Lego Zelda Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 review – building the legend-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

The Great Deku Tree in Lego form (Lego)

GameCentral gets its hands on Lego’s tribute to The Legend Of Zelda, with a set that recreates the Great Deku Tree from both Ocarina Of Time and Breath Of The Wild.

As Sony and Microsoft struggle with the question of how to embrace multiformat gaming, and what that means for a console manufacturer, the current turmoil in the games industry doesn’t seem to be affecting Nintendo at all. But that’s not entirely true, as they’ve already spoken about their worries at the increasing amount of time it takes to make new games and the possibility of having to make new acquisitions to help with the next generation.

There’s still no chance they’ll release their games on any other format, as instead their policy for the last few years has been to expand the use of their IP, starting with the Nintendo World theme parks and continuing with the hugely successful Super Mario Bros. movie. They’re now much more proactive about teaming up with other companies, which has led to a lucrative partnership with Lego. One that has already resulted in a wide range of Super Mario sets aimed at kids and larger ones, such as a brick-built NES and a Super Mario 64 tribute, aimed at adult fans.

There was some uncertainty at first, as to whether Lego had the licence to make toys based on other Nintendo properties, but a third wave of Animal Crossing sets has already been announced, with Mario Kart toys planned for next year. And now, the first ever Lego Zelda set has been released.

There’s been some consternation amongst adult fans, that none of the Mario sets feature traditional Lego minifigures. Instead, they’re all brick-built models or interactive Bluetooth figures of Mario, Luigi, and Peach. Since the whole line was designed with the help of Nintendo, and is meant to mimic the process of designing and playing the actual games, that does make sense, especially as they often resemble the chunky 3D style of older games.

Since the Zelda set is aimed purely at older fans, with its 18+ rating (an indication of its difficulty rather than its subject matter), you get ‘proper’ minifigures right off the bat: Link and Zelda from Breath Of The Wild and Link and Young Link from Ocarina Of Time. The figures look fantastic too, with unique hairpieces and a variety of authentic looking swords and shields, including the iconic Hylian Shield and the all-important Master Sword.

The main model is the Great Deku Tree, which might seem a surprising subject matter at first, until you realise it’s one of the few constants throughout most of the mainline games. Like most things in Zelda, it often looks very different in each game and so this set offers two alternative builds: one that looks like its appearance in Breath Of The Wild and the other the more old school design from Ocarina Of Time.

The Ocarina Of Time version doesn’t have as big a base (Lego)

That’s a fairly unusual approach with modern Lego but it’s not a case of having to completely disassemble one to make the other. What you actually do is build about a third of the set first, so that you’ve got the main base, a second detachable base with the Master Sword plinth on it, and the start of the Deku Tree trunk. It’s only at that point that you have to decide which version you want to build.

Each version has several bags worth of Lego that are unique to its model, so you’re going to have some pieces left over whichever one you make, although there’s more that ends up unused for the Ocarina Of Time model because it’s smaller.

Which model you choose is no doubt going to depend on which game you have the most fondness for but it’s fairly clear the set itself considers the Breath Of The Wild (and Tears Of The Kingdom) version to be the primary one. It’s obvious why, as it’s a huge model that’s dense with Easter eggs and references. We’re used to not including spoilers in video game reviews, but we’d feel just as guilty at spoiling some of the surprises here.

Some of the more obvious ones though include the main base of the tree being filled with mushroom and flowers based directly on Breath Of The Wild, with the instruction book pointing out what they are and what effect they have in-game. There’s tiny little Korok models in there too, and two secrets hidden in the roots of the tree, that we’re definitely not going to spoil.

It’s just like the game! (Lego)

Inside the tree, at the back, there’s the bed, mushroom shop, and cooking pot that you see in the game, all of which are charmingly detailed and take a surprising amount of time to build. Even the top of the tree, at the back, is filled with unexpected amounts of detail, including a fairy, and Walton the Korok and the answer to the riddle he poses in the game.

