, it is the most that has been criticized for being archaic. Rightfully so given other games in its genre at the time of Skyward Sword's release in 2011.

As for Twilight Princess, the game is great but it is too long and poorly paced.

@mjbrune: Wind Waker is the 2nd best 3D Zelda. Absolutely play this. The style, the dungeons, the music, it's all top notch 3D Zelda.

Brad stop walking into plot rooms early!

See I always saw the length of Twilight Princess as a positive thing especially in relation to Wind Waker which was quite short and easy for a Zelda title. Never played Skyward Sword (don't own a Wii) but one day I'll play it for myself!

I think Windwaker looks beautiful. Also, while I never finished Windwaker (started playing it for the first time this year on Gamecube, kinda got burnt out), Minish Cap is an excellent Zelda game. I've played it through at least 3 times.

I think I might be getting a Wii U sometime in the near future...

Great QL. But I have to say, I'm glad I'm not like Brad in that I don't need to explore everything I come across in these kinds of games :)

God dammit, I loved Wind Waker when it came out.

That game, and to a lesser extent the young Link part of OoT, really captured the romance of being a kid on a grand adventure. It just felt so awesome to get on your awesome red boat and strike out into the unknown.

As for TP and SS. I thought TP was a brilliant game, but it did drag a bit for me towards the last third of the game. SS had amazing moments and some of the best Dungeons in the series, but that tutorial...my God is the first 6 or so hours of that game just a pain in the ass to play.

And yeah, TP got amazing reviews. Just think about the amount of shit Jeff recieved for giving it a 8.8. He got death threats, and people mentioned that review for years afterwards if they wanted to "discredit" some other review he wrote. People are crazy

Interesting, I'll have to check out some footage of the old one to compare.

Spot on Vinny, I bought a Gamecube for this as well.

I've tried to play this game twice. Both times I got to the first island where you have to stealth around and said "fuck this" and stopped. I guess I will continue to never have finished a Zelda game.

@rejizzle: I know others also feel that OoT has aged poorly, but that's mostly with the targeting system, and aside from having the option to switch between a toggle or holding the targeting button, I can't think of any basic mechanics that would make OoT age worse compared to Wind Waker, especially considering that the orignal WW required you to play the same song every time you wanted to sail a different direction. The fact that they fixed that in this version is really nice, but that's not a matter of the game aging well -- it's an update. The original OoT graphics might be hard to go to without the nostalgia behind it, but there's the 3DS version of that, which looks really nice.

Preach Vinny! Twilight Princess is great!

In the history of stealth sections the one in Wind Waker is pretty mild and easily passable. You ought to push through it and maybe you'll find out that you like the game.

should have waited for blackfriday sales to buy this brad

Nintendo isn't the only company that's making HD updates of old games. And really, the work they put into improving and updating Wind Waker is far more than the work that goes into most other HD editions, some of which have turned out incredibly poor (Silent Hill HD collection, I am looking at you).

All this talk like Skyward Sword is this widely regarded bad Zelda game makes me want to go and play through it again because I fucking loved it.

It's a shame Brad's unwilling to see what he thinks of Skyward Sword for himself (but understandable, there's only so much time in the day and so many other games to play, the ship has sailed - no pun intended). Kind of find it amusing that he goes on to say he loved Phantom Hourglass, in an alternate universe Brad didn't play it and is assuming it's bad because of any negative comments surrounding it.

If this was Majora's Mask HD, I would be ordering my Wii U right now.

Alas, I am not.

@notdavid: Even at the time I didn't really care for Twilight Princess despite the high praise. I loved me so OoT, MM and WW but TP didn't really do anything for me and I played a pretty good chunk of it. That could just be me and Wii games though. Maybe if I'd played it on the GC my experience would've been different. I remember enjoying Metroid Prime 3 but for some reason I just gave up on it.

Just had the realization that they are on bomb island at 15:30ish.

Hey, everybody, it's Tuesday.

I was really exited to buy this game, and it's one of the reasons I bought a Wii U in the first place (Rayman Legends being the other reason) but I'm this game is 60 EUROS IN EUROPE ! Boxed OR digital. I would have been fine with 40 or 45 but it is WAY too expensive for me, especially considering there is little to no new content. I've waited 10 years to play this game, I can wait 6 more months. Found Skyward Sword, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks new for 10€ each, so I'm gonna have my Zelda needs filled anyway :')

And yeah, TP was not that great (wasn't necessarily bad though) but Skyward Sword did a lot of things right (it has the best dungeons in any 3D Zelda games in my opinion - less rooms, but bigger and better ones). Also, Phantom Hourglass is pretty damn good. Way better than I had anticipated, especially when I learned it was touch screen only. They make it work really well.

Gamecube era Nintendo was the best, most innovative Nintendo. We desperately need them back.