Madame Couture is happy that Link’s got another piece of the Lady’s Ensemble, but there’s more work to be done, so it’s off to area 6, The Dunes. The first area is the Infinity Dunes, filled with quicksand areas that suck a Link who stays still for more than a second or two. There are piles of sand that need to be blown away with the Gust Jar or washed away with the Water Rod, and rivers of sand that will sweep away anyone who sets foot in them. The second stage is the combat stage, with two Life Likes in the middle, Leevers hidden in the sand, and vultures swooping overhead. Your typical Zelda desert level. The third stage has two sets of gates between the Links and the exit that must be opened, which require scaling the nearby cliffs and activating crystal switches. The boss fight in stage four is against one giant Hokkubokku, then three more. After the lower body segments are gone, the head will try to burrow in the sand and regenerate.
Next up is the Stone Corridors. The first stage gives the Links their items – Boomerang, Gripshot, Gust Jar – then introduces the key new puzzle for the level, bringing a statue to its resting point. The second stage gives a statue near the beginning of the level that must be used to block pointy things that would otherwise hamper the Links’ progress en route to the end. The third stage brings the trickiest part of the game so far: platforms that tilt toward heavy weights. The statue weighs about the same as a single Link, so it’s all about balance as the Link try to take the statue across. There’s one part where the best solution I found is Gripshot Link holds the statue while Gust Jar Link holds Boomerang Link. Then the two Links holding something throw it across a gap, then more or less simultaneously, Boomerang Link throws his Boomerang to bring Gust Jar Link over while Gripshot Link Gripshots over to the statue. In multiplayer, I would imagine the challenge level here would strongly depend on how good the three players are at coordinating. In single player, it’s twitch reflexes and precise placement and just a bloody nightmare to get through.
And the nightmare doesn’t stop there. The boss of the level is the Vulture Vizier, which perches on ledges next to one of those tilting platforms. Over on the left side, it’s manageable because a single Link can handle it while another runs balance on the other side. The right-side perch is higher up, requiring more precarious balance and a Totem to hit. And when the platform becomes unstable and the Links fall off, a heart is lost for each one that falls. And the bird isn’t just sitting there. He tries to push the Links off the platform, whacks it so it wobbles wildly, and eventually drops statues on the platform to affect its balance. When it takes enough damage, it tries to fly over and falls on the platform, thrashing about and wobbling the platform while the Links try to finish it off. I beat it on my last heart on my last fairy and was just glad to be done with it.
Level three is the Gibdo Mausoleum. The items are Gripshot, Gust Jar, and Fire Gloves. The first stage has buried Sand Crabs, one of whom has the key needed to escape. Next up is a fight against waves of Skullropes, Stalfos, and Fire Keeleons. Stalfos have gotten an upgrade; they’re basically impossible to hit unless stunned first. The third stage has invisible floor tiles that are only become visible for a short time when a fireball hits them. The boss fight for the area should be easy to guess: three Gibdos (who turn into Stalfos when burned), then two more.
The final level for the area is the Desert Temple. Items are two Hammers and a Boomerang. The first stage, after the Links get armed, has new enemies called Switch Moles, and… they are not the first Zelda enemy to make me think of Whac-A-Mole, but they might be the purest example (except one whack kills them). Stage two has a bunch of Stalfos. Stage three is a gauntlet with the new element being platforms that need to be tilted by pounding with the Hammer.
The Desert Temple boss is Stalchampion, a giant Stalfos with its left hand turned into a mace. Like many enemies, Stalchampion is immune to attacks from the front, so the trick is to get it to attack one Link and use another to hit it from behind. The first hit makes it hop around on one leg; a second hit before it recovers collapses it into a pile and lets the Links hammer away at its rib cage/heart weak point while dodging the mace head, which rolls around trying to damage the Links during this phase. Stalchampion becomes more aggressive as it takes damage, and ultimately absorbs its weak spot into the skull for the final phase. This is Boomerang Link’s chance to shine, stunning the skull so the Links can whack at it and destroy it.
Next: …it’s taken the game this long to do color puzzles?
