One of the best launch/Zelda/games period, of all time. Review originally written for onnintendo.com
I finally finished the main quest about an hour prior to the time I began writing this review. It has been a busy holiday season for me so far, but I managed to fit in around 55 hours of gameplay before I beat Twilight Princess, doing a lot of side quests along the way, but still not near completion of everything. From what I hear, it generally takes 30-40 hours to complete the game when you only complete a few side quests here and there.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess starts you off as Link, a goat herder in the village of Ordon. Ordon is very much a tutorial town that you quickly move past. Link is given the job to deliver a package to Hyrule Castle, but before he can do this his hometown sweetheart Ilia, as well as a few children from Ordon, is kidnapped! It’s now up to Link to save them… unfortunately he has somehow been transformed into a wolf. Welcome to Zelda.
Graphics: 4/5
We have known, even when this was announced for the Wii, that this game, graphics and all, was built ground up for the Nintendo GameCube console. There is no way of getting around the fact that Twilight Princess looks like a GameCube game, a fantastic GameCube game, but still a GameCube game. However, I still love these graphics. They might not have worked so well if Wind Waker had sported similar graphics, but it didn’t, and this is our first taste of what good graphics can do with a Zelda game. This is the realization and so much more of the jaw dropping spaceworld demo back in 2001. The graphics of Twilight Princess are very artistic, and though most of it isn’t anything new, it looks and runs great. Don’t listen to detractors of the Wii and Zelda about these graphics, they only add to the game, and do nothing to take away.
Fun Factor: 10/10
I split my gameplay section into two parts, fun factor and controls. This allows more points to go into my final scoring from the gameplay section of the review, which should be the most important part. Fun factor gets the most points of all.
I don’t know if this is the most fun Zelda ever, but it just might be. In Twilight Princess you will be in a world enveloped in light and a world enveloped in darkness, similar to Link to the Past. What’s even better than that is you get to control Link in two forms, that of a human and a wolf. Early in the game you are mostly restricted to being human in light and a wolf in the twilight, but that changes later in the game. Being able to play as a wolf is definitely fun, and adds a lot to the game. Wolf senses are cool, allowing you to see some things that are otherwise invisible, pretty much replacing the eye of truth item from previous Zelda titles, and the ability to lock onto and track a scent is also cool. That being said, there’s still nothing like playing as Link in human form.
In human form, Link does pretty much the same kind of stuff that he does in Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker. He uses many of the same items that have appeared in all of the Zelda games, as well as some new innovative items, and even some new ways to use old items. Most of the items have good use throughout the game. For example, I didn’t use the gale boomerang nearly as much as I used the boomerang in Wind Waker, but it was important for puzzles throughout the game, and could be used to grab items and pull small enemies such as bats closer to you. The only item that seemed completely, and I do mean completely, pointless was the slingshot. After the tutorial for it I must have only used it once to shoot some spiders, and never again. It didn’t help that the boomerang is in the first dungeon, and the bow can be found very soon after.
One major gameplay tweak is the hidden skills you can learn to sword fight better with. These skills help your sword fighting expertise big time, although once you have them mastered sword fighting with anything can sometimes become very easy, but still harder than Wind Waker, with enemies I could have beaten in my sleep.
There are plenty of side quests, and puzzles in this game. From about the time you leave Ordon village throughout the rest of Twilight Princess you have a fast paced adventure game filled with fun.
Interface/Controls: 4.5/5
Despite the innovative Wiimote, controls for Zelda are pretty straight forward. It runs much like Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker using the Z-targeting system, and it runs very will at that. There is no doubt that shooting arrows and using other ranged items is much better than previous Zelda games, using the pointer to aim and shoot is very easy. Swinging the sword by swinging the Wiimote is fine and works well, but it doesn’t drop my jaw. The controls work well.
Sound: 2/3
Great nostalgic Zelda music throughout. I wouldn’t have minded if they had made the music with a real orchestra however, and it is a little annoying that NPCs don’t have any voice acting whatsoever. Everybody knows that the speaker on the Wiimote is a cheap speaker, but I personally liked the applications of it in Twilight Princess.
Replay Value/Longevity: 5/5
Like I said earlier, I beat the game the first time after 55 hours of play time, and there are still a lot of things I have left undone. To tell you the truth, I’ve only dabbled in fishing so far, and haven’t spent much time on it at all. This is a long game that is never boring. Hyrule has something interesting to do in every turn. I have no doubt that I would enjoy it again if I started a new game as well.
Reviewer’s Tilt: 5/5
There is a great reason that Twilight Princess is selling almost as much as the Wii console itself. It is a flat out excellent game. This is a very worthy game to add to the great launch games of all time. It would be hard for me to say that Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, or Super Mario 64 are better games than this, Twilight Princess should be considered a great game alongside of them, and right alongside Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past as far as Zelda games are concerned.
Overall Score: 30.5/33
Out of Ten: 9.6
Note: Out of Ten Score is scaled on a slightly different scoring system than the 33 point scale.
Originally posted at http://onnintendo.com/Index.aspx?page=1&post=4&year=2006&month=12