''The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures'' is an
action-adventure
The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.
Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed and published by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
for the
GameCube
The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
. It is the eleventh installment in
''The Legend of Zelda'' series. It was released in Japan on March 18, 2004, North America on June 7, 2004, in Europe on January 7, 2005 and in Australia on April 7, 2005. The
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
handheld game console
A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...
can be used as a controller when using the
GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable bundled with the game in North America and Europe.
Similar to its predecessor ''
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords'' in its gameplay and presentation, the game takes
Link and his three clones created by the magic "Four Sword" on an adventure to restore peace to
Hyrule
''The Legend of Zelda'' is a video game franchise created by Japanese video game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is mainly developed and published by Nintendo. The universe of the ''Legend of Zelda'' series consists of a variet ...
after learning that an evil counterpart of himself,
Shadow Link, has been created. ''Four Swords Adventures'' was considered the 48th-best game made for a Nintendo system by ''
Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
'', and received an aggregated 86 out of 100 from
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
. It was the third best-selling game of June 2004 in North America, with 155,000 units, and has since sold 250,000 copies; it has sold 127,000 units in Japan.
Gameplay
The main mode of ''Four Swords Adventures'' is "Hyrulean Adventure", an episodic cooperative multiplayer adaptation of conventional ''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...
'' gameplay. "Shadow Battle" is a competitive multiplayer battle mode. "Navi Trackers", present only in the Japanese version of the game, is a multiplayer stamp rally race.
Hyrulean Adventure
Hyrulean Adventure is the main campaign of ''Four Swords Adventures'', and can be played by one to four players. It consists of eight worlds, each with three stages and a
boss
Boss may refer to:
Occupations
* Supervisor, often referred to as boss
* Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier
* Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization
* Fire boss, a ...
battle. The graphics are similar to that of the previously released ''
Four Swords'' for the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
(GBA), but the maps are static rather than randomly generated, the top-down view is taken from ''
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past'', and gameplay includes effects from ''
The Wind Waker
''The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. An installment in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, it was released in Japan in December 2002, in North America in Marc ...
''. The graphics include enhanced atmospheric effects such as cloud shadows that slowly move across the ground, heat shimmer, dust storms, and fog. Music is based on that of ''
A Link to the Past'', but is rearranged in places.
In Hyrulean Adventure, most of the same mechanics as ''Four Swords'' are used. The multiplayer version requires each player to have a GBA, which is used as a controller and to which the action transfers when that player's character goes off the main screen, but the single-player game may be played with either a GameCube controller or a GBA. There are always four
Link characters (differentiated by colors: green, red, blue and purple) in play, regardless of the number of people playing; "extra" Links are attached to those directly controlled and positioned around the controlling character. Normally, the extra Links follow the player, but players can separate an individual Link and control him independently, or put the four Links into formations. These techniques are required to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Players are encouraged to work together to gather enough Force Gems to empower the Four Sword, and failing to do so by the time the boss is defeated or the dark barrier is reached results in having to go back to the beginning of the stage to collect more. However, once the requisite gems are collected, players are automatically transported to the dark barrier and therefore do not have to repeat the entire stage.
Players can play
minigame
A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...
s in multiplayer mode at Tingle's Tower, which appears in every world, to gain extra multiplayer lives. These eight games are earned by playing though certain stages in multiplayer mode. The minigames include horse racing, hammer tag, monster hunting and five others.
Shadow Battle
In Shadow Battle, two or more players battle each other until only one is left standing. Each player uses a different-colored Link character and wields various tools to attack the other Links. Initially, there are five stages which players can choose as the battle's arena. Five bonus maps are unlocked upon completion of Hyrulean Adventure (these "dark stages" are almost the same as the first five maps, but portals to the dark world appear and the player has limited vision). In each stage, items randomly appear, and are usually similar to the items in Hyrulean Adventure. There are many special objects in each stage, which can be used to the player's advantage. There is a time limit; when it reaches zero, the game is tied.
Navi Trackers
Navi Trackers (formerly planned as a stand-alone game titled ''Tetra's Trackers'') is a game only present in the Japanese version of ''Four Swords Adventures'' (''Four Swords +''). Multiple players use a combination of the
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
screen and Game Boy Advances to search for members of
Tetra
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA; formerly known as Trans-European Trunked Radio), a European standard for a trunked radio system, is a professional mobile radio and two-way transceiver specification. TETRA was specifically designed for use by go ...
