It is an unfortunate truth in game development that content gets created only to be scrapped or unfinished. A lot of work and testing goes into making games, from the mundane of making ramps to see how the player character responds to slopes in the engine to rooms designed solely to test the various mechanics in the game. In some cases, some maps might even be completely finished, but somewhere in development, it was decided to scrap the idea in favor of something else.
The Wind Waker is an interesting beast in regard to unused maps, as it turns out a lot of testing areas were left in the game data. Normally, developers will remove a lot of the testing rooms and files, probably to free up space on the disc or cartridge, but The Wind Waker leaves a startling amount of test maps, presumably because its development was rushed toward the end. In fact, there are more unused rooms in the data than there are islands in the final game!
While it would take a large amount of time to write about all of this content, I thought I might share a few of the rooms and content I found particularly interesting.
First up, we have this map, which is a typical testing map. Maps like these are relatively common when testing games, as they allow the developers to test things such as how Link would handle walking up cliffs of varying steepness or how stairs would affect him. These types are so common that in some rare cases they are normally accessible as an Easter egg, an example being the Insomniac Museum in the Ratchet and Clank series.
Interestingly, the textures on this map are shared with another test map that is used for a similar function in Super Mario Sunshine. While all of this is well and good, this map has transparent water with terrain that Link can walk on at its depths, which means that the Iron Boots were likely intended to allow Link to walk underwater at some point, or at the very least some sort of movement underwater was planned.
This next map is also interesting, as it appears to be a mostly finished, fully developed area where Link must traverse platforms while dodging Fire Keese and lava plumes. At the map’s end, Link can obtain a treasure chest that contains the Power Gauntlets.
This map seems practically finished, minus some polish that needed done to the textures and an empty area past the treasure chest. If Link uses the warp at the entrance to leave the map, he’ll end up at the top of the Fire Mountain, where he’ll do his burning animation and then appear in the Great Sea, which shows that this is indeed the prototype for the Fire Mountain.
While I only covered a couple of maps, these maps are interesting views of how The Wind Waker was designed. I’ve always found stuff like this fascinating, and it gives me a stronger appreciation for the games I enjoy. I like seeing all the nuances and tools used to make these great games, and although this was a tiny glimpse into the technical side of the game, it makes me appreciate the game all the more.
If you enjoyed reading about these unused maps, I would highly recommend checking out more of them at The Cutting Room Floor. As previously stated, there are a lot of unused maps in The Wind Waker, so there’s a lot to dig into!
