My biggest gripe with this game is undoubtably the graphics.  I've ranted on and on before on them, but let me explain.  The Cell shaded idea was good, but not the way it was used.  Link appears as a freakish mutant in this game and it isn't clear what age he is.  The sword strap for instance, is non-existant in this game, after all the gripe given for that for Ocarina of Time.  Link is made to appeal to children under 7 with this game and personally, the real Link would consider this an insult above all things.  Backgrounds are terrible.  The only character that can be taken seriously due to appearance is Ganondorf.  The wind effects on the environment and clothes were good, but not enough to make up for the rest of the game.  The effects while at sea were terrible.  The waves the boat makes in the front don't match the rest of the ocean and doesn't recombine with the surrounding water.  When in rough seas, occasionally the bottom of the boat becomes water.  To summarize the graphics in one word: terrible.

The sound was awful.  Mostly from the music.  The only song in the game I ever enjoyed was the song played while out at sea.  The rest was just too bland and lacking.  None of the music helps you to feel the spirt of the game, which is the polar opposite of the music from Ocarina of Time.  You could spend countless hours just listening to the Ocarina tunes over and over again or even play tunes heard in the game on it, which is again the polar opposite in this game.  I found playing Wind Waker songs a chore that I disliked in everyway possible.  Another thing is the fact that this game is without voiceovers.  Occasionally you would hear a small sound byte like "Ho ho ho", or "BYE", but that's it.  The one time a sound byte worked in the game was when you hear Ganondorf laughing at the end of the game.  You spend the game reading text instead of hearing it, which is just really mundane when you consider this game is on Gamecube, which is supposed to be capable of anything.

Gameplay gets a halfway grade because only half of it was any good.  The game engine is almost the exact same as from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.  The combat engine is the same from Ocarina of time with one difference: you can now parry and crouch at will.  All the items are just recycled items from previous Zelda games.  Gone are all my favorite things from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask: the horseback riding over endless fields, the fishing, the hunting, and all the wonderful races.  You spend most of your time in this game just sailing across an endless ocean.  You can no longer dive underwater, and now you are limited to how long you can swim.  In a world of endless water, you'd think the people living in it would be excellent swimmers, but they're not.  Because the water is Opaque, diving under it would be a deathwish for your eyes. 

This game was ridiculously easy.  It would take a brainless idiot to lose to these monsters and bosses.  The only boss that gave me trouble was Ganondorf himself, which gave this game 1 point for difficulty.  He was the only boss that made me use one of my bottled fairies.  The puzzles were challenging, giving this game another 2 points of difficulty.  The hardest factor in the game was completing it, because the heart pieces and bottles and such are spread across numerous islands across an endless sea, which is more to eat up your time than challenge you.  Most of them were just in a chest, or guarded by a few monsters or a simple puzzle.

The majority of the time you spend playing this game is spent sailing across the endless sea.  If that wasn't a part of the game, it would take a day or two to beat this game. Completing this game would be annoying but would be under a month.  Just to beat this game took a little over a week, when Ocarina of time would take up at least half your summer to play through and finish the first time.  The game only has four temples and endless trading sequences similar to Majora's Mask, but it just gets annoying after a while. 

This game is a single ending RPG, which says that after the first time you finish it, the game basically dies. This game take that to a whole new level.  Once you finish the game the first time, you will never want to play it again.  The only thing to do in this game on the second time through thing you can do after finishing it once which you must do to complete this game and get everything.  And I sincerly doubt anyone would try to do that.

Once you see what Link's day to day life is like, you will be retching.  This game does not follow the same concept the other Zelda games followed: Link must stop an evil presence/being from destroying the land.  Once I got to the last part of the game, I actually wanted Ganondorf to succeed.  The whole waterworld concept is just terrible.  If Ganondorf was wanting to destroy the waterworld place the game is set in (which would be a waste of time because only 4 or 5 of the 49 islands are actually inhabited by people).

If you played Ocarina of Time, you would remember the scene in the game after the first dungeon.  Link is leaving the forest (supposedly forever) and Saria (his best friend) is appears to him there when he is halfway across it and gives him her Ocarina to remember by and talks to him about his future and what not.  That one scene had more feeling that this whole game.  When I played Ocarina of time and saw that part, I actually felt Saria's sadness and how Link regretted the fact that he had to leave.  In this game, the only characters with any feeling was Ganondorf and the King of Hyrule.  They express themselves seriously and when you hear Ganondorf's speech at the end of the game and see what ensues, you will actually want him to win.  All the other charcters were too lost in cartoon silliness. 

Since there is no actual voiceovers, I couldn't give this grade.  The only characters in the game who would actually get points for acting would be Ganondorf and the King of Hyrule, who are the only believable characters.

The ending SUCKED!  I hated the ending.  Having to kill Ganondorf was the hardest thing in gaming that i've ever done.  The fact that Hyrule is forever lost and Link never sees it again sucks.  Leaving the King of Hyrule down there was also difficult.  Then they just sail off aimlessly to found a new Hyrule, which I think is just pointless.  I finished this game and was uttlerly dissapointed.  The ending was just terrible.

That 3 out of 10 was generous in my opinion.  I've already explained why I gave it such a low score so I wont speak of this game any more.