The Legend of Zelda 4 Swords Anniversary Edition is possibly the best download the DSi Ware has to offer!
The Zelda series celebrates its 25th Anniversary by remaking this little adventure and allowing it to be downloaded for a limited of time! If you can remember back then this game was an added bonus on the ported version Legend Of Zelda A Link to the Past for the GBA. It required up to 4 players that each owned a copy of Zelda A Link to the Past. In order for you to play this game you had to know someone else that had the game and you also had to own a GBA link cable.
During the time of this game's first release I didn't own a link cable and never got a chance to play it until much later because I didn't know anyone else that had the game. Finally though I met a new friend that liked Zelda games and he happened to own a copy of A Link to the Past and also owned a GBA link cable. We sat down one day and played Zelda 4 Swords and it was the best little multiplayer Zelda game I played! That was problably the only time I ever played that game with someone else and had that much fun.
After we beat the game I knew I wasn't going to problaby ever play it again because it was so short and my friend lived on a whole other side of town! I could just only watch the opening cinamtic of Zelda 4 Swords and see Vaati constantly snatch Zelda and bonk Link over and over again. So, a couple years went by and finally Zelda's 25th Anniversary happened! And who would have guessed that one day this little multiplayer game would be a free download?
I waited and waited for the game to pop up in the DSi Ware download system and once I downloaded it I jumped for joy! Finally I get to relive the experience and play it SINGLE PLAYER! And I also get to review it as well!
Storyline: Zelda 4 Swords has a nice little story to fit with it being such a small game. The evil wind mage Vaati has escaped the magic seal placed on him at the Four Sword Santuary. He snatches Zelda and plans to make her his bride. He whisks her away to his Palace of Winds and so begins your quest! Once the Four Sword is pulled out of its pedestal Link splits into four. The four Links must work together to save Zelda from Vaati's evil clutches!
Gameplay: Zelda 4 Swords has pretty simple gameplay. Basically all you do is slay monsters and collect rupees the whole game! In single player mode that is basically all you will be doing. In mulitplayer mode though the game becomes more competive. Since there are 3 other Links to compete with rupees become things to swabble over because the Link who collected the most rupees at the end wins! The levels all have there own little puzzle solving that requires a team effort and the boss fights as well need a Four Swords effort. Once you kill the bosses you visit one of the 3 Great Fairys of the 3 regions which represents Death Mountain, the Forest, and Ice Cave. Once you obtain all 3 of the Silver Keys you can go to the Palace of Winds and fight Vaati! Not a very large adventure I know but Four Swords Adventures for the Gamecube fixed that.
Graphics: They are basically the same with very few changes. This game was striped right off the GBA programming so not much change here other than the Zelda title letters being green now.
Value: Though it's a short game, Nintendo did include a little added bonus with its Zelda 25th Anniversary celebration. There are a couple of levels that will bring you back to the past literally! The inclusion of the Zelda A Link to the Past themed level, the Links Awakening themed level & the NES Zelda 1 8 bit themed level will be enough to blow away any Zelda fan! This download also lets you host wireless multiplayer with 3 other friends which really makes me happy because now I can play this game wirelessy with anyone that happens to have downloaded it! Their is no need for GBA link cables anymore and thank god!
Overall: It's the best download that the DSi Ware has got going on in my opinion! They should have done this a long time ago! I wished they also did it with the Oracle series but maybe they will save that for 3DS.(*groan*) But anyhow now is the best time to own a DSi and have access to the Wi-fi because its a free download. The Legend of Zelda 4 Swords Anniversary Edition is possibly the best download the DSi Ware has to offer! Download it now before its too late! That's an order!
Uh... Link will win. This review was brought to you by Wolflink001.