's pirate crew to gain as many stamps as possible within a given time limit. Action takes place on the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
used by each player, with the television screen showing a basic map and Tetra narrating the action. A single-player mode is available, which allows players to either collect alone or compete against
Tingle.
Plot
Setting
The game takes place centuries after ''
Majora's Mask
''The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'' is a 2000 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 home console. It was released worldwide in 2000 as a main installment in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series and was the ...
'' and ''
Twilight Princess
''The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'' is a 2006 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube and Wii home video game consoles. Originally planned for release exclusively on the GameCube in November 2005, ''Twi ...
'', within the events of the "Child Timeline", and chronologically is the final game in this timeline prior to ''
Breath of the Wild
is a 2017 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U consoles. The game is an installment of ''The Legend of Zelda'' series and is set at the end of its timeline. The player controls an am ...
''. The game features a separate incarnation of the Dark Lord Ganondorf/The Dark Beast Ganon to the one whose backstory is shown in ''
Ocarina of Time
''The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'' is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in November 1998, and in PAL regions the following month. ''Ocarina of Tim ...
'', something which is unique to ''Four Swords Adventures''.
Story
The game begins with the land of
Hyrule
''The Legend of Zelda'' is a video game franchise created by Japanese video game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is mainly developed and published by Nintendo. The universe of the ''Legend of Zelda'' series consists of a variet ...
in a state of fear because of strange happenings that have occurred recently. On a stormy night,
Princess Zelda
is the titular character in Nintendo's ''The Legend of Zelda'' video game series. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the original 1986 game ''The Legend of Zelda''. She is one of the central characters in the series, having ...
and the shrine maidens fear that the reason for these events is that Vaati's seal is weakening. She summons
Link and brings him to the castle so he can protect her and the other maidens while they open the portal to the Four Sword Sanctuary. When they do, however,
Shadow Link appears, who kidnaps the maidens of the Shrines and seals them inside their crystals. Link pulls the Four Sword out of its Pedestal, splitting into three clones of himself to destroy his doppelgänger. However, the seal that imprisoned Vaati breaks and releases him from his prison once again, wreaking havoc on the once peaceful kingdom of Hyrule.
As Link and his clones wander the
overworld
An overworld (sometimes referred to as a hub world) is, in a broad sense, commonly an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other vide ...
of
Hyrule Field
''The Legend of Zelda'' is a video game franchise created by Japanese video game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is mainly developed and published by Nintendo. The universe of the ''Legend of Zelda'' series consists of a variety ...
on their quest to restore peace to Hyrule, they learn that the creation of Link's evil counterpart and the release of Vaati is only a small part in a larger plot to conquer the kingdom of Hyrule. Things complicate as the dimension of the Dark World appears and people are being abducted throughout Hyrule. The four Links learn that the knights of Hyrule have mysteriously disappeared and evil versions of them have been creating havoc, allowing Hyrule castle to be taken over and monsters to appear throughout the land. The four Links agree that they will defeat Vaati, and rescue Zelda to restore peace to Hyrule.
It is revealed that the true villain is
Ganon
is a Character (arts), fictional character and the primary antagonist of Nintendo's ''The Legend of Zelda'' video game series and franchise, as well as the final Boss (video games), boss in many ''Zelda'' titles. A massive and malevolent creatu ...
, who obtained his powers after stealing a powerful
trident
A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm.
The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...
containing dark energy that was previously hidden away within a pyramid, and used it to seize control over substantial portions of Hyrule. In order to further his plans and distract Link from interfering in his bid for further power, Ganon stole the dark mirror and used it to create Shadow Link, who was eventually sent to kidnap the shrine maidens and trick Link into releasing Vaati. Furthermore, he uses the Dark Mirror to abduct people and turn them into his minions.
The four Links save the shrine maidens, retrieve the Dark Mirror and stop Shadow Link from respawning once and for all. The four heroes head forth to the Palace of Winds and defeat Vaati, leading them into their final battle with Ganon. Trying to stop him from plunging the world into chaos, the four Links use the Power of the Shrine Maidens, including Zelda, to defeat Ganon, striking through him. After defeating Ganon, the four Links firmly seal him inside the Four Sword. Peace returns to Hyrule and the people celebrate as all traces of evil that plagued Hyrule are vanquished.
