Four Swords Adventures Review

Written by Akira

First Impressions: 4.5/5

A Zelda for GameCube? Wow! I have to get myself that! And I did, but I had to go through a few controllers first (long story). The opening story was OK and the graphics weren't terrible, so I was pleased...at the beginning, that is.

Gameplay: 4.5/10

Let the bashing begin! The gameplay was doggone awful! There was no overworld; you played in levels. Levels in a Zelda game? If that was ever the truth it would have been on the NES. Ugh. And because you played in levels you never had an inventory. You always had the Four Sword, but if you wanted the Boomerang instead of the Bombs, then buh-bye bombs. Yeah, so you could never even have three items in your possession at any given time. Brilliant idea, that was. The one OK idea in this game was having four different people to control; that was handled nicely in puzzles.

Graphics: 3/5

The graphics did their job, but I certainly don't like them. Whatever happened to ALttP's graphics? Not everything has to be cel-shaded. Only tWW did an excellent job with cel-shading.

Story: 16/20

When I first played through the game, I didn't believe the story to be wonderful. But now that I'm well aware of the "Four Sword series", I'm pleased that Nintendo is at least following through with its ideas.

Challenge: 4.4/5

This game wasn't impossible, but it wasn't like a 3D game (as in "easy"). So a 4.5/5 it is.

Interaction: 12/15

The only level where there was a fair amount of interaction with people was in "The Village of the Blue Maiden." Mostly you were just hacking away at an unrealistic environment, which is usually true for 2D games, unfortunately. I'm being generous with this score, in an effort to keep a Zelda game from getting an "F".

Side-Quests: 0/5

Because of the design with having only levels, there were NO side-quests. Did you get that? NONE! Yeah, I really would like to know what those developers were on when they said, "Let's make a Zelda game that strays so far from the norm that it has no inventory, no side-quests, no overworld, and...I know! No new innovations to back it up! It'll be like we're going backwards, back before the original LoZ! That's how bad it'll be! We'll think that we're making an easy $10 when we'll really be losing money faster than you can say, 'I'm on crack!'" Please, do tell, Nintendo. And don't forget to give me some.

Continuity: 5/5

Can't fault the game on its continuity, luckily, because it's the latest game (chronologically, that is) in the Four Sword series.

Music: 7.5/10

They didn't take too much music from other Zelda games, which is a plus, but that doesn't mean that the music in the game was good. Far from it, actually.

Overall Feel/Originality: 15/20

This game was definitely original; I'll give them that. I must say, though, that it didn't really feel like a Zelda game. At least they had Ganon in it, for that "aura of mystery" (referring to the "vanishing" of the Trident of Power, the Dark Mirror, and such).

TOTAL: 72/100; a C

Am I surprised? By now, I would hope that you know that I'm not surprised in the slightest. This wasn't a Zelda game! If they had made it like tMC, where you can actually travel around Hyrule, then maybe it would've gotten a C+, or maybe even a B-. But no, that would be too hard for Nintendo. Sheesh. If you're friend owns it, play it as their house, or rent it; you're better off not buying it, though, unless you're on a quest to own all the Zelda games. Told ya' I would bash this...this thing into the ground! Die! Die! DIE! OK, I'm back. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow. ^_^!

Buy It?

No!

Four Swords Adventure Review

Written by Ben

First Impressions: 5/5

Okay, so this is a new Zelda game for the Gamecube. But I hope it's not cel-shaded. I hope it's good. I didn't get to play the original FS, so this one must be good. I hope I don't have to use a GBA...

Gameplay: 6/10

This game was pretty friggin' sweet. I liked Multi-player rather than Single-player. Although you did have to have a GBA for each player, and that was degrading. If you really think about it, you shouldn't have to have a game boy for each player. I think they should have made it that you just use your controller. Oh well.

Graphics: 5/5

The reason why I degraded the graphics for today is because of the new Zelda GCN trailer. If you saw it, you know what I mean. Anyway, they mixed tWW graphics with ALttP graphics, and it turned out fairly well.

Story: 17/20

This story was original and to the point, which is how most of us like it. We don't like a story that goes on and on and on forever... we like the stories that are quick and easy to read. New villain... Vaati! Creepy eye thing...

Challenge: 4/5

Using the GCN controller was pretty dang challenging itself. But when you got into Multiplayer, the GBA was very easy to use. So far, I have only gotten to level 5 in this game. So I guess it's pretty challenging.

Interaction: 13/15

There were lots of troubles in Hyrule this time around... especially in Level 3! Helping the Gorons put out those fires was very hard, and very interacting... especially if you didn't know what you were doing... (Ahem). Anyway, an average score.

Side-Quests: 3/5

Ok, so maybe the Tingle Tower wasn't really a side quest... but getting the Force Gems was! Sheesh! Dang gems, especially when Tingle stole 'em. That made me SOOOOO mad.

Continuity: 3/5

So I guess that this game was a continued version of FS, it wasn't really. Especially when you went through completely different dungeons.

Music: 10/10

The music in FSA was pretty dang cool. I especially liked the ALttP castle music. That was so cool.

Overall Feel/Originality: 20/20

MRPG, kinda. A sort of multiplayer role playing game because, well, you played 4 different Links at the same time, so I guess it can be considered that.

TOTAL: 86/100; a B

That wasn't so bad, now was it?

Buy It?

Yes.