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Wind Waker is the best game Nintendo has ever made

Griss said:
Wind Waker is one of those Nintendo games that touches on a point I raised when critiquing Earthbound on here.

How do you deal with a situation where you can see tons of flaws in a game's mechanics and design, but the game is so charming that you enjoy it better than you would a similar game with better mechanics but less charm? How do you explain / justify that? Doesn't it lead to the conclusion that gameplay isn't the most important thing? That's something I find hard to accept - I almost always argue that gameplay is the most essential part of a video game.
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Depend if the main gameplay is serviceable.
I don't mind the DraQue-esque nature of Earthbound, I find it charming.

The truth is that gameplay isn't the most important thing because the resulting experience is a mix of more elements which can have different doses depending on the game but need to mix well together.
There are games that rely heavily on single aspect but those would never qualify to be a masterpiece, just cult classic at best (example: Killer7).
 
I think it's the best Zelda game but not the best Nintendo game.

Maybe if Wind Waker had a few more dungeons. It's just a tad too short.
 
AntiFacebook said:
I finally had some time to replay the HD remake of this game,and it is just as good as I remembered it to be.

- Each dungeon is completely different than the others in both looks and mechanics,which creates a lot of variety in the game.
- The puzzles are clever,and you get to fully use each of the items in the game.
- Searching the sea for treaures is extremely fun
- Amazing soundtrack
-
Pirate
Zelda is the best Princess Zelda

The only drawback is that the game is extremely easy, but other than that it is quite a perfect experience.

What do you think about this game, GAF?
And what game is the best Nintendo game in your eyes?
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Wind Waker is very good, but it isn't even the best Zelda game.
Best/better Zelda ---> Link's Awakening
 
Wind Waker was the first Zelda game that caught my attention. The game/aesthetic caused a huge ruckus on the internet at the time and I just had to find out what the deal was. The art style was attractive so I decided to check it out. I loved Wind Waker a lot of it has to do with how it looks.

I tried TP and considered Skyward Sword but they didn't draw me in. It wouldn't be until A Link Between Worlds before I played & finished my second Zelda game. Now I'm playing through A Link to the Past which I'm not finding that hook that both ALBW & Wind Waker had.


Mesoian said:
Naw. I like Wind Waker a lot, but come on. LTTP.

Hell, WW has most of it's real issues addressed in the HD remake, it has problems.
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I agree the HD Remake is what the game should have been. Nintendo made the Wind Waker of my mind's eye.
 
No_Style said:
I tried TP and considered Skyward Sword but they didn't draw me in. It wouldn't be until A Link Between Worlds before I played & finished my second Zelda game. Now I'm playing through A Link to the Past which I'm not finding that hook that both ALBW & Wind Waker had..
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Thank you for your opinion. Please turn in your gamer badge and controller on your way out.

:-p

But seriously, if you had played LttP when it was current, no way you'd say that.
 
It's my favorite Zelda game. It has such an amazing foundation from its dungeons, art, to sailing, etc.,, I wish Nintendo would make a sequel.
 
Wask said:
Most of them follow a very, VERY similar structure. Not no original ideas at all, but in the grand scheme, they're very much the same game on a new platform.
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Which can be said of a lot of games if you take a specific genre.
It's a very narrow view.
 
One of my favorite Zelda games, but Metroid Prime is just the best. Music, Art, Content, Controls, Exploration, Gameplay, Lore, etc. This is the full package.
 
I don't find the boss battles to be memorable. I know it's Zelda's gimmick that each boss is fought with a new weapon/item, but I really wanted to see more sword action.

Luckily, the final boss battle totally makes up for it.
 
It is hard to say whether this is Nintendos best game ever, but it is certainly is my favorite game of all time. So many memories of sailing and exploring.
 
Disagree OP. Worst Zelda by far. Shit dungeons. Companions needed to complete said dungeons. Played the HD version on WiiU and it's still shit.
 
No, I have to disagree. It's not even their best Gamecube game. It's not even their best Zelda game on the Gamecube. It's really not their best anything.

The game has quite a few flaws, but what really hurt it the worst is the missing content, specifically dungeons. Although it technically has 6, several of them are short, and there is one expected dungeon (the 3rd pearl) that is just not there. You get the 3rd pearl in a cutscene instead. And even 6 dungeons is poor compared to the landmark Zelda games--Zelda 1 had 9, Link to the Past had 11, and Ocarina of Time had 9. Even Link's Awakening on the Game Boy had 8.

And the fact that you end up fishing for Triforce pieces in the ocean the same way you fish for chests with 10 rupees inside makes it feel like the game was cut off.
 
It makes me cringe when people bring up difficulty in The Zelda series. Even Shiggy stated that the series started from his childhood memories of wandering around local forest and caves, and that adventure and exploration is what the series is about.
 
