Zelda Twilight Princess has been eagerly awaited by legions of Zelda gaming fans. This version features a more adult Link who rides a horse, swings a sword and saves the day.
The title is available for both the GameCube and the Wii, and there are definitely some advantages with the Wii. First, you can see the game in 480p, which is DVD quality. It's not quite high definition, but it's still quite nice! Second, you get widescreen, which means you get much more game to see on the screen. Finally, you get to use the motion sensing controllers on your Wii to swing your sword, go fishing, aim your slingshot, and much more.
First, the gameplay. Most gamers will be thrilled to hear that Link is less cartooney in this game. That's not to say it's a mature title it's still a game without blood. You kill evil enemies who vanish in a puff of smoke. You go on a variety of quests, and it's very much good-against-evil. Rather, with this Link you're not a little 6 year old on a toy sailboat. Your Link is in his late teens, has his own house, owns a horse. He is harassed by three little tykes, but there's a certain young lady whose large eyes catch at Link's heart.
In no time at all Link is out in a world which is not all butterflies and daffodils. There are dark things afoot in Hyrle. The land is covered in twilight, and you turn into a wolf to deal with the shadows. Your senses serve you well in this realm. It's not too scary for kids but it gives the game much more depth for older players.
The graphics are rather impressive for a Link game. Remember, the game is still a cartoon, so you're not seeing detailed tanks or the pores in the characters faces. The world you are in is stylized. There is plenty of detail in 480p or even in regular TV resolution to show the orange pumpkins, green vines, and fluffy white chickens which make up Hyrule. The water ripples, the dust billows and the fire flickers in the fireplace.
How about the sound? The Link games were famous (or notorious) for the silly noises characters make. None talk. I suppose this makes it easy for them to convert the game to every language in the world they just change the text out and are all set. Also, you can change your name and your horse's name without any speaking issues. The voices might not know how to pronounce "Shadowfax".
Gameplay is just amazing in its length and depth. There are numerous worlds to traverse and dungeons to delve into. There are the standard collection of mini-games, quests, things to collect, puzzles to solve. You could easily play this for months and not be done. This isn't a game to race through to say "I solved it" and move on to something else. It's a world to immerse yourself in, to get to know every hill and dale, to track down those secret locations.
I really like how the Wii controllers integrate into the game. It's not like you are using them constantly, getting exhausted with hand movements. Instead, you do a fair portion with the regular joysticks for fine movement. The joysticks are used in a more general way, for sweeping sword attacks or relaxing fishing. You can use small movements if you want but it's much more fun if you get into the spirit of things and swing away. Just make sure you have that wrist strap properly connected!
Downsides? The little "he he he" voices can get annoying quickly, especially if you are stuck on a puzzle and they are tormenting you. Sometimes the checkpoints send you back further than you might like.
They do a good job of giving you little nudges if you get stuck, helping you figure out your way through the puzzles.
In general, I think they struck a great balance between "tame enough for younger kids" and "in depth enough for older players". There are a lot of teen and adult Zelda fans out there, and they'll be quite pleased with what the game offers. This is definitely one of those must-have for gamers who like adventure games even the slightest!
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If you loved Ocarina of Time as much as I did, this will make you happy.
The graphics are gorgeous. The scenery is amazing. Everything looks beautiful, and the best part is it still feels like a Zelda game. They decided to revert back to the N64 Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask style graphics (but much cleaner, of course) rather than the cell shaded Wind Waker. I like the realistic character design much more for Zelda than the cartoonish one from the other recent games.
You can also get Twilight Princess on Gamecube, but the Wii version has some extra benefits. One such benefit is the interactivity. When you go fishing, you use the motion sensitive controller to cast the line into the water and reel the fish back. This makes it a lot more fun than the somewhat tedious sit-there-and-wait-to-press-A fishing game in Ocarina of Time. I'm glad they revamped the fishing and brought it back. Also, it is much more integrated in the gameplay than the last fishing minigame in a Zelda game (which was, of course, in Ocarina of Time). You use fish in sidequests and for other purposes.
As far as the control, it feels very natural. You use one Wii-Mote and one Nunchuck together for it. You control Link's movement and targeting with the left hand and you use the right hand to move your fairy around with the motion sensor, and to supplement the left hand with looking around, that action button, and other functions. It's hard to explain without trying it yourself, but trust me, the controls are great.
You start out the game with your horse, Epona. You also get the option to name both Link and Epona when you start your file, although I'm not sure if this will have any effect other than what NPC's in the game call you. Sometimes games use naming for codes ("If you enter your name as ___, ___ will happen" type things) but somehow I doubt it for this game. Anyway, the controls for Epona are great too. Just like Ocarina of Time, you can press A to speed her up and jump over fences. She is very beautiful and detailed too. When you make turns, you can see Link pull in the reins. You use Epona for many minigames as well as just getting around. In the beginnig of the game, for example, you use her to herd goats into a shed. It's a lot of fun, and horseback riding is another feature I'm glad they brough back.
