6. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker – GCN

What a shame it is that this entry into the long-running and extremely popular Zelda franchise will almost certainly be remembered primarily for the controversy surrounding its development. Nintendo made a stylistic decision for this 2003 release, abandoning the “realistic” look developed for the series on the Nintendo 64 in favor of a new, “cel-shaded” approach. The result was a more abstract and dynamic graphical setting that awed critics. An extremely vocal portion of the gaming community labeled the look as “kiddy” and “cartoony,” longing for the “mature” Link they had grown accustomed to in the Ocarina of Time. Clearly I am a fan of the look, though I do not believe the tastes of those who were and are not fans of cel-shading are without validity. Now, Nintendo is working to please as many people as they can, returning to a “realistic” approach with 2006’s “Twilight Princess”, while sticking with the cel-shading for Zelda’s first appearance on the Nintendo DS.

So here I am, over a paragraph into this summary, guilty of perpetuating what made me so upset about the release of this game in the first place: the dialogue was about the look of the game, and not about the game itself. The game itself, since we’ve finally reached this point, is absolutely stellar. The Zelda franchise is perhaps without equal when it comes to a series that is so consistently excellent with each and every outing. Wind Waker adheres strongly to the well established series formula, with some notable diversions.

Instead of a large land mass navigable by foot and horse, the world of the game is a massive ocean, populated by islands of all sizes. Travel is done by boat, opening up a wealth of new puzzle and quest options, while consequently adding a degree of tedium to the game. Such a large land mass makes exploration difficult, and a lot of the players’ time is spent simply sailing into the blue. With a larger world comes more freedom to explore, however, and this game is packed with more secret rooms, quests, and little nooks to explore than any other Zelda game. Wind Waker has fewer dungeons than fans of the series may be used to, but I found these dungeons to be both larger and more difficult than other entries of the series; a real treat for longtime veterans of the franchise.

Like any good adventure game, the fun of Wind Waker is in the players own discovery, so I feel I would be remiss to speak much more of the game here. The reason it made it to the list, and quite highly, is twofold. One, to remind all that this game is more than its cartoony surface. And two, to emphasize the unique quality of this series as a whole. Without major changes to a well established formula, this was still the sixth best game I played during all of the previous generation. If that doesn’t get your triforce glowing, I don’t know what will.