It seems that there is a new villain in the Zelda world; after being sealed away twice - once in Four Swords on GBA and once in The Minish Cap - he's back after Shadow Link tricks young Link into drawing the Four Sword. Once again Link finds himself (and the other three of him) having to save Hyrule from darkness. Now don't be disheartened if you have neither a GBA or 3 friends to play this game with: Four Swords Adventures is very much a single-player game as well. Where as it doesn't focus the gameplay on a storyline like most Zelda games, there's heaps of fun to be had in saving Hyrule. First of all if you don't have a GBA all the screens that would appear on it will simply be shown on your television on a little GBA window that pops up. And secondly, you end up controlling all of the four Links on screen either separately or as a team, putting them into formation is as easy as a couple of button presses.

The main aim of the game is fun. Sitting down with three friends, plugging in each of your respective Game Boys and going head to head to become the hero of the game, is exactly what Four Swords is about. Once Link collects the Four Sword he is split into four, each player taking control of a different Link, each Link being able to collect and use whatever item is available in whatever situation. Whereas in the single-player mode, unless you are controlling the Links separately - and it won't happen too often - each Link will have the same useable item. This can make certain puzzles in single-player mode more frustrating, however it just serves to make the co-op mode more fun. There are puzzles that require each Link to stand on a switch and by activating all switches a giant gem will drop from the sky. One gem, four Links. And since the object of the game is to collect enough gems to defeat the darkness, unlocking later levels and being the bigger hero it will be a mad rush to grab that gem.... unless of course you're the Link that has the boomerang.

You will find yourself helping your team-mates more often than hindering them, but there are plenty of times you will steal their gems out from under them, picking them up and running around with them because they're taking too long, and even voting against specific players to get their ratings down purely so you can win. The ratings are decided on a couple of things. As mentioned, you get to vote at the end of each level - who helped you the most and who annoyed you the most - and also on the number of gems collected, as it isn't always clear who has the most. Gem count is set on each of the Game Boy screens and it's only when collecting gems on the main screen do you have any idea of what other players may or may not have. Gem collecting may also take place in dungeons, underground, or in houses - all of which take place in the hands of each separate gamer. While some of the text conversations with the non-playable characters may become tedious you aren't slowed down by others' conversations.

The Game Boy screen is also used in conjunction with the return of the dark/light worlds. Using the 'moon Pearl', it is possible to send your character over to the dark world. On the television your character appears as a shadow while on the corresponding Game Boy you see a whole new world, and shadows of the characters in the Light world run about. It is in these little offshoots that you can help direct each other in the right direction to unlock or collect everything that needs to be done to progress. Progression is solely needed to have fun with this game. You won't find yourself upset knowing you won't get to finish the entire game before waving your friends goodbye. And if only some of them come back for the continuous play there is nothing stopping you from replaying a previous section of the map purely because one of you had more fun or maybe you have a five-win challenge to settle. Either way, if you have friends with Game Boys, you'll have people willing to play this game with you.

It is definitely strange playing something that looks like The Minish Cap on something as powerful as the GameCube, and it may take an hour or so to get over the fact that everything is 2D and zooming in on stuff for cut scenes makes pixels extremely noticeable. There are moments when the camera zooms out to show a big section of the map and everything clears up, and with the added special effects and particle effects it's these moments when you realise Nintendo hasa gone with what works and in the end, it looks good. Sound is another story. It's cheap, but for the same reason that the game has Game Boy style graphics, Nintendo stuck with Game Boy style sounds. Again, it may feel weird to have such cheapened sounds on a GameCube game, but as soon as the action zaps into the handheld and all sounds stay the same, you realise Nintendo made the right choice.