Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (Game Boy Advance, 2002)

 

It's dangerous to go alone! Here, take 3 more Links.

First off, this game is almost lost media at this point, it's so difficult to actually play. You need four GBAs and four of the game, plus the cables, plus 3 other people who actually want to spend a few hours going through it. The DSi version, which is what I'm playing, mercifully added a single-player mode. AND it was free to download on the DS Shop. The only problem is, Nintendo only had it on there for a few months and then deleted it forever. Now the DSi version exists solely in the realm of emulation. Editor's Note: I think it was actually on there for a much shorter amount of time. Like 3 weeks or something. What a baffling game.

More recently, they added the GBA version to Nintendo Switch Online! ...except you can't play Four Swords on it, only A Link to the Past. Which was already on the SNES emulator of Switch Online in its original, superior form, so I don't know what the point of adding the GBA version is. It would have made infinitely more sense to add the DSi version with single-player to the general Switch eShop for $10 or whatever they think it's worth.

Editor's Note: Looks like you CAN play Four Swords on the GBA version in Switch Online, but there's  apparently no local co-op or multiplayer. It can be played online...if it can find another person (or 3) who is trying to play it at the same time.

In any case, I'm playing it on DSi, and went through all kinds of trouble to get it working a while back. I don't remember how I did it, at this point, so don't ask. I'm one of the few people on the internet talking about this in 2026, so chances are that future people looking for ways to play this are going to stumble on this. Sorry, future people, I have no idea. You'll have to figure it out. Or don't, because even emulating it isn't worth the trouble, as I'll explain in a bit. I'm only checking it out because of my old goal of playing all the Zelda games eventually. I don't have much to say about them, but with this being a pretty short game and such a rare curiosity, it makes sense to give this one a post.

The story here is that an evil sorcerer named Vaati (who in his true form looks just like the final boss of Link's Awakening, meaning the Shadow took the form of a foe we hadn't even met yet) has kidnapped Princess Zelda. Oh noe! And the only thing that can stop him is this weapon called the Four Sword. Which happens to be right here in the room. I think Vaati was sealed within it and got out.

The sword causes Link to split into four Links, each a different color, like the Teletubbies. Do you know the Teletubbies? Oh, they're glorious. They had televisions on their tums. And on television, they viewed themselves, where they also had a television on their tums, which they also viewed themselves on. And so on...ad infinitum.

I should probably stop grabbing the lower screen here because nothing happens on it in this game. Absolutely nothing.

Holy light shines down as Single Player is an option. Hallelujah!

There are four areas to choose from and they can be done in any order. Really though, it's 3 areas that comprise the game: A grassy area with some water, a cave area with some ice, and a fire area. The fourth area is the Chambers of Insight, which is actually the tutorial zone and goes on for a WHILE. It's kinda open-ended, too. No boss, and you can just keep going through it until you get bored and return to the stage select. If you know how to play, you don't even need to go to that area.

I didn't know any of this at first, so I spent a lot of time in the Chambers of Insight learning to play the game I already pretty much knew how to play. Some sort of message about all of this would have been helpful!

Thumpthump.

Rerrrrrrrrr.

BREAKITDOWN!

So in one player mode, you control two Links. I go with Link LeafGreen and Link FireRed. Can control them individually and switch between them at will, or control them both together to push large blocks and so forth. This game doesn't seem to have any complicated puzzles whatsoever that require the Links to go through any real mental gymnastics.

One Link can throw the other across gaps to pick things up. Rupees are abundant in this game, and four gold ones gives you +500. Why are they so abundant? Because every time you run out of hearts you have to pay a fee of 50 to revive (with like one or two hearts), and the fee rapidly increases.

The Ball n' Chain Trooper is the closest thing to a boss here, but it's more of a miniboss. The enemies are VERY aggressive in this game, especially minibosses, which just BOOK IT towards Link and attack wildly. Pretty sure it's just shoddy programming, but the enemies in this game fight with the aggression and desperation that all foes in games should probably have if they were realistic. A miniboss that gets on you can rapidly deplete your hearts. They really ride you, like Jim Carrey's boss in Liar Liar.

There are tutorial areas for every special item. You don't need to do any of this, and most of them are really self-explanatory. Given the puke-like color scheme of this area, it's a shame that most players probably spent most of their time in this one level, going in circles doing tutorials.

There's a "final challenge" tutorial which I thought would end the level. It just has you use multiple items.

All four areas in this game seem to consist of a bunch of smallish stages that you go through one after another. and once you clear one, you generally can't go back to it (except in this area).

Roc's Cape is a fun one, that lets you sail a bunch of spaces through the air.

Finally I figure out that you don't actually "beat" this level, and only finish with it by leaving out the portal you came in by. Welp. Yeah, I'd probably skip this.

Sea of Trees is where the meat of the game actually starts. This visuals of this game are very different from any other game in the series; it's probably closest to LTTP  overall, maybe with some Minish Cap DNA, but it doesn't fall into any categories.

Nice yellow wheat field here. This game has its moments. I wish it were a regular open world Zelda, not this strange level-based one.

I got lost in this area and ended up going in circles for a bit. Some of the stairs are difficult to see.

Yeah, it's really easy to die in this game. Minibosses just hand you your ass. I think the idea is to have a bunch of players wailing on them / distracting their movements.

The boss of this level is a 3-headed plant. Only same-color Links can damage the appendages, and if doing single-player, you have to switch characters constantly to keep it from locking on.

At the end of an area, you find the Great Fairy, who isn't a Great Whore yet like she is in Ocarina of Time. Guessing this is earlier in the Zelda chronology that totally does exist and totally got any attention at all from the developers.

Annnnd this is where my DSi file froze up. Every time I reloaded and beat this boss again, the game would just freeze. So it seems to freeze after you beat one of the levels.

Talus Cave is the second of the three main areas...and easily the worst. It's just a cave, and the boring pastel colors have returned from the tutorial area.

Our heroes spank a Stalfos!

"Oh yeah, give it to me!" yells the Stalfos.

...there isn't really anything cool in this area. You can flip through the fence squares Mario World style by jumping on them with the Roc's Cape, that's something.

The boss is a giant mollusk that summons icicles to rain on the Links. It also shields itself with a big ice block.

Having two characters wail on this thing dispatches it quick. I imagine four Links could trivialize this game by sheer firepower, unless the boss HP doubles or something.

Death Mountain is the third area, and the best of them. This place looks awesome and has some decent puzzles finally.

The game really likes these "door locks and a swarm of enemies converge on you" minibosses.

Next boss is this...thing! It volleys projectiles that you have to knock back at it with the same-color character. This is definitely a step up. In my case it can only fire two projectiles, though, so it's not much of an issue.

"Oh hi! I was just taking a luxurious steam bath and pointing my leg at the ceiling, as women do in the bath."

Annnnd this is where my game ended, because every time I got to the end of a level the game froze. So I had no way to actually beat all the levels, or beat the game. Well, taking this off the list. After all the effort it took to get it working, I wish it would have worked, but it seems like there's just no way to play this if you didn't download it back when it was available for a minute.

Vaati's Palace is just a series of challenges that test everything the player learned up to now. Rooms like this with a bunch of treasures are interesting. You can only carry one item at a time; the sword is your other item no matter what. If you end up needing a different item you can go back and get it easily enough, given how compact these sections are.

Four Swords Adventures for the Gamecube took this concept and ran with it, so you frequently see a few items available at a time that you can pick from and change at will.

Bridges that only work for the proper-color Link! Not a problem, one can carry the other one.

Sky platforms! Figures that this is a wind-themed level when the others were fire, earth, and water.

Here's Vaati. Why would anyone go through this much trouble for a WOMAN?

This fight is a matter of throwing bombs into his tornado to disrupt it, then...

...hacking away.

His second form is the final boss of Link's Awakening. It's so wild that that fight ended up becoming a boss later, like the shadow predicted the future. The player's future, not necessarily Link's. Since this series barely has any coherent continuity.

"NICCCCE" says Zelda.

...then Link re-combines.

"Aw man!" says Zelda.

They put the Four Sword back where it was at the beginning, and the credits roll. So that's it for this game.

It's worth mentioning that there are a lot of folks online arguing about where this game fits in Zelda's "chronology", as it it has a goddamn chronology, and as if this game means anything to any overall series narrative. It takes place in a bubble like most of the rest of them.

Wait, the game isn't over. A new area has unlocked, the Realm of Memories. This secret fifth area is probably the best thing this game has to offer by a mile.

The place is divided into 3 levels, with no bosses. They aren't as long as the main game levels but they're decent size. Each level is a recreation of an old game's visuals, and each section within takes you to a different part of that old game.

