The Best Part is that it was Free!

Nintendo is always looking for ways to up the ante, it seems. Not only did they boldly go where no game company has gone before and buck the trend of "realistic" looking games with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but they also offered the most acclaimed game in history, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as a free bonus to those who pre-ordered the game. Needless to say, the pre-orders for Wind Waker broke a lot of records!

The bonus disk contains much more than just a 5-year old N64 game, however. There is also the Master Quest, which is like a "Director's Cut" of the first game and was originally intended for release on the N64DD. The dungeons and enemies are rearranged, but all the characters and the plot are the same. Rounding out the package are a nice selection of preview videos for various upcoming Nintendo games (Including a NICE F-Zero movie!).

The games themselves have been translated well to the disk. The graphics are improved in that they feature slightly shaper textures and slowdown has been eliminated, but otherwise both the Master Quest (MQ) and Ocarina of Time (OoT) look the same as their N64 counterparts. The sound effects, music, and gameplay all seem to be un-altered. However, this is not a problem, because these elements of the original OoT stand on their own, even today. The music of these two games, especially, is very well done. It combines a number of classic Zelda tunes with new compositions, giving this game a very memorable atmosphere. Some of this music is so good, it was remixed and used in Wind Waker!

One major question that is raised by this disk is how the changes made to the game in MQ affect the gameplay experience. Well, to put it simply, the MQ is a bit tougher than the original game. Part of that reason is that MQ uses the player's previous knowledge of the game against him or her. A switch that may have opened a certain door in the original game now does something completely different, for example. Also, the solutions to many of the altered puzzles are less obvious than the solutions to the puzzles in OoT. Players are expected to intuitively know what actions are required to clear a certain obstacle.

Controlling MQ and OoT with the GameCube controller takes a little getting used to. The analog sticks on the GC pad have different amounts of  tension than the N64 pads did, and this can make aiming difficult. Since the GC pad lacks the four C-Buttons and has fewer face buttons, different commands had to be mapped to the C-Stick and Z-button. However, not all of the changes made in the controls resulted in difficulty. For example,  I found that playing the Ocarina with the C-stick was a lot more fun than using the C-buttons on the N64 pad.

Overall, this bonus disk was an exceptional offer by Nintendo, and one that I hope will be repeated in the future. If you pre-ordered Wind Waker and got this disk, then great for you. However, if you don't have this disk, I can't say that the extra material on it is worth the $40-50 price tag I have seen people charging for it on-line. If you can find one for around $20, then go ahead. Otherwise, if you are dying to play MQ, see if you can find someone to borrow it from.

By: Andy Rucker