Also, don't worry if you saw Link with the weird goatherder outfit in all of the previews he does get his original outfit later on. The dungeons are AWESOME. It's rated Teen, but Zelda games have never included inappropriate content in my opinion. You do kill monsters, but there is no realistic blood or gore, or suggestive themes. The rating says "Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence". Trust me, it's fine for kids. The action is all "hero against evil" type action. This game is a total blast, and both new and old-school Zelda fans will love it. Even if you've never played a Zelda game, try this one it'll get you hooked.
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Once again, Nintendo is able to give a stellar addition to the popular Legend of Zelda series. Despite the fact that the games usually contain the same three core characters (Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf), the games continue to be original. More importantly, though, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is engaging, challenging, and fun.
A few centuries after the events of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the descendents of Link and Zelda, who themselves are also named Link and Zelda (the various games in the series take place across various time periods, with the main characters being represented by ancestors and descendents, all of whom strangely share the same names). Link is a farmer in a southern province of Hyrule while Zelda is, as always, the princess of Hyrule. In an interesting move, the people that link lives with may not exactly be Hylians; Hylians, including Link and Zelda, have always been characterized by their pointed elf-like ears, but Link's fellow villagers have rounded ears that we have.
The first few tasks of the game have Link dealing with mundane tasks in order to learn the various controls for the game, which, for the Wii version, is extremely important. However, after being asked to bring a gift to the royal family, mysterious and shadowy beasts show up and enshroud the land in a mysterious twilight. Link is turned into a wolf while trying to fight the monsters, and is subsequently knocked out and jailed. While in jail, he meets Midna, who helps free Wolf-Link in exchange for help with a yet-to-be-revealed task.
From there, Link and Midna work as a team to rid the land of Hyrule of the strange twilight. The quest takes Link and Midna to previously seen locales of Hyrule such as Death Mountain (where Gorons live), Lake Hylia, Zora's River (home of the Zoras), and Gerudo Desert. New places include Snowpeak (home to one of the strangest dungeons I've encountered in a Zelda game) and Link's home of Ordon.
As the game goes on, Link's quest takes new turns and has events that are some of the most epic actions I've ever seen in a Zelda game. While Ocarina of Time was an epic tale overall of how Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda first crossed paths, there are moments in Twilight Princess that seem to be taken directly from The Lord of the Rings. The final battle of the game is also very well constructed and fun to engage in.
The Wii gameplay is amazing. Swinging the Wii Remote to swing Link's sword, pointing the Remote at the screen to aim the bow, and using it as a fishing rod truly bring the player into the game in ways the traditional control system could never attempt. It also allows for a much smoother form of horseback combat than that present in the N64 versions (though it was still difficult). If you have a Wii, I definitely reccomend this version over the Gamecube one (the only downside is a loss of continuity; since Link is usually left-handed, the programmers were afraid that right-handed people, who are the majority, would have trouble using the sword, so they flipped the game around; what this means is that Gerudo Desert is now in the East and Kakariko Village and Death Mountain are now in the West, though in the Hyrule in Ocarina of time, the desert was in the West and Kakariko and Death Mountain were in the East).
I have to say that the only thing that I would change about this game is the inclusion (or lack thereof) of magic. For some reason, even though magic exists, Link does not have a magic meter. Therefore, there are no spells or magic arrows (or green potions), and the Magic Armor, which makes Link invulnerable while wearing it) is powered by rupees, which can be very annoying. Still, aside from the complaint, this is an amazing game. The story is fantastic, the gameplay is top-notch, and the graphics are amazing. This game may not be as good as Ocarina of Time, but it is very, very close.
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With the Wii and the new controller, and Nintendo's new ideas about bringing in non-gamers, it's refreshing to see that Nintendo still wants to please the long-time gamers. People that have been fans of this classic franchise should do what they can to get a copy of this game. It proves that Nintendo still has the hardcore gamer in mind, and is still willing to put time and effort into games that will please us.
If you are new to gaming and the Wii is the first console you ever bought, you may find this title to be a pretty intense experience compared to Wii Sports. You may find it to be a little too much for you, though I suggest you give it a try eventually. If you're a hardcore gamer, and better yet a longtime Zelda fan, the game is everything you want.
As far as the Zelda experience goes, as in exploring caves and dungeons and towns and finding numrous items and weapons, Twilight Princess has it all. Lots of things from previous games have been improved upon. There are plenty more dungeons than Wind Waker, and now you can swing your sword while riding your horse, which you couldn't do in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
Much can be said about the story presentation in Twilight Princess. There's definitely been a lot of effort put into the story of Twilight Princess. The graphics are only at a GameCube level, but they look good. Some have reported that it is the darkest and most serious Zelda story made. Personally, I don't think it's that much darker and serious than Majora's Mask. A cloud of twilight overcoming Hyrule, a giant moon crashing into Termina, one does not seem more apocalyptic than the other.
