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Previews:
The Legend of Zelda (Tentative Title)
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Last August, during Space World 2001, The Legend of Zelda for the GameCube was by far the most impressive demonstration, not only for its technological reasons, but mostly for its pure shock value. The game looked to be more developed than anyone could have guessed and it sported a completely different look.
The transformation that took place made Link and Hyrule look like an interactive cartoon. The core of the game is based on a very sophisticaed toon-shading engine and has some of the smoothest animations ever seen. In fact, the majority of the press present at the event were startled because they had seen a realistic looking Link and Ganondorf battling it out in an extremely detailed environment at Space World 2000. Many found themselves disbelieving that this was the true Legend of Zelda for the GameCube, thinking that it may be a remake of an older Zelda. But by the time the 50 second demonstration was finished most of them were curious.
Now, during the E3 2002 show, Nintendo presented a more complete version of the game which allowed spectators at the event to play 5 levels. From that tiny 50 second demo to a playable five level version Nintendo has definately come a long way.
During the E3 2002 press conference, Miyamoto chose to display a dungeon level, which had the basic formula for dungeons most Zelda fans are used to. Basically, you defeat all the enemies in the rooms to open doors and light the torches to reveal treasure chests. What is new to the game is that you can now pick up items that your enemies drop. In his demonstration, he had Link pick up a wooden staff to use for lighting the torches and dropped it later on so that he could fight with his sword. The larger the enemies you encounter, the larger the swords for you to pick up and use. However, due to his size, the larger the sword the hard it was for him to swing it.
One thing that showed that there is still work to be done on the game is players' encounter with Ghoma. At times the camera got lost in a mix of smoke and cel-shaded polygons and just seemed not to be positioning itself quite right. Only by using the lock-on switch which is activated by pressing down the L-button can you get a good viewpoint. By locking on Ghoma's eye, players had a much easier time following him around.
Also playable was a Sailboat mini-game. You start off inside a boat and press the R-button to raise the sail. Out in open wanter you can steer with the analog stick, taking sharper turns by holding down the L-button. There were barrels with rupies floating above you that players had to collect. Some of the rupies were located higher above the barrels than others and it requires some good timing to jump them to get the rupies. It would be a safe bet that this will be the next "fishing" type mini-game that will be available in the completed game.
The Legend of Zelda for the GameCube is looking to be every bit as good as the Ocarina of Time, and could quite possibly overtake it as the most popular Zelda game ever. The cel-shading is surprisingly appropriate for the game play and the visuals are beautiful but a lot more polishing needs to be done before The Legend of Zelda for the GameCube can become just as, if not more, popular than the Ocarina of Time.
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The contents of this Web site, unless otherwise stated, are Copyright © 2002 by Jason Finigan. Copyright © for all products, characters, and material contained within this site are owned by the companies who market or license those products. GameCube Gamer is not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated in any way with Nintendo. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without the consent from Jason Finigan is prohibited.
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