The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

"So it's finally here! But it doesn't live up to the hype!"

Wow, a new Zelda game! Announced a long time ago, gamers had the release date for November 2004, then it was delayed until 2005, then to 2006. And hey, it actually came out! Like my tag line says though, Twilight Princess definitely doesn't live up to the hype. Although it was originally a Gamecube exclusive, it came along onto the Wii for the ride, with absolutely nothing new, albeit a different control system, and the fact the world is the other way around (so if something is on the left, it's on the right on the Wii version).

Let's start with the story! It kinda uses an old Zelda formula, which is used in most Zelda games. You play as Link, who is just some simple Ranch hand guy, who also practices using a Sword in his spare time. The game starts with you as Link, as you do some stuff in the village. In a couple of days, he must go and send some package to Hyrule Castle. After doing some stuff in the village, the big arrives, but trouble is waiting! Before Link set's off into the unknown, some dark, mysterious beasts attack his village, taking the children away, and knocking Link out. When Link awakens, you start playing the game for real. I won't reveal any more though, as that would be spoiling the game (the previous is in the manual of the game).

First, I want to talk about the controls. They are pretty simple, you play using the nun-chuck, and the remote. The analog stick moves Link around, the Z button will target enemies, and C will allow you to look around in first person. On the remote, you can assign three items to the different Directional Pad buttons, left, down, and right. Pressing one of these will set it to the remotes trigger, B, pressing that will allow you to use what ever item is assigned to B. The A button is the action button, and then 1 will bring up a map, where as 2 toggle's whether the mini-map is displayed on screen or not. Then, shaking the remote will allow Link to swing his sword, and shaking the Nun-chuck allows Link to do a spin attack. There are also a variety of special moves for Link to perform once you learn them. Also, you can aim on the screen with a little fairy (like Navi from OoT) and when you're using an aiming weapon, like the Bow or Slingshot, you can use a cross hair to aim on screen. Now, that sounds all great, but unfortunately it's not to be. The analog stick doesn't seem precise, and walking over small gaps, or ledges, can be a pain some times. Also, the nun-chuck can barely tell the difference between shaking it left and right, to pushing it straight forward (thats the shield attack, the latter a Spin attack as said before). Also, the sword swings on the game lags a second behind when YOU actually swing the remote, which isn't to serious, but can be frustrating when you have to swing the remote before you really should do. While the aiming isn't the easiest, once you get used to it, it's perfectly fine. However, the control system isn't any better then a normal controller, or more realistic, making the controls for Twilight Princess end up being tacked on.

So, what about the basics of the game. Well, there are nine dungeons for Link to go through, with a simple way through, find the mid boss, defeat, get the dungeon's item, use it to defeat the boss, and rarely use it again. Well, for most of them, where as some items are used often enough after. After a dungeon, there is quite a lengthy bit after, until the next dungeon. Once all nine dungeons are complete, there are many mini-games to play, which usually end up giving you upgrades for bomb bags, quivers, bottles, or bigger rupee bags to name a few. Then there are your 40+ heart pieces to collect, hidden across the world. Also, you can collect extras like Golden Bugs, Poe souls, and hidden skills. Unfortunately, the rewards for doing all these extras aren't very useful, and it is very easy to get through the game with out them. Something new for a Zelda game though, is a big, fifty floor dungeon, full of monsters. It is a test of your skills, to see if you can get to the bottom. But, with the right equipment, a couple of bottle's with a healing potion inside, the dungeon isn't that hard at all.

