Link as he appears in the tech demo
The SpaceWorld 2000 Tech Demo was a now-infamous demo for what a future The Legend of Zelda title might look like with the capabilities of the Nintendo GameCube. As the title suggests, it was made in 2000, one year before the CD-based console's release.
Overview[]
The SpaceWorld 2000 Tech Demo showed Link and Ganondorf, in an appearance similar to how they looked in Ocarina of Time on the now-aging Nintendo 64, having a brief one-on-one sword fight in a dim castle hall (presumably Ganon's Castle) with neither winning the duel. This demo, along with others like Super Mario 128, was created to showcase the processing power and the graphical capabilities of the then-upcoming Nintendo GameCube, in which fans had praised for being a massive improvement over earlier games of The Legend of Zelda series. However, it was unfortunately accused of generating false expectations and creating unwarranted criticism for the first GameCube Zelda game, The Wind Waker (released in late 2002).[1] The demo gave the impression that it represented what the upcoming Zelda game on the console would look like and be similar to the previous N64 titles. So, when The Wind Waker was revealed to use cel-shaded graphics, which was completely different from the demo's, many fans were outraged and sparked controversy.[2] At the end of the GameCube era, in 2006, Twilight Princess was released, and its own graphics were comparable to the tech demo's.
The SpaceWorld 2000 Tech Demo trailer was created by Satoru Takizawa and Yoshiki Haruhana.[3]
| The Zelda tech demo |
Trivia[]
Ganondorf as seen in Super Smash Bros. Melee with the unused sword depicted in the demo
- Ganondorf's design in Super Smash Bros. Melee is based on his appearance in this demo, including his large sword which he only uses in one of his victory poses. Link is also similar to how he would appear in that game as well.
- In the fight, Link uses the Hero's Shield rather than the Hylian Shield. He is also shown to drop his shield at the moment he was about to clash at Ganondorf. Although this normally does not happen in the games, The Wind Waker notably has the Hero of Winds perform this act upon the final blow unto Ganondorf at the final battle via a special Parry Attack.
- The incarnation of Link featured in the demo is the Hero of Time.
Gallery[]
Link
Ganondorf
Link and Ganondorf fighting
Link and Ganondorf in a swordfight
See Also[]
References
- ↑ "There was a tech demo of a realistic adult Link fighting Ganondorf shown a year before at Spaceworld 2000. This tech demo was made to be a demonstration of the Nintendo Gamecube’s abilities, but was not in itself a complete concept for a game." — Celda: A Retrospective, Super Train Station H.
- ↑ "Nintendo took that amazing demo that we saw last year and butchered it into this animated C-quality Disney garbage." — Zelda Destroyed?, The Odyssey of Hyrule.
- ↑ Art & Artifacts, Dark Horse Books, pg. 416