Parent's Guide: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is a remake of one of the most beloved titles in the long running series. It's an action adventure game that casts players as Link, a young adventurer on a quest to find his missing sister. Along the way as the story unfolds, Link learns more about the history of the world and his rather important connection to the past. The bulk of the game involves sailing the vast seas aboard a friendly, talking boat with a lion's face, and battling through puzzle and enemy-filled dungeons which take various forms, from fortresses to forests and caverns. The story makes several references to previous Zelda games for fans of the series, but no knowledge of the series' history is required to enjoy the game.

The game is controlled using the Wii U GamePad, which can get fairly complicated at times. Using items such as the Wind Waker (a magical conductor's baton) requires you to push the analogue stick in the right direction at the right time for several beats in a bar, and could be quite tricky for younger players. Similarly, as the camera is player-controlled, your child will need to be able to control Link using the left analogue stick while simultaneously adjusting the camera with the right. Combat is fairly simple, just using the sword to attack enemies (usually goblin-like creatures) by pressing the appropriate button, although more complex manoeuvres are available for more confident players.

That said, this isn't the easiest of games for young players, and they might need some assistance from older siblings or parents to figure out the more complex puzzles or tackle more difficult enemies. In fact, in our time with the game we found that it's actually a lot of fun to play through with people helping. One player can take control while others can help decide where to go next or how to pass a certain section. It's a game that lends itself nicely to this kind of collaborative play, despite not featuring any specific multiplayer mode.

Your child will need to be a fairly confident reader if playing alone, as the story is told in text, including all speech - there's no voiced dialogue, as with all Zelda titles. Sample sentences include "This is so terrible. That girl fell into the forest! She needs help! ...But it's too dangerous for you to go in there without something you can defend yourself with!" and "Set it to X, Y or R and use it by pressing whatever button you set it to. Do it now, and see what you can see!"

Much like a Disney or Studio Ghibli film, there are certain parts of the game that could be a bit scary for young children, but nothing likely to cause nightmares. The main bad guy Ganondorf is a fairly imposing figure, as are the monstrous boss characters, and some of the supporting characters walk a fine line between quirky and creepy (the spooky, child-like Queen of Fairies is a good example.). There's a lot of sword-swinging and lots of combat, although it's all very mild, with no realistic impacts. Enemies generally disappear in puffs of purple smoke, and there's no blood or gore involved. We should mention though that at the end of the game Ganondorf is dispatched in an unusually violent manner for the series (let's say one heck of a headache) so should your child reach the very end of the game, it's worth bearing this in mind.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii U