The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

The main mode of Four Swords Adventures is "Hyrulean Adventure", an episodic cooperative multiplayer adaptation of conventional The Legend of Zelda gameplay. "Shadow Battle" is a competitive multiplayer battle mode. "Navi Trackers", present only in the Japanese version of the game, is a multiplayer stamp rally race. Hyrulean Adventure Hyrulean Adventure is the main campaign of Four Swords Adventures, and can be played by one to four players. It consists of eight worlds, each with three stages and a boss battle. The graphics are similar to that of the previously released Four Swords for the Game Boy Advance (GBA), but the maps are static rather than randomly generated, the top-down view is taken from A Link to the Past, and gameplay includes effects from The Wind Waker. The graphics include enhanced atmospheric effects such as cloud shadows that slowly move across the ground, heat shimmer, dust storms, and fog. Music is based on that of A Link to the Past, but is rearranged in places. A single-player mode is available, which allows players to either collect alone or compete against Tingle. ==Plot==

Setting The game takes place centuries after ''Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess, within the events of the Child Era of the "Victorious Hero" timeline, and chronologically is the final game in this timeline prior to Breath of the Wild. The game features a separate incarnation of the Dark Lord Ganondorf/The Dark Beast Ganon to the one whose backstory is shown in Ocarina of Time, something which is unique to Four Swords Adventures''. Story Fearing that Vaati's seal is weakening, which has caused strange happenings through Hyrule, Zelda summons Link as a guard while she and the Shrine Maidens open the portal to the Four Sword Sanctuary. Shadow Link suddenly appears and kidnap the Maidens. Link wields the Four Sword, creating three clones of himself, and inadvertely releases Vaati, wreaking havoc on Hyrule. The four Links then depart to restore peace to Hyrule. The Links discover that Vaati's release is only a small part in a larger plot to conquer Hyrule, and that the dimension of the Dark World suddenly appears and abducts people, including the four knights of Hyrule, and the castle is taken over. The Links discover that Ganon is the cataclyst of the events, after stealing a powerful trident containing dark energy; in a hope to succeed into his plan, Ganon created Shadow Link with the Dark Mirror, who tricked Link into releasing Vaati. With the Dark Mirror, Ganon has abducted people to turn them into his minions. The Links rescue the Maidens, retrieves the Dark Mirror, and defeat Shadow Link. In the Palace of Wind, the Links defeat both Vaati and Ganon, which they use the Shrine Maidens' power to seal the latter. Peace returns into Hyrule as all trace of evil is vanquished. Link returns the Four Sword, and the Links become one again. The Maidens then create a barrier around the sword. ==Development==

. At E3 2003, Nintendo showcased two Zelda games which would make use of the Game Boy Advance connectivity, Four Swords and ''Tetra's Trackers. In December of the same year, both games were expected to be together in a single disc, Four Swords +, along with a third, Shadow Battle. Four Swords Adventures'' was released in Japan with "Hyrule Adventure", "Shadow Battle", and "Navi's Trackers" as three individual games bundled together. In June 2004, however, "Hyrule Adventures" and "Navi's Trackers" were scheduled to be sold as two separate titles in the United States, while the retail status of "Shadow Battle" was still unknown. This decision was later changed to bundle "Hyrule Adventure" with "Shadow Battle", and to not release "Navi's Trackers" in the United States. Despite the fact that translations for the PAL version were finished in October, the game was not released in Europe until early January 2005. A possible reason for this is so that the game did not compete with The Minish Cap for sales, which in turn was released pre-Christmas in Europe because, unlike North America, it would not cannibalize Nintendo DS sales. Early on the development of Navi Trackers, it was decided that it would include a speech navigation system that talks and advises the player during mini-games. Players type in their name and the system calls players by their name during the game in order to notify them of their turn. ==Reception==

In 2006, Nintendo Power rated Four Swords Adventures the 48th best game made on a Nintendo system. It received a score of 86 out of 100 based on 55 aggregated reviews from Metacritic, Four Swords Adventures also received criticism. GameRevolution's review about the game was particularly critical of the graphics, calling it an odd mix of cheap 2D SNES sprites and nice GameCube particle effects, believing that it created an inconsistent feel. They also criticized the requirement of the link cable, saying that the required use of the GBA for multiplayer limits the play potential. Four Swords Adventures was the third best-selling game of June 2004 in North America with 155,000 units, and has since sold 250,000 copies, becoming a part of the Player's Choice line. The game also sold 127,000 units in Japan. Producer Eiji Aonuma felt the game's sales were disappointing due to each player needing a Game Boy Advance and a Link Cable, which made it difficult to convince consumers that they needed to play the game. ==See also==