The Wind Waker HD E3 Impressions

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD was announced via Nintendo Direct a few months back, and ever since then, Nintendo fans have been waiting to get their hands on the game. You all are, no doubt, familiar with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for Nintendo GameCube, so the story and setting should need little explanation.

The Wind Waker HD brings dozens of changes to the original Wind Waker format, most notably moving menus to the GamePad and speeding up the drudging sailing system, a much-needed boost to make the game more appealing on its new console.

The E3 demo of The Wind Waker HD gives players two options. The first, “Island Stroll,” is a leisurely walk around Outset Island where the music has been mysteriously changed to that of The Great Sea, but I digress. The other option is the battle with Helmaroc King, remade of course in the full HD of the rest of the game.

Island Stroll is a great outing but ultimately a little confusing. The King of Red Lions is there on the docks, Aryll is on the watch tower, Link has several items found late in the game, and you witness the cutscene where Tetra falls into the forest at the peak of Outset Island. How’s that for nonlinear? Of course, it is only a demo, so I’ve got a feeling Nintendo wanted to showcase various aspects of the game, rather than focus on any sort of placement in the game’s canon progression. Regardless, Link was able to walk around the island and interact with its citizens and objects just as he could in the GameCube’s The Wind Waker.

The Helmaroc King Battle, on the other side of things, is exactly what one would expect: an exact recreation of the battle with Helmaroc King. One of the most interesting new features shown off during this demo was the use of the GamePad as a means of aiming items like the bow and arrow or the grappling hook, which is an enjoyable addition reminiscent of the smooth gyroscopic aiming system used in Ocarina of Time 3D.

Right next to the demo was an assortment of scenes from the GameCube edition of The Wind Waker, highlighting the incredible visual improvement the game has received in its leap to Wii U. There are a few spots here and there in The Wind Waker HD that are in need of some serious touching up, but if you have an HDTV and want to play The Wind Waker, the experience will be infinitely more enjoyable with the upcoming Wii U version of the game.

Because it really is a tried and true upgrade of The Wind Waker, it plays almost exactly the same. There’s always the question of additional content for the Wii U release, but unless they announce something big, such as bonus dungeons or some sort extra features, whether or not you should buy The Wind Waker HD hinges solely upon whether or not you’d like to experience Link’s journey through The Great Sea once again.