The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Action/Adventure
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the acculumation of several years of a dedicated staff working on restoring the Zelda name after mediocre games (by Zelda standards) such as The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap. The game has recieved more hype than almost any game currently on the market. I myself was giddy with child-like enthusiasm the first time I was able to play the game. I played it for hours and hours, but, as fun as it was, it still seemed to have a few flaws that prevented it from reaching its full potential.
Does anyone else feel a draft?
The storyline focuses on a young sheep-herder in a village called Ordon. The boy, Link, is asked to deliver a package to the royal family in Hyrule Castle. Before he can do so, he is dragged by a monster into a world of Twilight that threatens to remove light from the world of Hyrule forever. While in the Twilight, Link transforms into a wolf, a sign that he is the hero chosen by the godesses. He is asked help the light spirits recover light to the world before he can return to human. With a mysterious Twilight girl named Midna, he sets off to defeat the Twilight King, Zant.
So much for Neo... Looks like Link is the Chosen One!
The Wii version of Twilight Princess has modified controls from the original Gamecube version that use the ability of the Wii controllers to sense movement. The most basic ones involve sword-slashing. However entertaining, "swinging the sword" with the motion-sensitive controls is very often unresponsive, especially moves controlled by the nunchuk. Certain items, such as the bow and arrows and the slingshot are aimed by pointing with the Wiimote. This, unlike sword-slasing, is very accurate. The button controls are very simple to pick up and do not provide a hinderance to new players.
How does his hat stay up?
Graphics in this game are a major improvement over the last Zelda console game. Indeed, TP is "the most realistic Zelda ever". Common Zelda enemies have new looks and styles that give a new feel to the world of Hyrule. The occasional cel-shading inserts a twist to the mood of the game and keeps it from crossing the line. Even with all these improvements graphically, the mechanics in the game are off every once in a while. The game lags at points with several enemies and solid figures sometimes become "ghosted". I once drove my horse straight through a giant pig.
Wait, is that pig riding a pig?
Twilight Princess is host to one of the best soundtracks in video game history. Each piece is expertly scored and absolutely awe-inspiring. Thus, it baffles me that the game only has a few infrequent songs that boast a full orchestra. Surely Nintendo realizes that music in video games has passed the MIDIs that they used for this game. The background music in certain parts sound so horrible on the electronic instruments I caved in and turned my sound off. The speaker in the Wiimote was no compensation. The sounds emitted from there were fuzzy and incoherent. The other main flaw in this game was the lack of voice acting. The inane babling is no substitute for human voices complimenting the text during dialouge.
Just three more laps and I can take off these tight pants.
The game is enormous, with nine massive dungeons and a plethora of sidequests ranging from collecting bugs to delivering a barrel of water. After you beat the game, there is even an extra dungeon filled with a number of enemies to test your survival skills. A few "mini-games" strung throughout the game add a bit of replay value. It can keep you playing for almost an hour for every dollar it costs.
All in all, the game is absolutely amazing. It offers an amazing range of different play modes including herding sheep, flying with a chicken, and the most common, transforming into Link's wolf-form. Twilight Princess definitely contains that special "Zelda magic" that makes the game so much fun to play.
This game gets 9.3 rupees out of 10.
Pictures from IGN.com.
