The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

The eleventh game in The Legend of Zelda series was a sequel to the earlier Four Swords and was released in 2004. Like its predecessor, it focused on multiplayer gaming for up to four players, and was much more linear in design than the average Zelda title (though the areas themselves had room to explore). A key component of the gameplay was the use of the GCN-GBA link cable which was required for multiplayer (though single player mode did not require it, instead putting an emulated GBA screen on the TV itself). The action of the game was split between the TV screen for the main areas, where all players could see what was going on, and the GBA screens, which represented indoor areas as well as the Dark World, where each player could only see their immediate surroundings. Unlike the previous game, all four Links were always present no matter how many actual players there were- the excess Links would follow the players and could be placed into formations.

The story is a sequel to Four Swords and features the return of Vaati. According to Hyrule Historia, this is the final game in the "child" timeline, following Majoras Mask and Twilight Princess. While attempting to strengthen the seal on Vaati, Shadow Link kidnaps Zelda and the six shrine maidens, forcing Link to pull the Four Sword from its pedestal and release Vaati once more. Over the course of the game, it's revealed that Shadow Link was actually a minion of Ganon, who is attempting to cover the land in darkness with Vaati's help.

In addition to the cooperative multiplayer mode (known as "Hyrulean Adventure") there is also a competitive battle mode, "Shadow Battle", in which the Links fight against each other.

This Game Provides Examples Of:

