{"id":1907,"date":"2012-12-13T15:58:26","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T15:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1907"},"modified":"2012-12-13T15:58:26","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T15:58:26","slug":"my-top-100-42-the-legend-of-zelda-four-swords-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1907","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #42 &#8211; The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1913\" style=\"width: 1111px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=1913\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1913\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1913\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1913\" alt=\"2004 - Nintendo (GameCube)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/FSA.jpg\" width=\"1101\" height=\"1521\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/FSA.jpg 1101w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/FSA-217x300.jpg 217w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/FSA-741x1024.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1101px) 100vw, 1101px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1913\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2004 &#8211; Nintendo (GameCube)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I just did a quick count, and\u00a0I see that there are a total of six <em>Zelda<\/em> games in my countdown, all of them in the top 45.\u00a0 I really made an effort to keep from including too many games from the same franchise on it, but when it all comes down to it, if they&#8217;re fun to play, they have to be considered.\u00a0 Thankfully, <em>Four Swords Adventures<\/em> is enough of a black sheep in the series to leave people scratching their heads, figuring out why I would include such a linear <em>Zelda<\/em> game on my list.<\/p>\n<p>I know the love affair with <em>Majora&#8217;s Mask<\/em> confuses the heck out of me, but I won&#8217;t go there!<\/p>\n<p>I initially didn&#8217;t even consider\u00a0<em>Four Swords Adventures<\/em>\u00a0to be anything more than one of those\u00a0bad GBA-to-GameCube tie-ins.\u00a0 That concept never really sat well with me in the <em>Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> days (mostly because nothing <em>Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> sat well with me to begin with), and when Nintendo announced that the multiplayer aspect of the new Zelda game would incorporate multiple GBA&#8217;s and link cables, I had doubts.\u00a0 Big ones.\u00a0 As in, &#8220;why would I\u00a0ever play THAT game&#8221; doubts.<\/p>\n<p>I was wrong to think that I wouldn&#8217;t enjoy the game by myself, but the game&#8217;s multiplayer format\u00a0is\u00a0bad enough that I don&#8217;t anticipate ever trying it.\u00a0 Using a GBA as a controller instead of a GameCube one seemed like too much of a money-making ploy.\u00a0 *sigh*\u00a0 If only you could use a\u00a0normal controller, this game would almost be perfect&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YOtXaxlCgi8\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is as close to a sequel for <em>A Link to the Past<\/em> as we&#8217;ve ever gotten.\u00a0 At the same time, it\u00a0took the <em>Zelda<\/em> formula you knew and loved &#8211; the exploring, the items, the\u00a0free-roaming aspect &#8211;\u00a0and flipped\u00a0it all\u00a0on its head.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of your typical menu overflowing with items, the four Links could only carry one extra item at a time.\u00a0 If you encountered (for example) a bow and arrow sitting on a pedestal, chances were pretty good that\u00a0using it was necessary to solve the next puzzle.\u00a0 At the very least, items\u00a0might also\u00a0help dispose of large groups of enemies.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of enemies, there lies one of the more fun aspects of the game.\u00a0 There are often situations that, if Link were to encounter them alone\u00a0in <em>A Link to the Past<\/em>, would be very overwhelming.\u00a0 It&#8217;s called <em>Four Swords Adventures <\/em>for a reason, though, and Green, Blue, Red and Purple can take on all comers with four different formations at the touch of a button; &#8220;Box&#8221;, &#8220;Cross&#8221;, as well as horizontal and vertical.\u00a0 It adds a nice layer of strategy to the game, and\u00a0helps make you feel like an unstoppable force against hordes of enemies.<\/p>\n<p>I think the majority of complaints about the game were about\u00a0it\u00a0being\u00a0split up into actual levels.\u00a0 You find treasures and proceed like you normally would, but once the level&#8217;s boss is defeated, you pretty much start at square one for the next stage.\u00a0 Any experience points or items you\u00a0had don&#8217;t carry over, which is the opposite of what <em>Zelda<\/em> games are usually about.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t mind that the game focused on simply ramping up the challenge with each level &#8211; I thought it was a nice change of pace!<\/p>\n<p>The soundtrack\u00a0has very\u00a0little original music, opting instead\u00a0for\u00a0tunes first seen on the Super NES.\u00a0\u00a0Graphically, it&#8217;s almost\u00a0identical to <em>ALttP;<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0the art style is quite similar, sure, but there&#8217;s much more detail, and subtle changes in animation (for things like NPCs,\u00a0trees, and even water) are\u00a0pretty cool.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not much of a fan of the way a Game Boy Player screen pops up when you enter a house or cave&#8230;\u00a0it\u00a0looks and feels quite different,\u00a0so that&#8217;s\u00a0a bit jarring until you get used to it.<\/p>\n<p>Other than that, this is definitely a retro gamer&#8217;s dream come true!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1914\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=1914\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1914\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1914\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1914\" alt=\"An early WiiU?  When you think about it, that's pretty much what this was.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/large.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/large.jpg 800w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/large-300x177.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1914\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An early WiiU? When you think about it, that&#8217;s pretty much what this was.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I just did a quick count, and\u00a0I see that there are a total of six Zelda games in my countdown, all of them in the top 45.\u00a0 I really made an effort to keep from including too&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1907\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,32,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gamecube","category-top-100","category-zelda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1907"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}