Q & A

How do I power up my sword?
The Four Sword itself has special capabilities in the game that are necessary to unlock in order to complete the missions of the game. To power up the Four Sword, the crew of Links must collectively gather 2,000 Force Gems in any given mission. Once the number of Force Gems collected totals 2,000 or more, the Four Sword will power up, letting you knock down the barriers of darkness at the end of each mission. Having powered up the Four Sword, you also earn the ability to fire beams from your attacks, but only when your health is completely full.

What is Tingle doing floating overhead?
Whenever there's a large Force Gem left on the screen, Tingle will swoop in on his balloon and try to steal your hard-earned Gems. Don't let him! If you collect the Gems before Tingle gets to them you won't have anything to worry, though some Force Gems may be hard to reach in time. To quickly stop Tingle from being a nasty craddle, er, Gem robber, hit him from the sky with any weapon you can find. He'll fall down and won't get back up unless you hit him again.

The walkthrough is based on singleplayer, so what's different for multiplayer?
There are a few small puzzles scattered through the levels that are slightly different in multiplayer mode. Since no one likes playing Four Swords with me, I haven't been able to go through the game in multiplayer mode to find all the different puzzles. Luckily, most of the puzzles are the same in single and multiplayer, and any puzzles that aren't should be easily solved using your noggin. As one IGN reader eloquently suggested, "This may help you: When you are in a tough spot, pause the game and think for a while." Even though the reader was writing in about SpongeBob: The Battle for Bikini Bottom, this sort of advice is universal and can be applied to all genres of games, and all walks of life.

I got four controllers, two friends, and a stripper—why can't I play multiplayer?
To play Four Swords Adventures multiplayer, each player must have a Game Boy Advance (or Game Boy Advance SP), and a Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable to connect each player's GBA to the GameCube. In singleplayer, you can get away without having a Game Boy Advance, but it is a necessity for multiplayer.

Can I ever defeat Shadow Link?
You'll run into Shadow Link numerous times while playing through the game, but only on a few occassions will you actually get to straight-out battle him, man-to-man. You will get a chance to pummel him, but in most situations where you see Shadow Link you'll just have to ignore him.

I just returned from the Cave of No Return—is this a joke?
Yeah, I was pissed too. I was hoping to run away from home, say, "Good riddance Mommy!" (and mean it), and never have to take out the trash again when I first entered the Four Swords' Cave of No Return mission. Well guess what—I've returned, and I'm not too happy about being lied to. Proof that Nintendo hates its fans.

Why does Tingle call me a fairy?
It's wishful thinking on his part. Don't pay attention to him—just run, and hide your children.

You haven't helped me—I have unanswered questions!
If you've got more questions that we haven't answered (what more do you need to know except that Tingle is a scary freak?), visit our Game Help board and get answers straight from the IGN Game Help crew.

Back to Intro...