Best Zelda ever?
Post Via amazon in Wii Games ReviewThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Back of the box said: Biggest Zelda Ever. I finished it at 52 hours, without having completed a bunch of tasks or mini-games. So yeah, that's about accurate. And with a game this epic, where to start talking about it?
The controls are probably the best place: they're genius. Swordplay and combat felt even more fun, fluid and satisfying than ever before - I'll never go back to the A button again. Using the Wiimote's aiming features to target your bow and arrow, slingshot or clawshot? Even better. Throw in a host of secret gestures and moves for additional combat, a brand new menagerie of clever creatures, and some ingenious, satisfying boss battles, and you've got one hell of an action game, even without the massive adventure portion.
Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda, and probably my favorite game of all-time. I found it absolutely entrancing, with its unique open-sea take on the Zelda experience, the simple, vibrant charm of its cel-shaded graphics, and the limitless, Miyazaki-inspired whimsy of its world. Twilight Princess also feels like playable Miyazaki, but it's an entirely new beast - literally. The game is split between adventures in Link's human form, and also as a wolf. Use your senses to track down scent trails, dig for secrets and take on bizarre spectral enemies - it's a terrific new way to explore the world. (And surprisingly, it never felt like this year's other stunningly brilliant, wolf-oriented adventure, Okami.)
Twilight Princess also features another dichotomy, between the sunlit realm of Hyrule, and a dark new Twilight Realm. This shadowy otherworld feels like shades of the Dark World from Link to the Past, but the imagery is completely alien, gothic, even Lovecraftian at times (witness the black, tentacle-bearded demons that drop from neon-fractal holes in the sky). But it all works together perfectly, thanks to probably the best and most substantial Zelda storyline to date.
Now, even with the new controls, new world, new characters, abilities and narrative, the game did sometimes feel a little familiar. After all, this is the 11th Zelda I've played. Some dungeon themes are revisited, some characters and races return, and of course the core story elements are still there. But just when you think you know what to expect, the game throws an entirely new twist at you, a new use of your items, or an amazing moment you've never had before.
Just wait until you clash swords with a Bokoblin general during a dangerous game of horseback chicken atop a narrow stone bridge. Or ride the top-like spinner in a dizzying battle against a monstrous skeletal god and his armies of sandstorm zombies. Or use your clawshots to scale a bank of pillars in an aerial metropolis as they crumble beneath you. Pretty amazing stuff, and with the new control scheme, unlike any game experience you've ever had.
I could go on for awhile more, but here's the bottom line: Even if the Wii didn't ship with the amazingly fun, simple and crowdpleasing Wii Sports phenomenon, I would consider $250 well worth the console's price for Zelda alone. 5/5.
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