The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker speedrunners have worked out how to skip cutscenes

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Turns out two controllers can skip Wind Waker's cutscenes

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker speedrunners have found a way to skip the game's previously mandatory cutscenes.

Just below, you can see a complete video Linkus7 (thanks, Kotaku), a renowned speedrunner and Breath of the Wild trickshot player. In the video, Linkus7 explains that there's been a new method found of skipping Wind Waker's previously un-skippable cutscenes, resulting in a brand new world record time for the 100% completion speedrun of Wind Waker.

However, the method in question is pretty damn hard to pull off. For starters, the player needs to be using a Pro Controller, as well as the Wii U's traditional gamepad. Pressing the options button when loading into a new area on the gamepad brings up an options menu with the cutscene playing in the background, and you can then exit to the main menu and reload the game, with Wind Waker believing you've already watched the cutscene in full.

This is incredibly useful for the Wind Waker speedrunning community. It allows the speedrunners in question to entirely bypass some pretty lengthy cutscenes, which speedrunners of Nintendo's game were previously forced to sit there and watch, with no known method of skipping them. 

Just earlier this week, Linkus7 put the new method to the test through his Twitch channel , cutting down the world record speedrun time for Wind Waker down to 5 hours, 15 minutes, and 37 seconds. This beats the previous world record by over a minute, and Linkus7 rightfully expects the world record time to go even lower than this once other speedrunners have properly got to grips with the new method.

Here's hoping Wind Waker can one day see another resurgence on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo's beloved game has been stranded on the Wii U ever since it re-launched back in 2013, and fans have been clamoring for a port to the Switch for a fair few years now. With Zelda's 35th birthday coming up later this year, and the Skyward Sword HD remaster coming to the Switch in July, could Nintendo have a few more tricks up their sleeve for the anniversary celebrations?

If you're looking to bag either Skyward Sword HD or those fancy themed joy-cons, head over to our guide on the best Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD pre-order deals for more.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.