I played a demos of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD during E3 and picked the boss fight against the Helmaroc King. The battle is essentially the same as the Gamecube version with two main differences. First, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD looks like a playable cartoon. The animation is fluid and the world is has a vibrant feel to it. The second is the game has optional motion controls.
The Helmaroc King fight starts with Link sprinting up something similar to a circular staircase while the Helmaroc King attacks him. The Helmaroc King will break wooden bridges if Link isn’t fast enough to cross them. Link can still move on, but he has to use the grappling hook and aim it at wooden hold to swing forward. In the Wii U version, you aim the grappling hook’s reticule by moving the Wii U GamePad around. You can also move the Wii U’s GamePad around to aim the bow and arrow.
Of course, I didn’t need to use that with the Helmaroc King. The weapon you want to use is the hammer, which can shatter the Helmaroc King’s mask. The Wii U GamePad shows all of Link’s tools and bottles (I had two filled with life potions). At any time, you can drag different tools or items to different buttons on the GamePad to change Link’s equipment on the fly without pausing the game.
The little tweaks Nintendo made to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD makes it more user friendly. One fix that should make the game less tedious is the boat has a motor on it so you can travel through the overworld faster than you could in the Gamecuber version.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is slated for release this October in North America.
