One of the many reasons why I wanted to check out The Legend of Zelda franchise when I was a lot younger, why was it the reason? Was it the commercials I kept seeing on TV? Or the heavy advertisements in magazines past games have been gaining positive reviews and scores in Game of the Year awards. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was one of those I really wanted to play this game in particular, but didn't own a GameCube at the age of 13. What easily drawn me into The Wind Waker when reading articles and reviews in magazines about it was the cel-shaded artwork and style used it, everything about it just felt like a cartoon very well detailed from the character animations to the landscape environments.

I'm still amazed that it's been 20 years since it was first released in Japan on December 12th 2002, March 24th 2003 in North America and May 2nd for UK/Europe during that same year. The development began developing a new game for their new console at the time and this has been just after completing the development on Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Eiji Aonuma was behind the development, while Shigeru Miyamoto as producer, following the gameplay mechanics and concepts that were used in Ocarina of Time with graphics enhanced for the new system's capabilities.

During the 2000 Space World demonstration Nintendo announced their new console on the Nintendo GameCube including a quick clip of seeing both Link and Ganondorf fighting fans were excited about what they were expecting in the next Legend of Zelda title. The team had exhausted its ideas for this style and format Eiji hated the demo, finding it derivative of past games. The team explored other directions until designer Yoshiki Haruhana created a cartoonish drawing of a young Link that caught their eye. Design manager Satoru Takizawa drew up an enemy Moblin in a similar style, and the team seized on the new gameplay and combat possibilities afforded by the stylized cartoon aesthetic.

A year later at the 2001 Space World centre Nintendo showed a new demo was shown for the next Zelda title, which was The Wind Waker, it did get positive feedback and disappointing reviews and thoughts on the demo but from what they saw of it looked pretty good so far and a different direction for The Legend of Zelda franchise. Looking at the graphics and visuals did look stunning, especially on the Nintendo GameCube with the setting being based on both land and sea there's bound to be an adventure somewhere.

The Legend of Zelda chronology, which was mentioned in the Hyrule Historia the story takes place after Ocarina of Time where the story is parallel called "New World" and takes place in the other timeline branch, more than a century after the adult Link defeats Gannon. A crisis emerges when Ganondorf returns, but Link does not centuries later, the people live on islands in the Great Sea. They preserve Link's story as a legend, but his kingdom's fate is unknown. The main character, a young boy also named Link, lives on Outset Island, where boys dress in green like the Hero of Time when they come of age. With there being puzzles and dungeons we play as the hero of Link as he searches for his kidnapped sister by the evil Gannon.

With it being an open world you'll be sailing across the sea by boat, the Kings of Red Lions and the only way to get across quickly is by wind speed and using the titular Wind Waker to change the direction of the wind but also 5 other specific melodies to learn along the way as well. Same goes with weapons and items where a grappling hook can be used to reach high places or the Deku Leaf can be used to glide from high places and using a gust of wind to blow off flames and enemies. There was another feature added in was Tingle Tuner where you can call the mapmaker Tingle but it'll cost rupees to use Tingle's items all you need to do is connect your Game Boy Advance using the cable and connecting it to one of the ports on the GameCube.

After the release The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker got positive scores and reviews from a 10/10 from both magazines and websites, it was also the fourth game to receive a 40/40 from Japanese magazine Famitsu. Two more sequels were released soon after for the Nintendo DS and it got ported to the Nintendo Wii U in HD I 2013. I did manage to play both Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time back in 2014 after finding a copy of the game which did come with Ocarina of Time on a second disc for £2.99 and a few days after found a Sliver GameCube console for £20 at North East Retro Gaming. Of course I wanted to play Ocarina of Time first before starting Wind Waker. By the time I got around to playing The Wind Waker I was easily drawn in the relaxing soundtrack, especially when hearing Outset Island it's just charming to hear making you feel welcomed and ready for another adventure. This is also one of those games that should be checked out if you've never played any of The Legend of Zelda games I know it got ported to the Wii U in HD I would love to see it get ported to the Nintendo Switch in the future.

Have any favourite moments for The Wind Waker?

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