It's the weakest 3D Zelda game in the entire series and the most unfinished game Nintendo has ever released.

I like it as well, but it's not even close to the best stuff.
 
Ragus said:
No way. A poorly paced game which came out too soon.
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I can't speak about the HD remake but you're spot-on about the original. The controversy with Wind Waker over the art direction ended up being baseless, as the final game looked amazing, but gameplay-wise, what a disappointment.
 
Terrible, terrible dungeons. Good god, they are so fucking bad. Definitely the worst dungeons in any 3D Zelda. The game starting off with top 5 worst Zelda level, Forsaken Fortress, really just destroys any will I have to ever replay it. The Earth and Wind temples were godawful, especially because of the cumbersome partner switching mechanics.

And then as if that's not all shitty, clearly the third Pearl dungeon was cut and 2 other dungeons were reduced to single room challenges with a treasure box at the end. And we haven't even got to the obnoxious padding of the triforce quest.

Just a bad, bad, baaaaad Zelda game. HD remake fixes a lot of problems, but it just goes to show how many stupid decisions they made in the first one.
 
I really love this game too, OP. For me it's co-best-nintendo-game along with titles like Link's Awakening, Super Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 3, Pikmin 3, Mother 3, etc.
 
Griss said:
Wind Waker is one of those Nintendo games that touches on a point I raised when critiquing Earthbound on here.

How do you deal with a situation where you can see tons of flaws in a game's mechanics and design, but the game is so charming that you enjoy it better than you would a similar game with better mechanics but less charm? How do you explain / justify that? Doesn't it lead to the conclusion that gameplay isn't the most important thing? That's something I find hard to accept - I almost always argue that gameplay is the most essential part of a video game.

But in the case of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, I think that in almost every area TP has WW beat, but the joy I felt while playing WW was incredible, while TP was just 'very good' or 'great'*. I far prefer WW. It's hard to make sense of that and hold the opinion that gameplay is king.
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I think I agree with you here. Objectively, Wind Waker is a flawed title...but the joy I felt while playing it was incomparable to any other Zelda, even when acknowledging the flawed design. The music, the art, the feeling of freedom while sailing, the world; absolutely loved it.

The again, I still have yet to play the HD remaster, so perhaps I will feel differently now. The last time I played this game was probably ten years ago.
 
Honestly Wind Waker is probably the turning point that made me dislike Nintendo. The first Zelda game I didnt finish (triforce quest). It was all downhill from there. Nintendo's best games are in the past. I just replay the classics when I need a fix.
 
I'd put it in the top 20.

It'd be top 10, but for the fuck ugly character aesthetic (everything else is gorgeous, but those sodding fetus monsters, ugh!) boring sailing, terrible flat solid blue ocean and awful, awful ending.

Majora's Mask is the best Nintendo game, followed by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, with Fire Emblem: Awakening in third.
 
Nintendo has so many "best" games. It's hard to settle on just one. But I don't think it'd be Wind Waker for me, even though it's a game I hold dear to my heart.

I think Super Smash Bros. Melee is their best multiplayer game ever and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is perhaps their finest single player accomplishment.
 
I liked it, but not my favorite, that goes to twilight princess, then skyward sword.

I just wish Windwaker had a few more dungeons in it.
 
Super Mario Galaxy/Galaxy 2, Metroid Prime 2/Super Metroid, Super Smash Bros. Melee and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past said they want to see you outside OP. They have bats at the ready. :P

Griss said:
Wind Waker is one of those Nintendo games that touches on a point I raised when critiquing Earthbound on here.

How do you deal with a situation where you can see tons of flaws in a game's mechanics and design, but the game is so charming that you enjoy it better than you would a similar game with better mechanics but less charm? How do you explain / justify that? Doesn't it lead to the conclusion that gameplay isn't the most important thing? That's something I find hard to accept - I almost always argue that gameplay is the most essential part of a video game.

But in the case of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, I think that in almost every area TP has WW beat, but the joy I felt while playing WW was incredible, while TP was just 'very good' or 'great'*. I far prefer WW. It's hard to make sense of that and hold the opinion that gameplay is king.
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This is probably the most eloquent means of summarizing Wind Waker in a way that explains why I like it despite definitely seeing all of its flaws moreso as time goes on. I think I'm going to bookmark this for future use.
 
I agree OP. I can't believe people are acting like Mario has the weight and artistry of Wind Waker and its world.
 
Supermanisdead said:
HD remake fixes a lot of problems, but it just goes to show how many stupid decisions they made in the first one.
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It really doesn't fix that many at all, sadly. It makes seafaring quicker due to the Swift Sail, but the Triforce hunt is still a lengthy, repetitive bore right at that climactic point where you're expecting the usual big reward for all the hard work you've put in. The rest of the changes amount to small gameplay tweaks which were never that bothersome in the first place.

It's still definitely the better version though, for the improved visuals and quicker sailing alone.
 
Griss said:
Wind Waker is one of those Nintendo games that touches on a point I raised when critiquing Earthbound on here.

How do you deal with a situation where you can see tons of flaws in a game's mechanics and design, but the game is so charming that you enjoy it better than you would a similar game with better mechanics but less charm? How do you explain / justify that? Doesn't it lead to the conclusion that gameplay isn't the most important thing? That's something I find hard to accept - I almost always argue that gameplay is the most essential part of a video game.

But in the case of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, I think that in almost every area TP has WW beat, but the joy I felt while playing WW was incredible, while TP was just 'very good' or 'great'*. I far prefer WW. It's hard to make sense of that and hold the opinion that gameplay is king.
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It really goes to show you that the environment in which you play, the game world, really can bring you in and suck you up. Even though the actual game itself will play at a substandard level, because you like what you see visually and maybe because you feel like you're actually in that world, the rest just kind of becomes 'acceptable' and you push through it.

I personally never really had issues with the mechanics of this game but visually I loved it. And that's probably why I got further into it than I would have normally.

SerOnionKnight said:
remember when they first showed toon link and everyone was up in arms like how could they do this to us???? And now it is one of the best games they have ever made. Nintendo knows what they are doing when it comes to games. Now hardware and amiibos are another thing....
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I was thinking the same thing when WW HD was announced. Remembered all the hate when the original was first announced and released. Then fast forward to HD's release, it's the greatest thing ever and everyone has to have it.

I think we look more favorably at things of the past and have a distorted image at times on how we viewed them. It's like looking at my past jobs. I look fondly on most but I know at the time, many weren't all that great. I don't know why I do that but I do. And I think the same is done with gaming to an extent.
 
Neff said:
It really doesn't fix that many at all, sadly. It makes seafaring quicker due to the Swift Sail, but the Triforce hunt is still a lengthy, repetitive bore right at that climactic point where you're expecting the usual big reward for all the hard work you've put in. The rest of the changes amount to small gameplay tweaks which were never that bothersome in the first place.

It's still definitely the better version though, for the improved visuals and quicker sailing alone.
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I mean all the little animations that they shortened. It felt like they made every basic action a few seconds longer just to make up for the short game. Remember how fucking long salvaging treasure chests took? Now it's been reduced by like 80%. You can also change direction while swinging on the hookshot without having to come to a complete stop. Micro-padding, I call it.
 
god no. not being hyperbolic, it might legitimately be the most overrated game of all time. by the way some people talk about it, you'd almost forget the it was an incomplete game by the developers own words, and what it did include was either subpar like the dungeons, or just a chore to go through like the triforce quest at the end and the barren as fuck overworld in general that is navigable only with the terrible sailing controls.

twilight princess shits all over it in pretty much every way to claim the crown as the best Zelda game, and most of the others do the same in whatever order they place afterwards since its easily the worst 3D console entry in the series.
 
I totally agree. It was my first time playing it last year on the Wii U. It is so good.

It just felt, "epic", that very few Nintendo games give me that feeling. The pacing, world, music, and gameplay is so great.
 
Wind Waker is my absolute favorite Zelda game. It's just so charming and gushes personality. I also absolutely love the dungeons. That being said the only part I am not a fan of is the very beginning. It just drags on when I want to get going on my adventure, know what I mean? Of course you do. Anyway, this seems to be a common thing in Zelda games these days. How about you just drop us into the action and tell the story from there? I don't want to talk to every person in the town the moment I start a game!! I know how to play Zelda damn it!! :P
 
Neff said:
The best Nintendo games are, in order

A Link to the Past > Super Mario 64 > Super Mario World > Super Metroid > Link's Awakening
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A Link to the Past > Super Mario 64 > Super Mario World > yoshi's island > Zelda OOT


while zelda oot hasn't aged as well as those other games, playing it for the first time back in day, was a experience that i will never forget.
 
Griss said:
Wind Waker is one of those Nintendo games that touches on a point I raised when critiquing Earthbound on here.

How do you deal with a situation where you can see tons of flaws in a game's mechanics and design, but the game is so charming that you enjoy it better than you would a similar game with better mechanics but less charm? How do you explain / justify that? Doesn't it lead to the conclusion that gameplay isn't the most important thing? That's something I find hard to accept - I almost always argue that gameplay is the most essential part of a video game.

But in the case of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, I think that in almost every area TP has WW beat, but the joy I felt while playing WW was incredible, while TP was just 'very good' or 'great'*. I far prefer WW. It's hard to make sense of that and hold the opinion that gameplay is king.
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I think that's just you.

I was grinning like an idiot almost the entire time through TP. In particular, the ice dungeon and the battle against Stallord -- some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game.

Wind Waker is just terrible, and almost a black mark on the Zelda series. I gave up on it multiple times.
 
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