The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
Missing image Fsabox.jpg
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	March 18, 2004 (JP) June 7, 2004 (NA)
Genre	Action Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E), PEGI: 3+
Platform(s)	Nintendo GameCube

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, known in Japan as The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords +, is a game in The Legend of Zelda series for the GameCube, released in Japan on March 18, 2004, North America on June 7, 2004 and Europe on January 7, 2005. It utilizes the GBA-to-GameCube cable. As with any game that uses this cable, it is incompatible with the Nintendo DS.

Contents

1 Gameplay 1.1 Hyrulean Adventure 1.2 Shadow Battle 1.3 Tetra's Trackers 2 See also 3 External links

Gameplay

Four Swords Adventures is actually a collection of games. Hyrulean Adventure is an episodic, cooperative multiplayer adaptation of the conventional Legend of Zelda gameplay. Shadow Battle is a competitive multiplayer battle mode. Tetra's Trackers, present only in the Japanese version of the game (and displayed briefly at E3 before the US release), is a multiplayer stamp rally race.

Hyrulean Adventure

Hyrulean Adventure (previously known as "Hyrule Adventure" and "Four Swords") uses most of the same mechanics as the previously-released Four Swords for the GBA, but unlike its predecessor has a single-player mode available. The multiplayer version requires each player to have a GBA, which is used as a controller and to which the action transfers when that player's character goes off the main screen, but the single player game may be played with either a GameCube controller or a GBA. There are always four Link characters (differentiated by tunic color) in play, regardless of the number of people playing; "extra" Links are attached to those directly controlled and positioned around the controlling character. The graphics are similar to that of the Game Boy Advance version, but the maps are static rather than randomly generated. Music is based on that of A Link to the Past but is rearranged in places.

Shadow Battle

In Shadow Battle, two or more players battle each other until only one is left standing. As in Hyrulean Adventure, each player uses a different-colored Link character and wields various tools to attack the other Links. Five bonus maps for Shadow Battle are unlocked upon completion of Hyrulean Adventure (these maps are the same as the first five, but the player has limited vision).

Tetra's Trackers

Tetra's Trackers (the Japanese name is "Navi Trackers") is only on the Japanese version of Four Swords Adventures (Four Swords +). In this game, multiple players, using a combination of the television screen and Game Boy Advances, search for members of Tetra's pirate gang (Tetra is a pirate captain in The Wind Waker) to gain stamps from them, as many as possible within a given time limit. All action takes place on the Game Boy Advance used by each player, with the television screen showing a basic map and Tetra narrating the action.

Unlike most other Zelda games, players could enter their name as well as choose their gender; however they played as one of the Links regardless of this choice.

Unique in the Zelda series (except, to an extent, Kodai no Sekiban), Tetra and her pirate crew have full voiceovers in place of text-only dialogue, with Tetra also synthesizing the two-character name that each player inputs at the beginning of the session—possibly why this game was not localized for the English release. In an early version of the game showed to review sites Tetra apparently spoke English—reportedly, one line was something like "Let's hear it for Mrs. A!"—and was able to pronounce at least some synthesized phonetic letters, A, B, C, and D, as shown in screenshots (it is to be assumed the full alphabet was available).

However, while the two-symbol rule worked fine for Japanese players, English is written with the latin alphabet and has much more complex spelling and phonetical constraints. For example, if a player's name was Sarah that is two syllables, so if a soundalike equivalent of that name was entered via Japanese characters, Tetra could easily pronounce "Sar-ahh" as a fairly realistic representation of the player's name. But this would not work with the Japanese version's implementation of English characters. Each of the two permissible characters being pronounced, the aforementioned player's name could only be "SA". Since the English voice had already been added, this technical barrier is the likeliest reason for its omission.

A single-player mode is also available, either collecting alone or in competition with Tingle, the aspiring fairy found also in Majora's Mask, Oracle of Ages, The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap.

See also

• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords subseries characters

External links

• Official web site of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (http://www.zelda.com/fourswords/prelaunch/index.html)
• Official product information page of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1849)
• GameFAQs entry for The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (http://gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/data/36859.html)

ja:ゼルダの伝説 4つの剣＋