Legend of zelda four swords Few role-playing games have as much of a fan base and famous name as the Legend of Zelda game series.  When the first Legend of Zelda game came out in the 80’s for the original Nintendo, it forever changed the role-playing game genre, and boosted the genres popularity more than any prior game.  With such success, there have of course been many follow-ups to the original Legend of Zelda game, some of which have been better than others.  The best of the more recent Zelda games in my opinion is Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.  Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures was released for the Nintendo Gamecube in June of 2004.  Once again, Link is called on to thwart an evil monster with a funky Japanese made name.  Tried and true, this evil villain format has been pretty much a staple for the Zelda series.  The catch with the Four Swords game is that you don’t just play one Link, but four nearly identical copies of him.  You’ll have to play the game to figure out why, although I played it all the way through and I’m still not really sure. The best thing about the Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures in my opinion is that it returns to the same overhead style graphics used in the original Zelda.  Thank God!  I was excited at first when the Zelda game series moved into the 3D format with the Nintendo 64 game, Ocarnia of Time, but quickly grew tired of it.  As the game that pioneered and put overhead 2D adventures on the map, Zelda just isn’t the same in 3D.  There are loads of 3D role-playing games on the market, and Ocarnia of Time just felt like every other game; clunky, frustrating, and tiresome.  Fortunately, the Zelda game makers must have agreed at least to some extent, for Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures finally takes the series back to the original overhead view.  Additionally, while the graphics in Four Swords Adventures are new and up to date as of 2004, they have a very retro style to them that immediately reminds me of the original Zelda.  Unfortunately, the next game in the Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, is going back to 3D.  I’m not totally despairing about it yet, because 3D games have recently made a lot of progress in becoming less annoying, so it could be a decent game.  However, I’m sure I’m going to keep playing Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures a lot to get my fix for a good ‘old school’ style game.