Obviously the first levcl is LTTP. It uses Hyrule Castle as a base, which is cool because I felt that place was a bit underutilized in the past.

The final section takes you to the Lost Woods, another underutilized area, and adds a bunch of rooms to it.

Second level is a Link's Awakening flashback, and the Game Boy visuals look NICE in this format. I wish the whole game had been Realm of Memories content, as these zones are much much nicer than the base game's new zones.

I remember this circle of pits. It's a wave of nostalgia.

I remember the dungeon visuals especially well. The treasure boxes remind me of reading Nintendo Power, seeing them in screenshots, and wanting to know what was in them.

Finally, the mountains are your ultimate destination. Speaking of underutilized areas, this was definitely one.

Third level is the first NES Zelda, and...man, this looks awesome.

I never got to play this as a kid, but I have nostalgia for it nonetheless. Not as much as Link's Awakening but it's still cool to see this.

This is one big advantage the game has over Four Swords Adventures, which is superior in almost every way. That game takes place entirely in LTTP's world (expanded) while this game gives you these nostalgia-driven levels with assets from other games.

The graveyard was particularly interesting to me as a kid, because I knew the game kept important treasure here. In LTTP I made sure to push on every tombstone.

This culminates with a dungeon, of course. Knock off some Armos Knights and we're outta here.

This gives you a long-overdue sword powerup, AND unlocks one final area: Hero's Trial.

Unfortunately there's very little to this place, just a series of tough rooms.

Finishing this area unlocks an upgrade to the Spin Attack. Big whoop.

The end has a swarm of vicious fairies that swoop in and attack our heroes. They zip around en masse, buting and thrashing while foaming at the mouth.

And well, that's it, that's all the game has for areas. You CAN go back to earlier areas and play a "second quest" sort of deal with the three main areas and Vaati's Palace. Then you can do a third quest too. There's no real point to this, but it gives you something else to do. Just keep running the game. The Hero Trial doesn't repeat, and the Realm of Memories - which really SHOULD have more mileage - doesn't have any remix versions that I know of.

Final verdict? Well, it's unplayable, but even if it were easy to get ahold of, I'd still say people are way better off playing Four Swords Adventures over this. Which has a real single-player mode that's been tested and balanced. That game is very, very nice, especially for huge LTTP fans. At times it felt more like an LTTP sequel than the actual sequel did, and having the same visuals (enhanced to a sort of very early proto HD-2D) helps. This game crawled so FSA could sprint. Unfortunately hardly anyone bought FSA, probably thinking it'd be unplayable in some way like this. It requires getting the game. getting out the Wii and getting that working. Other than that it's no problem. Not a GBA in sight.

Putting aside the difficulty with playing it... this game doesn't do anything all that interesting, the areas are dull-looking, and it's all just...mundane. I can't say it's a good game or worth the time to check out even if it were readily available.

I've talked about my quest to finish the whole Zelda series a few times. Well, I've concluded that the quest is impossible. This game is entirely inaccessible, the three CD-I games are inaccessible (and too bad to play anyway), and Ancient Stone Tablets and the other Satellaview Zeldas are basically unplayable too. Also I'm not real sure I'd want to play all this stuff anyway. I guess I'll stick to the main series. I didn't play the last five Zeldas so that's what I'll try to do eventually. Most of my series nostalgia is for Ocarina and the other pre-2005 games, and the new ones don't really feel like Zelda to me a lot of the time. Well, maybe I'll post something about one of 'em but right now it isn't on the agenda, it's more something to do in my spare time at some later date.

Looks like the only Zeldas not available on the Switch at this point are Twilight Princess and Four Swords Adventures. Also Wind Waker's HD version isn't on there. I'd like to see Nintendo plug this leak by putting out a Legendary Collection (or something) with Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, and Four Swords Adventures HD. The third one would be new, the other two would be ports. Would be easy to put this together and it would sell like gangbusters. The first two wouldn't be trapped on the Wii U anymore and FSA wouldn't be trapped even further back in time. Anyone who missed any of the above would have an impetus to get it, since it isn't just a rehash of things they already have. Funnily enough I'm pretty sure Four Swords Adventures would be the main unit-mover for that trio. So many folks missed that game entirely, and a quick upscale would make it look even nicer. While we're at it, I'd also like to see a Majora's Mask Remake in the full ground-up remake style of OoT. Thanks.