Preview: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD

Back in February when Nintendo announced they were working on an HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker my excitement hit an all-time high. Finally the reveal trailer came in June giving us our first look at the game in action, and that same excitement lowered. It didn’t seem like much had changed visually. Granted everything looked a little sharper, but I was expecting so much more. Then last Thursday I got to have a hands on with the E3 demo, and my excitement has gone into hyper drive!

Wind Waker HD is absolutely beautiful. This was made even clearer by the frankly genius decision to have a GameCube with a copy of the original Wind Waker running next to the HD stands. The colours are brighter and the textures are sharper, allowing for an incredible level of detail that was missing before. Little details, like old looking photographs, really brings the world to life in a way not possible on the GameCube. Remember those white blobs on the side of Links telescope? They’re seagulls.

There were two sections being demonstrated; Link’s home island, and the Helmaroc King boss battle from the Forsaken Fortress. Link’s home was a timed demo giving you freedom to explore the island for a while and even have a sail around in Link’s boat and sidekick The King of Red Lions in a limited section of sea. The boss battle consisted of both phases, starting with the climb up the tower as it floods, before finally reaching the rooftop arena of the Helmaroc King.

Wind Waker HD is much more than a new coat of paint though, there have been numerous revisions made to the gameplay to make it a much fuller and enjoyable experience. The first change I noticed was the camera, which is no longer inverted. This is great news for me (and many others, no doubt) as nothing throws me off more than an inverted camera. Unfortunately, I wasn’t told if there is an option to switch it back to inverted for those of you who prefer it that way.

The next new addition comes in the form of the Tingle Bottle, a replacement for the GameCube’s much under-used Tingle Tuner, which can be found on the beaches or floating around in the sea. The idea is great; send letters and screenshots into other people’s games who are connected to the MiiVerse via the Tingle Bottle to be found and read, and find other peoples messages in bottles in your own game. Of course, there is a profanity filter in action, which is good news as I’d imagine finding a letter in a bottle explicitly detailing what another player has done to Link’s Grandma would put a real downer on your adventure. It will be interesting to see just how well said profanity filter has been tested come launch time.

There is now a ‘fast sail’ option available which allows The King of Red Lions to travel twice as fast along the high seas, which is a welcome addition to the game as getting from A to B could be tedious in the original Wind Waker, especially during the second half of the game.

All equipment and items can be selected using the touch screen like in Ocarina of Time 3D, speeding up menu navigation greatly. Additionally, the Wind Waker itself can be used on the touch pad – it’s a nice feature, but I had trouble pulling it off during my time with the game. Maybe I just don’t have rhythm. Projectile weapons and Link’s telescope can now be aimed using the Wii U GamePad’s gyro. I can see this being a cool feature, but unfortunately, during my hands-on, the GamePad was attached to the demo units via stubborn cables making the use of gyro extremely awkward.

When I first saw the reveal trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD I have to admit I wasn’t too impressed. The game looked exactly how I remembered it on the GameCube, and that’s where one of its greatest strengths lie. The feeling of nostalgia I got whilst playing was overwhelming, and I honestly can’t wait to see what else Nintendo add to the mix by the time the game is released in October 2013.

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