I've been looking forward to this game way too much. I was the first person at my GameStop to preorder it, and I rushed to pick up the free Master's Quest, which I love, read my review. Then I rushed to pick up Wind Waker as well. And of course I rushed thru it too. Which brings me to my review. I guess I will start with the good stuffs.

Ok, good stuff. First off, the graphics. Amazing. So fluid. I don't care if you are one of those, "I hate Cell-Shading" people (whom I've never met and so therefor don't think exist), too bad, these graphics fit so well with the game, giving such a smooth feel, watching it in action is to die for. Literally. I tried dying for Zelda. But the game was too easy so I couldn't. But that's for the bad stuffs section, let's hold out on that.
Secondly, the game's plot. Normally Zeldas have a simple plot, Zelda kidnapped, beat Ganon and save her. This one mixes in a bunch of new ideas. Namely, it connects all the previous Zelda games together. Here for those that wonder, a friend and I figured it out, although due to ambiguity and the fact that the first Zelda had no plot, it could be wrong:
There are 4 actual Links and Zeldas. The first Link ever is the one from the N64 games. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. He, with the "7 wise men" seal away Ganon. Then there's the Link from Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, and the Oracle games. He's the famous one that people think of when they think of Link. Ganon (The same one) gets freed from his prison that the "7 wise men" put him in by Aghmin or whatever his name was and Link seals him back. Then we think the original Zelda game happens, but it has not plot so we can't really fit it in. Then Ganon gets freed again in Wind Waker and Link has to seal him away again. Thousands of years pass between each game though, so they usually don't refrence each other, but Wind Waker actually has pictures of the 7 Sages/Wise Men. So there. It feels great for those who have played Ocarina and Link to the Past to finally fill in blanks.
Another thing I liked was the dialog. It's well written. That's all I've got for that.
And lastly the fighting system is improved so much. Link now has special moves to disarm enemies (which only really works on the big guys) and is extremely fun both to see and do. I recommend trying them out as much as possible.

Now for the bad stuffs. First off, the game is too easy. Never once do you ever worry about dying, or losing much life. There's a part where you fight about 20 floors of enemies, something for "the pros" in most games, I lost maybe 7 hearts the whole time, and they have hearts to fill you up every 5 floors or so. None of the bosses are difficult, and none of the puzzles either. Perhaps it was because I am so used to Master's Quest where they (Nintendo) tried to make the game hard as bot. Perhaps Nintendo felt that with the so called "Kiddy" graphics they should make the game easier. I don't know. All I know was it seems a bit easy and I want some harder fights every now and then...
Some people like to complain about the sailing. I found it fine except after long periods of time on the sea when you wanted dry land. Then of course you could go to one of the 4 towns and have fun there, since the towns are always busy with people and mini games, like decorating the town or taking pictures, you never run out of things to do. But back to sailing. I love it, but I grew up actually sailing on the ocean, so I find it fun. I pop in a Jimmy Buffet CD and away I go. Battling on the sea is hard to do unless you get a boomerang, but mostly I just avoid enemies on the sea.

I guess I should talk about the items. You get a bunch of new items, and improved items. But one thing that bothered me was that when you start the game you can carry 200 rupees. Then you get an upgrade to 1000, then 5000!!! Wow, in most Zelda games you can only carry up to 999. When you get bombs and arrows, you can carry 30 when you start, then upgraded to 60, then upgraded to 99! Like you will ever use 99 arrows or bombs. I like to throw arrows away like there is no tomorrow just because I have 99. Sure they will not hurt the enemy, but it's fun shooting his armor with arrows anyways.

What liked: Graphics, fighting, story, controls, graphics, and the targetting-5-things boomerang.

What disliked: No Death Mountain, no Impa, no Zoras and no graveyard. How sad.

What to expect: Zelda: Ocarina of Time but tripped out with Cell shading, easier, and more fun fighting system. And a lot of sailing.

What not to expect: Level gaining or a crazy Final Fantasy Plot. This isn't an rpg, no matter how badly you want it to be.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It has more plot than most Zeldas, it has a much more obvious plot than any rpg (except Lunar.)

Ratings on:

Control: 9 - It is the N64 controls with a free-camera. But it is Mario Sunshine's camera and some people hated that camera control.

Graphics: 10 - The movements and actions are all so beautiful it makes me cry. Or maybe that was because I was cutting onions.

Sound: 10 - Good gravy it is soo lovely.

Style: 10 - Zelda has always oozed with style. Everything Miyamoto makes has style out the wazoo.

1st hour: 9 - WooHoo! Zelda Wind Waker!

5th hour: 9 - So much fun, and I haven't hated sailing yet.

1st week: 9 - Ok, I do need to get all those glowing marks on the sea, but I just want to get to dry land.

2nd week: 9 - Yay I got a teleport spell. I love this game, although it is almost over already.

#1 reason why I hate this game: It took me forever to figure out you held down "R" to turn on the rope. I always tried to angle my shots up perfectly and it didn't ever work.

by Hawke