Collect all Blue Chu-Chu Jellies- Check
Complete the Pictograph Challenges- Check
Light the Lighthouse on Windfall- Check
Take out all Big Octos- Check
Find every Great Fairy- Check
Complete the Trading Quest- Check

…

That’s pretty much a sample of the things I’ve finished with the Wind Waker. I managed to beat the game once more during my Easter break, and since then I’ve been working to find every last secret, collect every last item, and complete every last side quest. The list up there is only a portion of what I’ve actually finished, but that doesn’t mean that I’m anywhere near 100% completion.

I’ve always known that the game had loads of things to do in it, but it’s somewhat overwhelming when I try to figure out just how much I have left to do. Whether I’m looking through the back of a Prima’s Player Guide I bought years ago, or I’m just sailing along and going through the list in my head, I honestly can’t believe how much Nintendo managed to stuff into the game. There’s probably double, maybe triple the amount of hours in the side-quests than there is in the main campaign.

And you know, I love it.

I’m a sucker for side-quests, no matter how simple or useless they are. Let’s face it, no matter how many little missions the Zelda series has given us on the side, the rewards have never exactly been grand; Heart Pieces, Lots of Rupees, cool but often unnecessary items etc. Nevertheless, no one should be able to deny that the Zelda games sport some of the best side-quests in all of gaming, maybe the best.

There’s one thing for sure that you can expect out of them, no matter what game they’re incorporated in- you can end up getting anything. You won’t find yourself playing through just battles, or puzzles or fetch-quests; you’ll get an excellent variety in your tasks. Being that most of the games are crammed to the rim with them, it makes it even better that you’re given different missions. This allows for you to actually have a choice, if you will.

If you only enjoy finding all kinds of enemy hide-outs and taking the baddies down, then go with that. If you like using your brain to crack difficult codes and puzzles, then by all means figure them out. If you like traveling across the world to find and deliver items, then journey to your heart’s content. And, if you’re like me and enjoy completing any of those, then the Zelda series will more than satisfy you, because it gives a lot of all of the types of quests. It doesn’t take the easy route and just make everything the same, it makes them unique.

Now, there’s been repetition here and there, such as the use of the Trading Sequence in five or more titles, or that a lot of the concepts are re-used. But each game has its own personality, so the tasks that can be viewed as ‘re-hashed’ still have their own character. Ocarina of Time was a game that often dished out intricate puzzles, so naturally, when you went into the Gerudo’s Training Ground, you were solving puzzles and getting past obstacles most of the time. In the Wind Waker, which had some of the most frantic combat, when it came time to go through all of the Savage Labyrinth, you were battling grunt enemies by the dozens.

Ocarina of Time’s puzzles were superior to the Wind Waker’s, and Wind Waker’s sword- fighting was superior to Ocarina of Time’s, so for two side-quests in the games that both had the same basic idea, you were forced to overcome different challenges, which corresponded to the game’s strong points. Or better yet, as I said before, their personalities. But, of course, that’s just a small example of what I’m talking about;

Ocarina of Time had dozens of secrets hidden in Hyrule, such as the Cuccoo in the Kakariko Windmill, or the famous Forest Stage to show off your mask to the Deku Scrubs. Wind Waker had tons of hidden caverns scattered across the Great Sea, many of which required you to go into a chaotic melee with endless enemies. Even the puzzle orientated quests had you using elements of the game, like playing golf with the giant Deku Nuts and your Deku Leaf, or throwing curled-up Magtails onto switches to clear the fire from thin pathways. Simply put, they carried the character of the franchise, as well as the character of the games they were put in.

Every side-quest felt like that, no matter how major or minor. If you were merely traveling across Hyrule in the Minish Cap to fuse the Kinstones, or working your tail off to reunite Anju and Kafei together in Majora’s Mask, you knew that you were playing a Zelda game, and you knew what exact title you were playing because of the feel and execution of that task.

Probably the best thing about the side-quests, though, is that they add value to the games. Now this isn’t no ordinary value- we’re talking hours worth of time put into the titles from these little distractions. The main campaigns for the games aren’t exactly endless; I can’t understand how you’d spend more than fifteen hours on any of them. That’s not a bad length, but you always want more out of what you play, and the sheer multitude of extras in the Zeldas is sometimes mind-boggling.

Let’s just look at what is almost always put into the games; a few dozen Heart Pieces to earn, several mini-games, many of one item to find (Golden Skulltulas, Treasure Charts, Rings, Seashells etc.), and the fact that a good third of the series features Trading Quests. Those right there warrant a good deal of time, but then you have your many secret dungeons in the Wind Waker, all the Masks to collect in Majora’s Mask, the Magic Beans to plant in Ocarina of Time, the Figurine Gallery to complete in the Minish Cap and so on and so-forth. Honestly, you could probably play for a couple days on end with some of the games, and still not be done.

They just never seem to end, either; you finish one, and it just opens up to more. It was such an amazing feel to get Epona in Ocarina of Time, but then I was also able to race around the ranch to get a cow, or play the Horseback Archery in Gerudo Valley. After I completed the great Trading Quest in Wind Waker, I had a ton of fun decorating Windfall with the flowers, flags and statues. And seriously, who wasn’t amped to kick some serious butt with the Fierce Deity’s mask after finding all the masks in MM?

The games themsleves are so high quality, too, especially the main quests. Almost every entry into the series is phenomenal, even with all of the stuff that is jammed into the disk or cartridge. We all know its Nintendo’s biggest series, but you have to be impressed by the continual success. They always put in enough effort and work to make the experience awesome.

I know that I often end my articles with hopes for Twilight Princess, but I’d just like to tell all of you just how confident I am that this game will feature more extras than ever before. Nintendo’s been working on this thing for years, and they claim for it to be the biggest, longest, grandest Zelda game of all. We’ve been told that it’ll feature “100 hours of gameplay”, and I’m sure that we all know that it’s probably a stretch, but I doubt it’s a stretch that this game really will go beyond any of the others in terms of length. If Nintendo could give us so much in games like the Minish Cap, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Wind Waker, then I honestly believe that Twilight Princess will give us more than we ever imagined.

I feel the same for Phantom Hourglass. It’s kind of unfortunate for the game that it’s coming out during a time when most eyes are on Twilight Princess, but I think we should expect a quality title for the DS. Better yet, being that this game is a sequel to Wind Waker, we can probably assume that it will have a ton of extras just like the predecessor. Nintendo’s had a good run so far with side-quests; let’s hope they keep it going for Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass.

Ah, heck, who am I kidding? Let’s hope they keep it going until we’re all as old as Rauru.