The Legend Of Cel...errr, I Mean ZELda

After telling people about my job, one of the most often asked questions I get is 'What do you think of the new Zelda?' It's fairly obvious that the new look isn't going over too well with some people. Even your beloved Game Vortex staff has spent more than a few conversations 'discussing' the look (okay, so we mostly make fun of it and compare him to Herbie the Elf from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). My personal opinion on the matter is that I have no problem with the cel-shading; I just hate the art style. I would have been much happier with the style from one of the Zelda instruction manuals than what is shown. Despite this, the hands-on time I was able to spend with the game was a lot of fun and still maintained the spirit of previous games.

Contrary to pre-E3 rumor, the cel-shaded Zelda was the playable version shown, and wasn't part of some cover-up job by Nintendo. Just deal with it. The Zelda demo was broken up into several parts, each showcasing a different aspect of the game. Due to limited playing time, I was only able to play one scenario.

It began with a view of a giant tower with searchlights keeping watch over the premises. After explaining that Link's sister was trapped in the top of the tower and that he had to disable the security system, he was loaded into a catapult and flung over the tower wall. Once inside the tower, Link had to creep around, carefully making sure that a light didn't spot him. In the tower, Link had to carefully make it to the top while not getting caught - otherwise it was off to the jail. Taking a page from Metal Gear Solid's book (or should I say box), Link has a barrel he can hide under to avoid detection.

I didn't have many encounters with guards, but the ones I did run across displayed some really good AI. For example, while creeping around under the barrel, the guards would actually take note of where the barrel was, so I had to be very careful to not stop and hide in a strange space (such as the middle of the floor).

Another new aspect of the game is that Link can now pick up weapons dropped by enemies. In the demo, one puzzle required Link to kill a guard and take his bigger, stronger sword to break through a boarded up door. I should also note that the menu screen did have an option that showed a GBA which suggests some kind of connectivity, although all of the people I talked to had no idea what that could be.