With Ganon defeated and sealed inside, Link returns the Four Sword back to its resting pedestal and the four Links become one again, while the Maidens of the Shrine use their powers and create a barrier around the Four Sword.
Development
![Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-Purple-FL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-Purple-FL.jpg)
At
E3 2003, Nintendo showcased two Zelda games which would make use of the Game Boy Advance connectivity, ''Four Swords'' and ''Tetra's Trackers''. In December of the same year, both games were expected to be together in a single disc, ''Four Swords +'', along with a third, ''Shadow Battle''.
''Four Swords Adventures'' was released in Japan with "Hyrule Adventure", "Shadow Battle", and "Navi's Trackers" as three individual games bundled together. In June 2004, however, "Hyrule Adventures" and "Navi's Trackers" were scheduled to be sold as two separate titles in the United States, while the retail status of "Shadow Battle" was still unknown. This decision was later changed to bundle "Hyrule Adventure" with "Shadow Battle", and to not release "Navi's Trackers" in the United States.
Despite the fact that translations for the PAL version were finished in October, the game was not released in Europe until early January 2005. A possible reason for this is so that the game did not compete with ''
The Minish Cap'' for sales, which in turn was released pre-Christmas in Europe because, unlike North America, it would not cannibalize
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
sales.
Early on the development of ''Navi Trackers'', it was decided that it would include a speech navigation system that talks and advises the player during mini-games. Players type in their name and the system calls players by their name during the game in order to notify them of their turn.
Reception
In 2006, ''
Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
'' rated ''Four Swords Adventures'' the 48th best game made on a Nintendo system. It received a score of 86 out of 100 based on 55 aggregated reviews from
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
,
and an average score of 85% based on 67 reviews from
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
.
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
praised the game's connectivity feature with the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
, claiming that this is "a truly compelling reason to invest in a GameCube-to-GBA link cable" and that "using the Game Boy Advance as a controller has an appreciable impact on the experience".
They praised the story and said, noting that the differences between the original ''Four Swords'' and ''Adventures'' is a more persistent narrative.
The game was applauded, with critic remarking that ''Adventures'' improved on the original ''Four Swords'' visuals, making the ''Wind Waker''-derived visual style more reminiscent of the cel-shaded adventure of Link.
The audio was noted, with a review remarking that the sound design for ''Four Swords Adventures'' is familiar to anyone who has played any ''The Legend of Zelda'' game, including ''The Wind Waker''.
''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' later named it the best GameCube game of June 2004.
''Four Swords Adventures'' also received criticism.
Game Revolution
''GameRevolution'' (formerly ''Game-Revolution'') is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots ...
said about the game and was particularly critical of the graphics, calling it an odd mix of cheap 2D SNES sprites and nice GameCube particle effects, believing that it created an inconsistent feel. They also criticized the requirement of the link cable, saying that the required use of the GBA for multiplayer limits the play potential.
''Four Swords Adventures'' was the third best-selling game of June 2004 in North America with 155,000 units, and has since sold 250,000 copies, becoming a part of the
Player's Choice
''Nintendo Selects'' (formerly ''Player's Choice'') was a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on current Nintendo game consoles that have sold well. ''Nintendo Selects'' titles were sold at a lower price point (usually $19.99 ...
line. The game also sold 127,000 units in Japan. Producer
Eiji Aonuma
is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He works for Nintendo as the project manager of their ''The Legend of Zelda'' series. Aonuma is also one of the deputy general managers of Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development ...
felt the game's sales were disappointing due to each player needing a Game Boy Advance and a Link Cable, which made it difficult to convince consumers that they needed to play the game.
See also
*
Characters in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series
* ''
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords''
* ''
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes''
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, The
2004 video games
Video games about cloning
Cooperative video games
GameCube games
GameCube-only games
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development games
Four Swords Adventures
''The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures'' is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the eleventh installment in ''The Legend of Zelda'' series. It was released in Japan on March 18, 2004, ...
Top-down video games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Koji Kondo
Games with GameCube-GBA connectivity
Multiplayer and single-player video games