Definately one of Gamecube's best games to come out ever.
(Dungeon spoiler alert!!)
From a technical standpoint the graphics look pretty uneven. There is some poor texture mappingand some cliffs and edges look straightout of the N64. The character models look very good though. The lighting effects are also pretty good. Artistically the game looks amazing. The twilight realm looks stunning and has that creepy look to it. The dungeons also look great artisticaly. The dungeons just get better and better as you go along. The Forest Temple is just like the one from Ocarina but it takes off from there. The Groron dungeon is just like a mine(hence it's called the Goron Mines), the Lakebed Temple brings back horrible memories of the Water Temple from Ocarina(hardest dungeon ever), The Arbiter's Grounds(One of my favorite dungeons ever) is modeled after an ancient egyptian pyramid, The Snowpeak Ruins is literally a mansion, The Temple of Time is pretty much a trip back to Ocarina and The City in the Sky is a test of your clawshot skills and proves to be one tough cookie.
The sound is good but nothing to cry about. The music is mainly rehashes and remixes of music used in older Zeldas. Even so it's executedquite nicely. For fans of the series who have played Ocarina and/or Link to the Past will get that nostalgic feeling. The other sounds are passable and are executed nicely. The biggest problem is the fact that there is no speech and all taking is in text. Nintendo may have gotten away with it in the Wind Waker but today all the main characters should talk. The only two people who have voices are Midna(who speaks Japanese or jibberish or something) and Link(it's only battle cries though).
The game's story is very well done. Thewhole concept is Miyamoto sitting down with Nintendo and saying "Hey,Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past were great games, let's build on that." A lot of times this kind of thing turns out to be a bad and unorigional game but in this case it turned out great. The story is much darker than other games but manages to keep it's charm. The story also ties into the whole Zelda storyline. This is also a game for fans of the series. If you haven't played a Zelda game before you will be kinda confused on the bigger picture and will have to piece it together. Fans of the series will recognize a lot of places and characters from previous games and get more nostalgia.
The game has great gameplay still. Although it comes straight from Ocarina of time and Wind Waker it still has it's luster and fun to use. The whole system feels new because there's been many new touches. For one thing you can attack while running. There are also new moves that Link can pull off. The great thing is that these are all fun to use, look really cool and stay satisfying from start to finish. The new moves aren't just button mashing in a code and aren't hard to pull off. Wolf controls are also fun to use but don't compare to human form. The items are all greatly imagined and fun to use. You will get the usual boomerang, bow, bombs and Master Sword(which it isn't a Zelda game without the Master Sword). But all of these weapons have been tweaked to be new and fun to use. There are also new weapons in the game like a ball and chain(probably my favorie next to the bow) and a rod that brings statues to life. All of the game's bosses are fun to fight and require use of your sword and one of these items. All of these fights are just epic and amazingly done. In the game you can also go one horseback(like Ocarina). The whole system has been revamped and is very fun, you can use almost anthing on your horse rather than just a bow. The moblin fight on horseback proves to be one of the games best moments.
Overall Twilight Princess is agreat game that combines the great things from Ocarina of Time,Link to the Past and Wind Waker all in one. I would reccomend this game to Zelda fans, people who have played Ocarina of Time and/or Wind Waker or people to have a Gamecube/Wii. The game's story will take you about 40 hours to complete, but there is a bunch of extra stuff and that number will greatly rise up. The minigames are fun, you can collect bugs/poe souls and much more. The game is harder than Wind Waker but you will not expect to die too much. The final fight as you would expect is hard but nothing Link can't handle. Fans of the series will not have a problem with the game but get some challenges. If you haven't played Ocarina of Time yet it's not too late to pick it up if you haven't already, even though the game is 8 years old. Twilight Princess isn't the best place to start if you haven't played Zelda before but you can piece the whole story together. With some technical twinks and additions Twilight Princess could have beat out the god of 3D video games Ocarina of Time. Even so it still matches up to Ocarina in many,many ways and is a must own game.