The main gimmick of the Breath Of The Wild model is that the eyebrows and mouth animate if you push a lever at the back, which is wonderfully clever in terms of the Lego engineering and looks great if you’re showing it off to someone else.

The base with the Master Sword attaches to the front, completing the scene from the game, plus there’s an amazing brick-built version of Hestu, the giant Korok with his maracas. It looks just as good as if it had been a custom-made action figure and, marvellously, his maracas actually make a noise if you shake them, as there’s a little Lego stud inside taking the role of a Korok seed.

Young Link’s house can exist separately no matter which model you build (Lego)

Hetsu and the Master Sword plinth (the actual stone part of which is removable) are separate from both main builds and can be displayed on their own, as can a recreation of Young Link’s house from Ocarina Of Time. This is a two-story build featuring Link’s bed, where the game starts, and a trunk on the bottom floor filled with recognisable Ocarina Of Time items.

There’re separate bottles to restore health and magic, a compass for getting around dungeons, a bomb, and a wonderful little brick-built hookshot that any of the Links can hold. There’s also an actual Lego Ocarina of Time for Link to hold, plus a printed Shekiah Slate that the instructions gives to Zelda but also works with one of the Breath Of The Wild secret features.

One of our favourite extras though is the representation of Navi, which is a transparent circular brick with an image of her on, held up by additional transparent pieces. The centre of the circle allows you to add differently coloured pieces to represent her when idle (blue), when she’s alerting you to something (green), and when you’re Z-targeting a monster (yellow). Which is a lovely bit of detail.

You’re going to need a big shelf for the Breath Of The Wild model (Lego)

The manual doesn’t tell you how to take apart one tree to make the other – we guess they just expect you to reverse the instructions – but the Ocarina Of Time Deku Tree is slightly taller and doesn’t have the Master Sword plinth in front of it. You can add it if you want, or display it separately, but since it doesn’t stick out the front, the Ocarina Of Tree version is a lot easier to fit on a shelf than the other model.

It’s a generally less dense design, as befits its N64 origins, but there’s still some great detail, with a couple of Deku Baba (Zelda’s cousin of the Piranha Plant), a gossip stone, and a Deku Tree Sprout. The canopy of the tree is completely different to the Breath Of The Wild version, as is the face – with the mouth opening up to let Link in, just like the game.

An old school Zelda minifigure would’ve been nice too (Lego)

Inside is a chest with a slingshot for Link to discover, while a brick-built Skulltula descends from the ceiling if you turn a dial. The Breath Of The Wild version is the bigger and more impressive Lego model but the Ocarina Of Time version provides arguably the most Zelda nostalgia.

It’s a fantastic set, with the Ocarina Of Time tree standing over 33cm tall and the Breath Of The Wild one just over 31cm (it’s hard to be specific because of the leaf pieces). There are 2,500 pieces in the set but, as we said, you don’t use all of them at any one point – there’s always some left over.

That may rankle some, who perhaps wish the Ocarina Of Time version was available separately as a cheaper set, but as it is you can only get them as a 2-in-1 package for the princely sum of £259.99 (only from Lego stores or the official website).

Clearly that’s not an impulse purchase but for anyone considering getting it for a birthday or Christmas it’s a marvellous thing, in terms of both the Lego designs and the Zelda authenticity. Our only disappointment is that there’s not a traditional Zelda minifigure design included and the only bad guys are the two Deku Babu and the Skulltula.

Whether Lego will make additional sets is hard to say, given this one is aimed solely at adults, but we’d really hope for a smaller set containing old school Zelda, Ganondorf and/or Ganon, Epona, and maybe some assorted Moblin and other creatures.

Zelda doesn’t have much in the way of iconic architecture or vehicles, since Hyrule Castle and the Temple of Time change every game, just like the Deku Tree, but even if this ends up being the one and only Lego Zelda set it’s a worthy homage to the legendary series.

Shoot it in the belly! (Lego)

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