I said the Zelda experience is great in Twilight Princess, but there are also elements to Twilight Princess that are new to the Zelda franchise. The wolf is one. For portions of the game you control Link as a wolf. While I prefer Link in his regular Hylian form, there are cool things about being a wolf. With wolf Link's sense of smell, you can locate and dig up items such as hearts and rupees in the ground. If you're low on either, become a wolf and do some sniffing. Combat is a little clumsy with the wolf, though. Link certainly has less power in his attacks as a wolf than as a Hylian, especially when you obtain more powerful weapons.
There's also the Wii remote control. The Wii remote is great with the projectile weapons and other such aiming devices, like the arrows and the clawshot. It's great to just point at the screen where you want to fire your arrows and take down an enemy. For sword slashing, you swing the remote like you would a sword. The sword controls are the weakest part of the game, as they could have been more immersive. You swing the remote to swing your sword. It doesn't matter how you swing the remote. Whether you swing it left, right, up, or down, Link will always swing in the same combinations. To make a stabbing motion with your sword, you hold forward on the nunchuck control while Z-targetting and swing the remote. You don't actually stab forward with the remote, which makes perfect sense to me, and, in fact, was what I was trying to do for a while. I wasn't expecting the sword control to be 1:1, but they could have made it a little more intuitive than it was. In the end, it would have been easier to just press a button to swing the sword.
The sword is my biggest complaint. A few other minor complaints include the lack of a magic meter and thus any magical attacks, the lack of Octoroks, one of the mainstays of the Zelda franchise, and the battle mechanics, which are kind of a step backward from Wind Waker. I might be in the minority with my opinion here, but Wind Waker's timed parries have been done away with, and I liked how the timing brought in an extra level of concentration. For Twilight Princess, all the parry moves from Wind Waker can be done manually, so long as you learn them. Some gamers may like that they can do those moves whenever they want, but personally I miss the concentration on timing that was involved. Also, in Twilight Princess you cannot pick up enemies' weapons, which was one of my favorite things about Wind Waker.
Overall, the things that make Zelda what it is are all here and in top form. There are plenty of dungeons, challenging puzzles, lots of items and weapons, cool boss fights, and a gigantic overworld to explore.
I also really like Midna. I wondered whether or not it was a good idea to bring a new character into the franchise. We all know how Navi and Tingle turned out, and I was afraid we were seeing the next Tingle in all those trailers. But you don't need to worry about Midna. She is a cool character, and I like the way she develops. She starts out as kind of a punk, who just seems to be using Link for her own purposes, but as the game goes on we see a softer side to her.
I subtract one star from the overall score because I am convinced the sword controls could have been much more immersive than they were, but I had a blast playing this game and it was just a straight run-through, without paying much attention to sidequests and minigames. It took me about forty hours to finish the main quest, so if you play this game totally, you'll have a lot of playing to do. Whether you get this Wii version or the GameCube version is up to you. You may just prefer pressing a button to randomly swinging the remote, but you may feel that the more precise aiming with the pointer makes the Wii version better. It's your choice. But I do recommend you get one or the other.
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There are a lot of good aspects and a lot of bad aspects of this highly anticipated launch title for the Nintendo Wii. I'll start with the good and end with the bad and my reasons for only giving this game 4 stars.
The Good:
--The game is HUGE. Once, just for fun, I decided to walk Link at a relaxed gait from one end of the game to the other in order to see how long it would take. I gave up it took so long.
--I'm very glad that Nintendo decided to put a lot of creative energy into the art and look of the game, given the graphical limitations of the Wii. The game is absolutely gorgeous with creative characters and mysterious temples. It's worth it to waste an hour or two and just ride your horse around Hyrule and look at everything.
--Great cinema scenes.
--Wii remote works and is responsive, and really does enhance the experience. But....
The Bad:
--The way the player swings the remote has no bearing on what kind of swing Link does.
--Sword combat with the remote is too easy. It doesn't require a lot of skill. I would say any novice could pick up the remote, Z-lock onto an enemy, start shaking the remote back and forth and defeat a lot of the enemies in the game. After you whack some enemies, they just stand there and sway back and forth, waiting you to whack them some more.
--Along the same lines, bosses are too easy. Very fun and impressive, but too easy.
--Overall, the game feels like an Ocarina of Time on steroids. A lot of parallels to the N64 classic, like places, characters, weapons, dungeons (you have to use Iron Boots and walk at the bottom of a lake to get to the Water Temple again), etc. Some find these parallels nostalgic and cool, but I think they're kinda lame.
What would have made this game the classic that everyone was expecting? In my opinion, Nintendo should have coordinated the movements of the remote with Link's sword swings better--when I slash right, Link slashes right, when I tomahawk swing downward, Link does the same. Ocarina of Time revolutionized video game combat with its Z-Targeting system, and it would have been great if Twilight Princess had a similar breakthrough. Legend of Zelda sword combat has always been very precise, but with this new game, we're left waving the remote willy nilly back and forth, hoping to hit something. An even more immersive sword combat experience would have justified the hype and 5 stars for this game.
Conclusion:
Even though I've emphasized the negatives more than the positives in this review (I'm a pessimist), Twilight Princess is a great gaming experience. Every Wii and Gamecube owner should check it out.
