The concept behind the Four Swords multiplayer game is that four people (no more, no less) take control of a different colored Link and work together... and against each other… to acquire the most rupees.

Most areas of the level are only accessible by two or more Links working together. However, as soon as the way is opened, there is a mad rush to get to the new location and loot whatever treasures lie within. In some cases, one Link will stand on a button that makes a bridge extend while another crosses it. Then the Link that made it across will hopefully press the button on the other side letting the first Link across. You can pick up another Link with the R button and throw him across... or into... a hole. The possibilities for fun and mischief are numerous. The level ends when all of the Links open the final room and each one stand on one of four swirling blue switches/teleporters. Then rupees are counted and winners declared.

I played it through three times. The first time I (or almost anyone) played, it was very difficult to resist attacking the other Links. Then as the level progressed we started cooperating... probably a little too much. If we were able to play the game more giving all the players the opportunity to learn the various backstabbing techniques, things could get very interesting. As it was, the matches broke down into almost pure cooperative play which isn’t the way the game was intended to be played.

It's a lot of fun, but it requires exactly four people, and it could get old depending on how many levels are available. Notably, the one level that was available seemed to have multiple (possibly random) variations. Hopefully Nintendo takes the Mario Advance route and includes Four Swords on other GBA games whenever it's appropriate to maximize the chance of getting for people together with the game. The other possibility is modifying the gameplay so that it could work with two or three people as well (as it is, some puzzles absolutely require four people to complete).