Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: - The Dawn of A New Hyrule

It was a victory for gamers everywhere when Nintendo first unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to the world. After the release of Wind Waker, Nintendo fans began to doubt that they would ever see a mature Zelda title again, but this game completely cleared their doubts. It had a lot to live up to, almost too much. Does Twilight Princess deliver? Read on to find out.

Twilight Princess was touted as being the killer app for Nintendo's new console the Wii. Along with this, the game was also released on their now dead Gamecube. The main difference between the two versions is that the Wii release features motion sensing controls, making use of the revolutionary controller from Nintendo, while the Gamecube edition does not. I can say in all seriousness that if you're looking for the best experience between the two, go with the Wii version.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

For this adventure, Link begins the game as a humble youth from a farming village within the woods. Here he spends his days herding goats and fishing. Life is peaceful, until one day when a group of creatures of darkness invade the town kidnapping the local children and leaving the place covered in a mysterious light known as the Twilight. Link, transformed into a wolf by the twilight, is aided by a mysterious cat creature named Midna. It's up to the two of them to save not only Link's village, but all of Hyrule.

Zelda titles have always lacked truly compelling storylines. The scenarios are interesting for the most part, but there's never been enough dialogue or plot twists. Nintendo has realized this, and put more effort into Twilight Princess in this regard. You'll meet and talk with a large cast of characters, and you can expect plot twists that are more cleverly devised than before. Twilight Princess has the best storyline ever to grace a Zelda title.

The story is great and all, but how does it play? Twilight Princess is mostly indifferent to the rest of the series. You still control Link as he trots from dungeon to dungeon, solving puzzles, collecting new items and defeating baddies within. The dungeons are longer this time around, and although the puzzles aren't overly difficult, they can at times leave you scratching your head.

The world map is quite large. Not quite Wind Waker large, but much bigger than that of Ocarina of Time. Admittedly this is a bit disappointing, especially when the director of the game was promising something along the lines of Wind Waker. Either way, the overworld features a decent amount of variety from vast and deep lakes to deep forests. Most of what you'll see though is a barren field with only the occasional tree and/or monument. While this lack of detail is slightly disappointing, it's not that big a deal.

The locales are also less memorable here. The Zora Domain looks like it was thrown together in a matter of minutes, and Lake Hylia is now only a shadow of it's former self. Kariko Village was changed drastically to be more of a deserted mining/mountain town, and now it's not nearly as fun to explore. If Nintendo must continue re-using locales they should put more effort into making them interesting rather than just different. The cast of characters is also disappointing, and I'd even have to give the slight edge to Wind Waker.

The game does have one gaping drawback. While in the Twilight Real Link assumes the form of a silver wolf. It sounds cool on paper, but throughout these sequences I found myself just wishing for them to end so I could get back to the sword swinging action. As the wolf Link attacks with his claws and teeth. This can cause problems when you're on a cliff or platform and enemies are all around, and you'll probably find yourself accidently lunging off every few minutes.

Twilight Princess marks Epona the horse's return to the series. This makes traveling across the overworld much faster and less detrimental to your patience. Riding on her back can be awkward at times because of all the small barriers she can get caught up on, but overall I'm glad she's included. Also cool is the fact that you can swipe your sword while riding. This is a fantastic edition, and even makes for some epic jousting matches in the storyline.

The list of special items you can gain is borrowed mostly from past Zelda titles. There isn't a whole lot new here, and a lot of this new stuff isn't all that interesting. Along with the classic arsenal of bows, bombs, slingshots, fishing rods, and more, the new items include the spinner and dominion rod. Of these, neither are particularly new for the series, and neither are even all that interesting. Other items are given new functionality, such as bombs and arrows being able to combine, and so forth. The inventory is slightly disappointing, but it's certainly adequate.

As with the past installments, Twilight Princess features a world with a lot to do. There are many caves and other dark crannies to be explored, and the rewards are usually worth it. Fishing is given a huge role in this game, and is now a lot more involving. For the first time ever you can choose which kind of bait to use, and there are many different fish to catch. You can also now fish anywhere you please. This ensures that you'll always have plenty to do.

The gameplay itself is a lot of fun. The swordplay works very well and makes the long fights within each dungeon both fun and exciting. Though it falls short from its brothers in a few areas, Twilight Princess is still exciting and new, and thanks to a few welcome additions (horseback sword swinging) you have to wonder how you ever managed without them.

It was promised that your average player could complete the game in 70 hours. I personally finished in just over 30, and I even completed a majority of the side stuff. That's still a pretty decent length for a game of this sort, so you won't find me complaining about it. The difficulty, while higher than that of Wind Waker, is still too low. The monsters all fall to easily and the puzzles are too simple. This is something Nintendo should work to improve for the next Zelda title.

The Wii is not a graphical powerhouse, but Twilight Princess still looks very good. It's got a fantastic art style which seems more fantasy based than past Zelda games, but at the same time, it's also the most mature graphically. The dungeons all have their distinct styles and for the most part are diverse aesthetically. The environments are the only thing in this game that I find underwhelming; the ground textures sometimes look exactly like those from Ocarina of Time. Although Twilight Princess doesn't look next gen, it's still a very pretty game.

I'm a little sore that the music here isn't fully orchestrated, even after Nintendo promised it would be. The soundtrack is a bit lacking to be completely honest, with a lot of slightly redone Zelda tunes thrown in for nostalgic reasons. Everything sounds midi quality, but there are still some pretty decent compositions. The sound effects are top notch, with realistic samples for each of your special items. These sounds even play through the speaker on the remote, which is actually pretty cool.

I had some major issues with the controls, at first, but after a while they feel like second nature. The nunchuck unit's analog stick moves Link about, and the two should button are used for looking around and locking on. The Wii Remote handles all else, and requires you to shake it in order to attack, so at times it feels almost like you are swiping with a sword. The pointer functionality for aiming with your projectile attacks works fabulously, and I don't think I'll soon be able to go back to the classic method. Overall the controls are very effective and add a 'newness' the series hasn't seen since it first jumped into 3-D.

Final Recommendation
Twilight Princess is a very fun game and a perfect first killer app for the Wii. No Zelda fan or fan of games in general should go without playing it. The Wii edition is the definitive version, and it's worth getting the new console for.