About a year ago, I bought myself a GBA with the GBA-port of “A Link to the past” – one of the best Zelda games (and they all are great [except Majoras Mask which I didn’t really like]). What I did not know when I bought the game is that the add-on “Four Sword” that was on the cartridge could be so incredibly fun to play.
It was more to proof that a storyless multiplayer Zelda can’t be any fun that I played a round with Richard and Evelyn back then.
As always with prejudice, I have been proofen wrong: It was so incredibly fun to play Zelda together. I mean: Though you have to be cooperative to play through, it’s the player with the most rupees that finally wins the round, so it creates quite a bit of danymics
I have not played the GBA-game since last december as I now more than know all the ramdomized levels that can get generated and I think we have killed Vaati about 100 times, so the fun finally went away- after nearly a whole year of fun.
But then I found out that multiplayer Zelda is coming back. To the Game Cube this time: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
What concerned me was that a GBA is needed to play the game and that you always play with four links. And then there was the thing with the non-autogenerated levels. Is there any replay-value? Does the not-so-great grpahics work on the GameCube? Is it difficult to follow the action on screen alternating between the video beamer and the GBA?
Many questions. I wanted them answered and I wanted more multiplayer Zelda! So I’ve imported the US-Version of the game and received it last thursday. And yesterday I played it with someone else for the first time.
I can guarantee you: It’s fun. As always I will list the things I don’t quite like first:
- The guy that designed the GBA->GC cable without a pass-through power plug should be shot. I hate it to interrupt playing just because one of the GBA SP’s lost power with no way to attach the power cable.
- The GC->GBA cable makes it quite inconvinient to use the L and R-Buttons on the GBA which are quite often used when playing FSA (Four Swords Adeventures)
- It takes some getting used to the GBA-GC combination, but when you get the hang of it, it works quite well
And that’s already all I have to say to the negative points. Now to the positive:
- It’s so much fun. Whether you play alone or with opponents (or is it partners? You can never be sure when playing multiplayer Zelda). I really like the sequences where hordes of enemies appear and you can slay through them. Great!
- I really like the graphics. It’s 2D, yes, but they did a really great thing to it. It’s very smooth, detailed, zoming and everything. Cool.
- Great sounds. As a fan of “A link to the past”, it’s great to hear the old tunes on current more capable hardware.
- Did I mention, it’s incredibly fun? This is more a property of any multiplayer Zelda, but it’s no different this time. I so much like throwing my so-called partner into the water just to get some rupees^W Force Gems. Then again, ruthless playing gets you nowhere as you can’t proceed with the help of the other players. And then there is that election at the end of each level which can still change the tide…
- It’s long. And, thus, unrepetitive. Much longer than the GBA.
- Though it’s not much, there is a bit of story in the game. Much more than on the GBA title. I like that
- It’s just great!
If you can get it, go and buy the game. But don’t play it alone. It’s so much more fun when played together.
gnegg 