[All screenshots were taken from a Dolphin enhanced ROM called Four Swords Adventures Enhanced. You can find it here.]
15 years ago today, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures in North America. An expanded take on a bonus mode offered in its GBA port of A Link to the Past, Adventures made liberal use of Nintendo’s GBA Link Cable for GameCube. Four players with four Game Boy Advance systems could connect to the lunchbox and explore a new version of Hyrule together. Controlled entirely with the GBA, certain segments of the game would force players to look at their handhelds to explore separate areas at the same time.
It was a highly unique idea and something way too ahead of its time. That’s a crying shame, too. Despite Nintendo tinkering a few more times with the idea of a multiplayer Zelda game (most recently with 2015’s Tri Force Heroes), they’ve never done a better job than this. From both a cooperative and competitive aspect, Four Swords Adventures hits every beat you’d want from a multiplayer take on Zelda with a dash of charm that will make any diehard fan blush.
Source: Destructoid 15 years later, Four Swords Adventures is still the best multiplayer Zelda game