Which comes to the game's dungeons. The biggest challenge should be in the game's dungeons. This is incorrect however, as the game's dungeons aren't really that hard compared to what you do outside of the dungeons. The puzzles, might take you ages to figure out (no longer then a couple of minutes) but they are usually pretty obvious. None of them are even that challenging apart from one hard puzzle, before you get the Master Sword. The dungeons are all varied though, I must admit, albeit a few. There is the same old Forest Temple (it's been done), a Water temple, and classic Death Mountain. Fortunately, they are pretty different to the dungeons in the older Zelda games, the Water temple is pretty different from the temple in OoT. After that though, there are some well designed dungeons, for example, the Snow Ruins, are actually a house, with two Yeti's living in it. This is pretty cool, I mean, a house for a dungeon? It's unheard of in a Zelda game! Also, another dungeon is actually an ancient city, far up in the sky. They're pretty cool, and quite new, and very fun to play through. Unfortunately, it ends there. The bosses in the game are way too easy, and all follow a simple pattern. You do some attacks that will dispose the bosses weak point, usually an eye ball or something, which you can attack. It will hide it away, ready for you to do the same things AGAIN. Then, attack the eye ball three times (well, attack as many when it's revealed, but on the third time, it's always dead) to kill it. There may be a second form, but it's an old boss formula, and when it's used through out the whole game, it kinda gets boring. None of the boss battles are epic, and just feel like a normal enemy, just a little bit bigger.

So, what about Wolf Link? When Link enters the Twilight realm, he will turn into the Blue eyed beast. At first, all the times you play as Wolf Link are the same. You enter a new part of Hyrule, so you see the light spirit, then collect 10 tears, to restore light to that area of Hyrule. They get harder as you go along, but are still pretty easy, as you just hunt around the area to find bugs, killing them will get you the tear. Later on though, Link can instantly transform into the wolf, which can be helpful, but is rarely used. Wolf Link isn't very good at fighting, most of his attacks are rubbish, I find myself constantly using his jump attack. Wolf Link can jump around using Midna (a twilight realm being, who helps you through out the game), teleport to different places, teleport objects to places, and go into a sense mode, which can allow you to find many things. Unfortunately, Wolf Link is rarely used once you can transform into him, and Wolf Link turns out to be more of a gimmick then anything else.

The graphics of Twilight Princess are decent enough. Playing this game on a HDTV, they do look good, but are still lacking, Also, the fact the graphics are the Gamecube version, albeit you can run the game in wide screen, the graphics turn out to be around the same, or maybe even worse, then Resident Evil 4's graphics, one of the most graphically spectacular games on the Gamecube. Only Link seems to be the most best looking object in the game, where as most characters look alright, but not as good as Link. Quite a lot of the game's textures do look pretty muddy though, which obviously isn't that good. There are some good game effects though, like when thing appear in the Twilight Realm, they turn into small black squares and such, this is pretty cool for the whole game, and looks good too. The Twilight realm looks pretty good too, but not as good as normal Hyrule.

The music, is kind of lacking though. The melodies, and the music itself, are pretty good, the similar Zelda music, it's all there, with new tunes sounding like they're in a Zelda game. Unfortunately, Zelda STILL has synthesized music, and with the Wii allowing Nintendo to have more better graphics and music due to storage space, it's very strange, and most probably lazy, that Zelda doesn't have a full orchestra for it's music. Also, the whole game's story and dialogue is told through text, which is very old, and the game deserves voice acting. Whilst it's OK Link doesn't speak, every other character does, and should have voice acting to make the game feel more newer, not too similar to OoT. Also, the remotes speaker plays sounds the game features, like sword swings, arrows and stuff like that. However, the remotes speaker is really cheap, and the remote sounds come out distorted, sometimes don't play, and just generally sound bad.

PROS:

Fun dungeons.
Decent enough graphics.
A long game!

CONS:

Not so good audio.
Too easy, and rubbish bosses.
Controls feel tacked on.
Wolf Link feels more like a gimmick than anything else.
No evolution, it's TOO similar to Ocarina of Time.

THE RATINGS:
Graphics: 8.3/10
Audio: 8.0/10
Story: 7.8/10
Game Play: 8.5/10
Life Span: 9.0/10
Difficulty: 7.0/10
Multiplayer: N/A
Overall: 8.8/10

My Two Pence:

Overall, Zelda's main problem is it's lack of evolution. Being way to similar to Ocarina of Time, a game that is over five years old, Nintendo need new idea's for their game. Whilst the Twilight Realm is pretty cool, Wolf Link isn't, and with many other problems, Twilight Princess fails to live up to it's hype. Don't get me wrong though, it's still the best Wii game on Launch, and any one getting a Wii should check this out.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/12/07