Nerd Mentality

Off the Record, Vol. 3 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Posted March 10th 2005 by James Ondrey.

Round three — Wind Waker. You know you want it. You just know there has to be a gazillion little secrets hidden in that GameCube classic. Well, you're right — there's a lot. Unfortunately though, the secrets aren't nearly as earth-shattering nor abundant as those found in Super Smash Bros. Melee's (so don't get your hopes up too high). But that's certainly not to say Wind Waker has nothing remarkable to hide.

In this volume, you'll discover never-before-published beta locales as well as a couple wacky gameplay hacks that just needed to be shared. Witness the intentions of Wind Waker's developers as you feast your eyes on... Tingle's brother's house? Behold the power of moon-jumping as Link effortlessly soars way above the clouds. All and more in Off the Record Volume III: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Test and assess

Just like scientists run experiments to discover truth, so do game developers. Okay, that analogy might be a little dramatic, but I think you know what I mean.

Game developers build virtual locations using their game's engine to experiment programming code and evaluate game performance. This practice is especially common in 3-D platformers like Wind Waker. Lucky for us, the team behind Wind Waker decided to leave a horde of test stages in the final version of the game (apparently memory conservation wasn't an issue). Take a gander for yourself.

Notice the bland textures covering the ground and walls amidst the pitch black backdrop. Instead of the usual green grass or stone bricks Zelda fans are accustomed to seeing, Link is suddenly surrounded by giant checkerboards. Look even closer and you'll see numerical values painted on them, accompanied with some sort of measuring unit ("m" may stand for meter, but there's no way to be sure). As that number increased in value, so did its size.

Over 20 test stages fell onto our laps as we hacked our way through Wind Waker. To be quite honest, most of them were ho-hum, boring. Honestly. There's no goal to accomplish while in one of them and you'll be lucky to find a foe to do battle with.

But it's important to remember that these areas weren't created for our enjoyment — Nintendo built them to make sure they made a game that played flawlessly. No argument here.

In some of the test stages it is obvious what the developers were experimenting with.

For example, one stage plops you on a flat platform with over 15 characters from the Zelda universe. From villagers to merchants, the place is cramped with characters. No, this isn't Princess Zelda's sweet-16 bash, it's a character interaction test. Approach a character and talk with him or her as they babble sayings they'd normally say in Wind Waker. That's all you can do in that test area — just chatter and watch everyone's head turn as you run by them. There will be no slicing of villagers' limbs here.

Others test switches for puzzle solving, enemies for battling and weapons for utilizing (like the hammer and grappling hook). Most of them are self-explanatory, but the purpose behind a few is a bit obscure and redundant. I mean do you need to construct a private location just to place a few measly trees? I mean, c'mooooon, you can't even climb ‘em.

Hmmm, maybe Nintendo did experiment with a climbing option... Your guess is as good as anyone's.

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