Absorbed in Twilight
Post Via amazon in Wii Games ReviewThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most popular games of all time. When a new Zelda game marches forth, the fans are always there. Now, after spending years in development, with delay after delay and ultimately being pushed onto the Nintendo Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is finally here.
Twilight Princess is by far one of the most instantly absorbing in the series. The game begins with you as Link in the village of Ordan. Things are going well for Link and his friends until a band of monsters riding a boar come and kidnap two of his friends. When Link awakens, he's suddenly thrust into a twilight realm where he meets a creature named Midna, who decides to aid Link on his quest. From the get go, The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess is instantly absorbing. The storyline is by far one of the best in the series and is very engrossing and absorbing.
The control scheme is not so bad at all. You'll control Link using the remote and nunchuck attachment. Swinging the remote makes Link swing his sword. It doesn't take a lot of work to do it either. A simple flick of the wrist is all it takes to make Link swing his sword. In addition, shaking the nunchuck causes him to do his famous spin-slash attack. The controls are surprisingly fluent and very well responsive. Its an interesting way to play Zelda, and there's no steep learning curve to it.
The heart of the challenge from the game mainly comes from the puzzles rather than the actual dungeon crawl itself. Simply because once you do get used to the Wii remote and controls you'll have a pretty easy time getting through the dungeons. The game provides a targeting system for you, and so you'll find it really easy. Using projectiles like the slingshot is also made easier with the Wii remote. You simply aim at objects and fire. If you miss its entirely your own fault.
A unique twist to the gameplay of Zelda is that Link not only goes around in his normal form, but can become a wolf as well. As a wolf the controls are virtually the same with the exception of Link being able to use senses and dig. You'll also be forced to solve puzzles in wolf form as well, and it does indeed add some variety to the game. As you progress in wolf form, Midna sits on your back and is there to offer advice for you. Gameplay wise, Twilight Princess knows how to keep you immersed in the game.
Visually its hard to judge Twilight Princess. Its a pretty game, but as you probably expected it pretty much looks like a late Gamecube release. This may be because Twilight Princess wasn't intended for the Wii in the first place, but the Gamecube. To the games credit though, it has a lot of detail going for it. Link has never looked better. The land of Hyrule has never looked better. Your enemies and some of the cinematics also sport some awesome detail. So while it does look like a late generation Gamecube game, keep in mind that it still looks good and that it probably even looks smoother and runs better on the Wii. Load times are virtually non-existant here.
The music still sounds pretty good. A lot of tunes you'll recognize from previous Zelda adventures, but the new stuff sounds pretty good too. There's no voice acting, though, and that still bothers me about Zelda to this day. The Windwaker could've used voice acting and so could Twilight Princess. The story is so absorbing, and it probably would've been better had they added voices to it. Link grunts and such and from time to time one of the NPC characters might yell something, but there's really no spoken dialogue throughout the game. It would've been really exciting to see some of the cinematics brought to life through fantastic voice acting. In the long run this probably won't bother anyone, and its a small price to pay for a game that's as fantastic as this.
For what its worth, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is very good. Its by far the most absorbing story in the entire series, and its gameplay is unmatched. Fans who have followed Zelda since its days on the NES will be pleased at just how far the series has come with Twilight Princess. Its one of the best in the series.
The Good
+Absorbing story
+Fantastic Gameplay
+There's a lot of great detail given to the game
+The puzzles are quite challenging
+The game still sounds good
The Bad
-Graphicwise, its really pretty, but you can't help but admit its just a late Gamecube game
-All this time and the series still lacks voice acting
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