The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures - Reception

Reception

In 2006, Nintendo Power rated it the 48th best game made on a Nintendo system. Four Swords received a score of 86 out of 100 based on 55 aggregated reviews from Metacritic, and an average score of 85% based on 67 reviews from Game Rankings.

GameSpot praised the game's connectivity feature with the Game Boy Advance, claiming that this is "a truly compelling reason to invest in a GameCube-to-GBA link cable" and that "using the Game Boy Advance as a controller has an appreciable impact on the experience". They also praised the story and said, "One of the differences between the original Four Swords and Adventures is a more persistent narrative." The video was also applauded, with a critic quoted as remarking, "Adventures does improve on the original Four Swords' visuals, making the Wind-Waker-derived visual style even more reminiscent of the cel-shaded adventure of Link." The audio was noted, with a review remarking, "The sound design for Four Swords Adventures will be even more familiar to anyone who has played any Zelda game, and especially to those who have played The Wind Waker."

Four Swords Adventures also received criticism. Game Revolution said about the video, "Graphically, Four Swords Adventures is an odd mix of cheap 2D SNES sprites and nice Gamecube particle effects. It looks a lot like the GBA game, but now wears fancier pants and shows off upgraded visual flourishes, like Wind Waker style curly-Q air poofs. Still, much of the technology has clearly been ported over from the GBA, creating an inconsistent feel." They also criticized the requirement of the link cable, saying that "the required use of the GBA for multiplayer does limit the play potential."

Four Swords Adventures was the third best-selling game of June 2004 in North America with 155,000 units, and has since sold 250,000 copies, becoming a part of the Player's Choice line. The game also sold 127,000 units in Japan.

A manga novelization of the game was authored by Akira Himekawa. In it, each of the four Links have a distinct personality: the Link in green (nicknamed "Green") acted similarly to his normal self, aggressive and brave, the Link in red ("Red") was portrayed as a childish optimist, the one in blue ("Blue") was quick-tempered and overconfident, and the one in violet ("Vio") was aloof and self-possessive. This of course caused the four Links to argue among one another due to their conflicting personas. The four decided to use nicknames of the color they are wearing so they would not confuse each other.