This game may not be as revolutionary as OoT was, but this game is nothing short of insanely awesome and amazing.
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay, simply put, is amazing. The Wii controls give this legendary franchise a pretty new feel, and with this new style of play, it brings some very welcome, and very effective advancements on how you do certain things. The biggest advancement with this style of control is the shooting of your bow. Before, players had to kind of fumble around with a joystick, and it would take some time for people to get their cursors lined up just right with their target. Not anymore! With the Wii, you simply point and shoot. It takes a little time to get used to this kind of aiming, but it won't take ANYONE more then 15 minutes to become completely comfortable with it, and soon, it's just point and shoot. That's not an exaggeration, it really is that easy.
Another new advancement is how you wield your sword. Up until now, you pressed a button, but with the Wii-mote's motion sensing capabilities, you swing your controller to make Link swing his sword. This form of control acts extremely well, and FEELS so much better then pressing a button. You get so immersed in the game this way, especially in boss battles, and you'll be going all out, and you really do feel like you ARE Link. Now, do you have to go all out and do extremely elaborate movements in order to swing your sword? No. A flick of the wrist is all that's needed.
GRAPHICS:
From an artistic standpoint, the visuals in this game are gorgeous. The lighting is truly amazing, like when you're exploring a dark cave and you have your trusty lantern to light your way, it looks very real, and very cool. And when in the Twilight Realm, the sky looks strange, but in a good way, and the kind of bizarre mixings of colors in this realm make the name "Twilight Realm" seem very fitting. The character models look really well done, the look real enough, but still have a slightly cartoon-ish look to them, and ultimately makes the game look like any hardcore Zelda fan would want it to look.
SOUND:
For the vast majority of the game, the music sounds really well done, and completely fits with what's going on. I've not sure, but I think the game is fully done in MIDI and synth based keyboard things. and most of the time you can really tell this is the case. But during some parts of the game (Real important, epic parts) I could almost swear it was a live orchestra. There's a large set of tracks in Twilight Princess, ranging from old tracks that where seen in previous games in the series, and some completely new tracks, and there's enough of each to make the game feel nostalgic, but still feel like a rand new chapter as well. The only problems I had with the entire game is with the sound. For one thing, sometimes the sounds that come out of the Wii-mote speaker kind of ruin an epic experience, and you just wish that at that particular point of the game, the Wii-mote would have just shut up. And another thing was the lack of Voice Overs. Now, I'm a HUGE Zelda fan, and I came into the game thinking that no VO wouldn't do anything harmful to the game, but there are some parts where It seemed like it just NEEDED VO, it would have made it so much better if it had been done right.
VALUE:
This game can be seriously long, without you even trying to make the game longer by doing side quests or any of that. I clocked in at about 45 and a half hours, and it's been quite some time since a game has taken me THAT long to beat. And that was with doing very minimal side-questing. I'm sure you can make the game much, much longer if you decide to go hunting for all the heart pieces and things like that.
And one thing that really needs to be addressed: The story. Twilight Princess has given the series a much needed leap in terms of story, there are lots of twists and surprises, and the characters emotionally catch you, and you find yourself caring for characters that don't even really seem THAT important. This brings me back to the VO thing. The story was a lot better then most Zelda story lines, and it made me almost scream for voice overs. IT would have made the game so much more cinematic and epic. TILT:
The game isn't the revolution that Ocarina of Time was, but with the very basic use of the Wii-mote, it really makes the game feel better then most Zelda games, and makes things a lot easier. This game is a big step forward for the series, in more ways then one.