The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD will be releasing on the Wii U this October in most territories and while this is largely the same game that released back in 2003 to mostly positive reception, a number of enhancements have been made to make the adventure a more pleasant and better designed experience. Some of these changes are obvious just by looking at the game but there are also some smaller improvements that help streamline alot of the issues people had with the original such as sailing and the infamous Triforce fetch quest. All these changes have been detailed below.
- Improved lighting and shading effects and an increse in resolution to 1080p (assets such as character models remain the same).
- Off-screen play support on the Gamepad.
- Pro Controller support.
- Gamepad can be used to display maps like the sea chart and for changing inventory on the fly using simple drag and drop functionality.
- Tingle Tuner functionality has been removed and has been replaced with the Tingle Bottle.
- The Tingle Bottle is used for exchanging messages to Miiverse. By putting the message in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean in your game, other players can find your bottle on the shores in their game. The message can also contain screenshots.
- Hero Mode (the games versions of hard mode) has been introduced and is available from the start. In this mode you will take double damage from enemies and heart’s that you normally find to restore health are removed.
- The Wind Waker item can now be played as soon as you activiate it.
- Five pieces of the Triforce can now be gotten directly. Only three will require translated sea charts to find their location.
- The Picto Box (Link’s camera) has been greatly updated. It is now in colour and up to 12 pictures can be stored instead of 3.
- Link can now turn the camera around to take selfies at any time in the adventure. The player can change Link’s emotion to either happy, sad or surprised.
- Miiverse support allows photos you take of Link or other villagers to be posted to the community.
- The new Swift Sail you can obtain at an auction house once you complete the first dungeon allows you to sail much faster across the ocean and also changes the wind direction automatically to the direction you steer so you don’t have to change it manually using The Wind Waker. You won’t specifically be told this item is available by an in game prompt.
- Faster animations for things like the grappling hook wrapping around poles or pulling up treasure from the bottom of the ocean.
- Tingle’s island is no longer able to be skipped. Tingle has an introduction in the main quest now.
- The first person camera has been improved. You can now move while in first person mode and shoot arrows.
Are these changes enough to get you to re-buy this Zelda classic ? Let us know in the comments below and check out our preview of the game from the show floor at PAX Australia.
