The game that could save the GameCube

IF EVER there was a time for Zelda then this most surely is it. Nintendo has endured a torrid six months in Europe. Sales of the GameCube are running a poor third to the PS2 and the Xbox. Gamers are complaining loudly about the lack of software.

To cap it all, Britain's biggest electrical retailer, Dixons, has slashed GC prices in an effort to clear its shelves of Nintendo product. Unless there is a change of heart, it won't be ordering any more.

Against this depressing backdrop, Nintendo desperately needs a winner; a so-called "killer app", a piece of software so good it makes people want to buy the console just to play the game. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is that game.

When Nintendo showed us the first screen shots a couple of years ago, the gaming world was aghast. What heresy was this? The Japanese had ditched the N64 graphics that wowed us all five years earlier in favour of the faddish cell-shaded look first used by Sega.

Now cell-shading has its place but not in an action-adventure. Everyone feared the cartoon look would prevent this new game being the immersive experience its predecessor undoubtedly was.

All of which just goes to show how wrong some people can be.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is every bit as good as the game it follows (a game, incidentally, that many believe to be the best piece of software ever). Our hero, Link, has acquired new powers, abilities and equipment, including the ability to harness the power of wind (and no, that doesn't mean he eats a lot of beans).

Static screen grabs can't come close to showing how astonishing this game looks when it is up and running. Every aspect of Link's world is alive, even down to individual blades of grass that sway in the wind: it truly is jaw-dropping the first time you play.

It may look flat shaded and simple, childish even, but with this game Nintendo has proven that less really can be more.

A word of warning here: don't buy a walk-through for this game. Zelda is an adventure simply because it gives the player such a massive and interesting environment to explore. There may be no reason to go from A to B but I can guarantee you'll enjoy doing so. Gamers who rush through Zelda with the aid of a guidebook are missing out on so much more.

Remember Legend of Zelda on the SNES? Think of those huge worlds and then imagine how it would be if they were ten times the size. That gives you some idea of the challenge of Zelda on the Cube. Ocarina of Time on the N64 was big but that game was always hamstrung by the amount of memory available on a cartridge. Now Nintendo has finally moved to a high-density disc-based storage medium its designers can finally flex their muscles as much as they want.

Explore every nook and cranny to acquire the weapons and equipment Link will need if he is to be victorious. As with the N64 game, items can be assigned to specific buttons (only three this time but your inventory is only a quick button press away). You'll need them - and your wits - if you are to defeat the fearsome bad guys Link comes across during his adventure.

As with nearly every Nintendo title, you'll want to complete the game more than once: some mini-quests cannot be completed in just one sitting. Unlike most titles, however, you'll actually want to have a go again...and again... and again.

And when all that's done, there's further gaming goodness to be had from this title in the shape of the whole N64 adventure on a separate disc.

Two of the greatest games ever made for the price of one. If this title doesn't shift GameCubes then nothing will.

STRIKE FIGHTERS: PROJECT ONE, Publisher: Just Flight, Platform: PC CD ROM.

HERE'S another game with a cast iron heritage. Strike Fighters was designed by Tsuyoshi Kawahito, the man behind classic flight sims European Air War and Longbow 2.

This game is set during the Vietnam era, although the plot is strictly fictional, and allows you to choose from some classic hardware such as the F4 Phantom, the Skyhawk, the F-100 Super Sabre and the F-104 Starfighter.

And the air-to-air combat is both frightening and exhilarating. We played the game with the Saitek Cyborg 3-D force feedback joystick for that authentic combat experience.

Using a decent peripheral like the Saitek and linked to a decent sound system this game is the closest you'll get to piloting a fighter aircraft for real. Dogfighters are fast and furious, the speed at which enemy aircraft close on your plane is scarily realistic. In the heat of battle, you need your wits about you or it's game over.

If you manage to "splash" some of the enemy, the game lets you watch the aircraft break up as it plunges from the sky in a very dramatic representation.

And unlike simulations of modern-day fighters your plane can let you down at a critical moment. Air-to-air missile technology was still in its infancy during the 1960s. This manifests itself in the game by the number of times your missiles jam in combat.

Published: 09/05/2003