The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is certainly Link's strangest outing to date.
The game starts when a shadow version of Link captures Zelda and tricks Link into drawing the mystical Four Sword, which broke the seal the sword kept on the evil Wind Sorcerer Vaati. And these events led to Vaati sealing away the six Maiden's of Hyrule. But as the game unfolds you realise that shadow Link was made by Ganondorf, who was planning on Link releasing Vaati so that Vaati can cover up the fact that Ganondorf was back and wreaking havoc once again, and so Vaati could take the blame for all the strange happenings.
Like I said earlier, Four Swords Adventures is set in levels. There are
seven worlds, and four levels on each, with the last level on each been a dungeon where you rescue one of the six maidens. But even though the game is set up into levels it doesn't lose the typical Zelda feel. All of Link's most memorable weapons, like the Bombs, Pagasus Shoes and the Bow return, but you don't keep them. You can only carry one weapon at a time, so if you're carrying the bombs but pick up the Bow you'll replace the bombs with the Bow. Also you don't have amounts of the set weapons. You an unlimited amount of bombs and arrows (or seeds when you use the Slingshot) so you don't have to worry about using them. And you can find Heart Containers too, but the most you can have at one time is 8, and you lose the Heart Containers and weapons you found when you finish a level and start another one (the amount of health you start each level with is 4 hearts), meaning you'll have to find them again on the next level.
But I guess you're wandering where the Four Sword comes into the game, Four Swords Adventures (like Four Swords on the GBA) is multiplayer compatible for up to 4 players. Each player takes up their own Link, either coloured green, blue, red or purple, and the idea is to work as a team to conquer the levels and the bosses you come up against. But to do multiplayer each person needs to link their Game Boy Advance to the Game Cube and use them as the controller, because at certain times in the game you'll be required to play Link on the GBA. But the game isn't limited to four players, you can use three (this way one player controls two Links), you can do it two player (with two players each controlling two Links) and by yourself (where, of course, you use all the Link's yourself). If you're using more than one Link by yourself, you can use just one Link and the others will just follow him and do nothing, or you can set the Links into battle formations to attack using all the Links you have. And if you find a weapon with more than one Link each of them gets the weapon. The game is best played with more than one player, but if you're by yourself it still feels good to use the four Links.
Another weird thing about the game is the graphical presentation. The whole game is in 2D and it's in the top-down perspective, which is very odd seen as though it's a Game Cube title. And all the enemy sprites and environment sprites have been ripped off from A Link to the Past, so you'll encounter most of the enemies from A Link to the Past in this game. I think it's kind-of weird that Nintendo chose not to make this game for the Game Boy Advance, but with the game been on the Game Cube, this means the 2D graphics are very crisp and they are very colourful.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure is certainly a strange outing for Link. The level system is strange for the series and the fact that the games looks like a ripped-off A Link to the Past may puzzle some gamers, but it's still a decent game and you should definitely check it out.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 8/10