 * Artifact of Doom: The Trident of Power.
 * Also, the Dark Mirror, which seems to be the remnant of a certain other mirror....
 * Back to Back Badasses: Diamond Formation, only available in single player, puts all Four Links back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
 * Bag of Spilling: NONE of the items carry over to the next section of the game.
 * Barrier Maiden: Zelda and the maidens.
 * Big Bulky Bomb: Instantly kills any player(s) stupid enough to not take cover in a cave/hole/room when it goes off (The game freaking TELLS you to GTFO or die)? In some levels can be found in innocent looking chests? And in many others, are repetitively tossed around in specific rooms by Dark Link? 'Kay... That's just not fair...
 * Blow You Away: Vaati, yet again. Duh.
 * Bubbly Clouds: Realm of the Heavens.
 * Color Coded Multiplayer
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience
 * Combination Attack: Once in formation, all the Links will attack and use items in sync with each other. In diamond formation the four Links can perform one huge spin attack together.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: The manga, written by Akira Himekawa, which expanded on the narrow story and gave every Link a different personality, explaining that the sword's elements split up Link's personality as well, not just his body. Becomes Fridge Logic when you realize that is more of an Alternate Character Interpretation, since Green Link retains the original Link's personality without change and the character traits displayed by Violet Link are not present in the original Link at all.
 * Cut and Paste Environments: Most of the sprites were taken from A Link to The Past.
 * Continuity Nod: Tons, mostly to A Link to the Past.
 * Continuity Porn: Averted. Deleted text found on the game disc indicates that this game was supposed to retell the Backstory of A Link to the Past, as items like the Master Sword would have shown up, but you wouldn't be able to use them. Shigeru Miyamoto nixed this idea late in development because it would have distracted from the straightforwardness of the gameplay. Continuity Nods still abound, though. for example, the existence of the Dark World and the Trident of Power still manage to make this a very likely Backstory for A Link To The Past.
 * Hyrule Historia has apparently Jossed this interpretation; the games don't even take place in the same branch of the timeline. Unless there's some temporal shenanigans going on, this game's events have nothing to do with A Link to the Past's.
 * Continuity Snarl: Ganondorf's inclusion causes a lot of problems for what is otherwise an easily-arguable case for the series only having one Ganon.
 * Fixed; it's been confirmed in Hyrule Historia that this is the reincarnated Ganondorf, coming back after his death in Twilight Princess and regaining his dark powers via the Trident. So in a way, he's the same Ganon yet isn't at the same time.
 * Co Op Multiplayer
 * Dark World
 * Death Mountain
 * Doppleganger Attack: Phantom Ganon often splits into four, and Shadow Link is able to clone himself.
 * The entirety of both the first FS and this one are basically one overly long Doppleganger Attack by Link himself.
 * The Dragon: Vaati
 * Dummied Out : Large plot-relevant parts of the script, as Miyamoto deemed it would distract too much from the gameplay.
 * Within the game disk, there are 90%-complete fourth acts for each world, in the final game there are three per world.
 * Escort Mission
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Tower of Winds.
 * Evil Twin: Shadow Link
 * Fire Breathing Weapon: The Fire Rod.
 * Flipping the Table: In a meta example, Miyamoto metaphorically "upended the tea table" during development of the game's story (he felt it was too complex), which explains why it seems to be all over the place.
 * Guest Star Party Member: Zelda in the Final Boss fight.
 * Grievous Harm With a Body: Players can bludgeon enemies with items that they are carrying so they do not have to drop them in order to fight back. This works even if the thing the player is carrying is another player.
 * Heart Container: Only work for one level, and are found in specific chests.
 * Homage: With the exception of the character sprites and special effects, which draw from the toon-style, nearly all the sprites draw heavily from Link to the Past, complete with music. Parts of this game are bound to drop a nostalgia bomb on fans of LttP.
 * Hijacked By Ganon
 * Let's Play: There's one by shadowMarioXLI. What makes it the best one? It's a 4 player Let's Play!
 * Load Bearing Boss: Vaati pulls a Ganondorf and decides to go and cause his tower to crumble when you kill him.
 * Lost Woods
 * Meaningless Lives: Since they really only kick in when the player controlled Link(s) are down simultaneously, the fairies, which you can get several of at the end of every level, can really pile up.
 * Lives are even more trivial in muiltiplayer mode since a dead player will automatically revive after 10 seconds with full health.
 * Multi Mook Melee: The game loves to show off just how many sprites it can put on screen at once (if the image above wasn't any indication). Pretty much once a level there will be an area that closes itself off and proceeds to throw dozens of enemies at you at once.
 * Mutually Exclusive Powerups: Each player can only carry one item at a time (besides their sword, shield, bracelets, and hearts), though all Links following that player can also use the item.
 * Mes a Crowd
 * No Export for You: The "Navi Trackers" mini-game was only available in Japan.
 * A localized version was shown at the E3, with english voice acting. In case you were wondering, Tetra would spell the player noun one letter at a time, instead of pronounce it like in the Japanese version (which would be very complicated). The actual reason for its cancellation that NOA planned to release the three-mode japanese game as two separate games, with the second being the stand-alone "Tetra Trackers" (they planned Shadow Battle mode to be the second game at one point). Of course we ended up only with the first outing...
 * It would also explain why absolutely none of the data for the third game survived the overseas transition. Usually, it would just be Dummied Out...
 * Ominous Floating Castle: Palace of Winds.
 * One Game's Multiplayer For The Price Of Three To Five Systems: To play with more than one person, and access things like the Tingle Tower minigames, you need a Game Boy Advance for each player.
 * Patchwork Map: The area of the map frozen in perpetual winter is right next to the desert. This is given a Hand Wave by saying that the freeze was caused by magic (and we do see the ice melt in the ending), but the map still looks like a bunch of different biomes sandwiched together.
 * Playing Tennis With the Boss: Variation. Some energy balls can only be deflected by the player whose color they match.
 * Prongs of Poseidon: Evil variation with the Trident of Power.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Vaati,
 * Shifting Sand Land: Desert of Doubt
 * Socialization Bonus: You can play this alone, but you get bonuses for playing with other people, not to mention exclusive minigames.
 * Start of Darkness: Another origin story for Ganon, separate from the one already in Ocarina of Time.
 * That's because this Ganondorf is the original one's reincarnation, and he's lost all his former dark powers until he obtains the Trident of Power.
 * Stealth Based Mission: The Infiltration of Hyrule Castle.
 * Suddenly Voiced: In the Japan-only "Navi Trackers" mini-game, Tetra and her pirates are featured with full Japanese voice-acting. This is the only example of full voice-acting in the entire history of the series (no, the CDi games don't count).
 * The Trickster: Shadow Link
 * Time Bomb: Incredibly massive bombs that deal instant death to anyone who doesn't take shelter inside their GBA.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: The Links can't directly hurt each other with their swords, but once you get Bombs thrown into the mix, you can start causing damage to the other Links, which also makes them drop a few force gems for you to steal. Never mind that picking up someone's trailing Link will recruit it to your team. Maybe you can agree to have one each in two player, but in three player, everyone's going to be fighting for Purple Link.