When I reviewed Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords, I spoke highly of the multiplayer adventure that had been tacked on to the SNES port. It was fun, challenging, competitive, and altogether made Link to the Past that much more worth the purchase. It was highly innovative, and I got a big kick out of the communication required between players, both for cooperating and deceiving. Well, as I had hoped, Nintendo is coming out with a brand new Four Swords adventure. However, it is in an unexpected medium.

When I first heard that a new Four Swords was coming out on its own, I figured it was either a complete GBA adventure, or a graphically updated GameCube version. But much to my surprise, it’s neither. It’s a GameCube version, all right, but with GBA graphics. Also, it requires the Game Boy Advance to play. This may be limiting to many gamers, but it also offers an interesting gameplay feature. Players can monitor each others’ actions on the TV, but when one enters a house, cave, or tunnel, the game transfers to your private GBA screen, allowing you to do things privately.

One of the best things about Four Swords for GBA was the communication; it is necessary for cooperating, which is necessary for completing the game. But it also important for deceiving opponents, leading them intentionally astray or gaining their trust and then screwing them over royally. Hopefully that necessity will make a return.  One worry I have about this game, however, is the length. On the GBA, the length was perfect. It can’t be too long because it’s multiplayer and has to be over fairly soon. But for it to be really enjoyable it can’t be too short. But as a stand-alone on the GameCube it has to be of course much longer than it was on the GBA. But this then presents problems for multi-player coordination.

I was definitely hoping for something more from Nintendo for Four Swords. I of course have yet to play it, so hopefully there’s something we don’t know about this yet. But I’m doubtful.

Additional Media: