Ah, another Zelda came and went. I could tell you all about the graphics, but I won't because everybody else has touched on that "controversial" issue. I will say two things about the graphics:
1.They set a wonderful atmosphere
2.You forget about them quickly as you are engulfed in a wonderful and beautiful world

The gameplay for this addition of Zelda is more of the amazing gameplay we've all come to love. There is always that special moment when you lock on to an enemy, do a slashing combo, and take him and his three buddies out. The weapons can be frustrating at times. The target areas for the hookshot and grappling hook are very precise which can cause some yelling when fighting bosses. The sailing, the BIG addition to this game keeps the series interesting. I wish the sea combat was as much fun as the land combat, though.

The story is very interesting and had a few twists that I wasn't expecting. The cast of characters is all new except for Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. Though the cast and setting are new, you feel the nostalgic Hyrule throughout the game. In short, the story blew me away yet again.

Onto my gripes section. These are just minor gripes but still, they must be adressed.

My largest gripe, by far, is the length. I beat this game in FOUR days. That is constant playing of about 5 hours a day without any kind of a strategy guide or anything. FOUR days!?!? I needed this game to last me until mid-May. Granted, there are still a few interesting things I can mess around with. The game contains, you can count these on one hand too, FOUR dungeons. Each can be beat in under 2 hours. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a few more than FOUR dungeons.

My other large gripe is the difficulty. This goes directly with the length. This game is VERY EASY. I died, with no strategy guide, ZERO times. ZERO. Anybody who dies more than ten time in the course of this game needs to have their gaming license removed. I remember the good ol' days when at the end of A Link to the Past there was a counter telling you how many times you died. Lemme tell you, mine was slightly higher than ZERO.

By playing every previous Zelda game, I felt like I had an advantage over this one. So many old tricks didn't change. This "advantage" made blowing through the FOUR dungeons even easier.

My final gripe is the lack of uber-weapons. In A Link to the Past, there were Fairy Fountains so you could upgrade your sword, shield, boomerang, etc. In Ocarina of Time, there was the Big Goron Sword, a two-handed uber-weapon that was more powerful than the Master Sword. In Majora's Mask, there was the Fierce Dieties' Mask and the Gilded Sword. None of these were required to win, required loads of extra work, and were fun to earn. The Wind Waker contains no uber-weapons. You are required to "power up" your Master Sword. You obtain the mirror shield in a dungeon. Nothing else can be upgraded. The different arrows are present (Light,Ice,Fire) but only the Light Arrow is found in a "dungeon" (I put quotes because the last portion of the game is a dungeon...but not really...play to find out). Uber-weapons I enjoyed, and I wanted one in this game very badly.

If you've ever played a Zelda, you already bought this game. If you are skeptical, buy it, and you will probably be able to beat the game and be able to make your local Electronics Boutique's 7 day return policy.