The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Cel-shaded art and a sailable ocean argued for stylization and open traversal over realism.

Released 2002 Developer Nintendo EAD Publisher Nintendo Platform GameCube Genre Action-adventure Era Broadband & the console shooter

Mechanics it built on

Ideas The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker inherited rather than invented — each traceable back through the ontology to a root.

Day/Night Cycle ~~1983~~Contextual Lock-On Targeting ~~1998~~Dynamic Weather ~~1999~~Seamless Streaming Open World ~~2001~~

The The Legend of Zelda series in this dataset

1986

The Legend of Zelda ~~1986~~

1987

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link ~~1987~~

1991

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ~~1991~~

1998

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ~~1998~~

2000

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask ~~2000~~

2002

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker ~~this page~~

2006

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ~~2006~~

2011

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ~~2011~~

2013

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds ~~2013~~

2017

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ~~2017~~

2023

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ~~2023~~

Look this game up elsewhere

Wikipedia ↗MobyGames ↗Giant Bomb ↗

~~← Previous in series~~The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask ~~Next in series →~~The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess