I was lucky enough to be near one of the Best Buys to try out the Nintendo Experience. Initially, I was going to write up a small impressions piece, but really, just make sure to get there early if you’re going to go. However, there was one thing that stuck with me as a person that frequents watching speedruns; there was no fix for the super swim glitch.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on hand to videotape it, but in the demo, it worked just fine. For those that don’t follow, Super swimming is a glitch in the game that involves getting the game in a state called “storage” by falling off a ledge while holding the Wind Waker out, then falling into water, and lastly swimming backwards and in a circle. Link rapidly accelerates, and it works like a wind up toy: the moment you stop swimming, Link goes flying backwards. It’s used to skip sailing, and can be used to cross the entirety of the great ocean in a much shorter period of time than was intended. A video of the glitch in action is embedded below.
For those that want the whole story, the player nondescriptly started playing the boss demo against the Helmaroc King. He initially tried to do the Zombie Hover glitch before messing up and being booted out to the select screen. This time, he selected the Outset Island demo. He proceeded to get the game into “storage” by falling off a ledge while pulling out the Wind Waker before proceeding to super swim. He also managed to break the demo: normally, if somebody tries to take the King of Red Lions out past the boundaries of the demo, he gives a warning and the player cannot progress further. However, nothing was triggered for a swimming Link, and the game froze once he went far enough away. The player got a nice little round of applause before leaving.
You can also check out our own Jonathan Higgins‘ hands-on experience with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD here.
