Most people who consider themselves gamers instinctively recognize the tune: the classic Zelda theme. Dating back almost 20 years, the original Legend of Zelda was released in 1987 for the NES, the theme hasn’t changed much. You could say that’s a lot like the series, too. Sure, the latest console versions have been in 3D and featured better graphics and had a richer sounding theme, but the gameplay has been extremely faithful to the original, even after all these years. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.For those unfamiliar with the Legend of Zelda series, each one is mostly a stand alone title. The main character, a young elf-like boy generally called Link (though you usually can name him yourself), has to defeat some great evil in the kingdom of Hyrule and save the Princess Zelda from whatever fine mess she’s gotten herself into this time. Much like The Transformers these days, each game really has little to do with the previous ones, yet everyone still has the same name and looks similar. Twilight Princess actually takes places many many years after the Nintendo64’s Ocarina of Time and there’s even a few references back to the title throughout Twilight Princess.
This time around, Link is happily minding his own business in his little village when these strange shadow-like creatures descend from the air and kidnap his friends. Link tries to fight and is mysteriously turned into a wolf! With the aid of a benevolent shadow creature by the name of Midna, Link seeks out Princess Zelda who helps him return to his human (well, elfen) form. Link learns that a parallel world of twilight, the yang to the light world’s yin, and it’s evil ruler are attempting to take over the world of light and they don’t have good things planned for its citizens. Of course, it’s up to Link to stop him!
The game, as with most previous Zelda adventures, is divided into many dungeons. You must traverse through the world and find these dungeons, beating the boss monsters that lie within and collect certain items from them which will help you stop the big-bad. In addition to these items, dungeons will usually contain new objects for Link to add to his arsenal ranging form a bow and arrow, to a boomerang and even less offensive objects like a spinning disc used to climb certain rails and metal boots to climb magnetic surfaces. These objects then grant Link the ability to advance to new areas of the world and find new dungeons and ultimately have the big show-down with the evil Twilight ruler.
By far the biggest change to the series this time around is the Wii controls. Using the analog stick on the Nunchuck controller to move Link, the Wii Remote is shaken to use Link’s familiar sword attacks. For anyone who has played a console Zelda title since the Nintendo64, the controls will feel right at home. Though some rather fundamental changes have been made, the basics still remain generally the same. In fact, they’ve been improved in some areas such as aiming your bow or boomerang. By simply pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, you can quickly and intuitively aim and achieve a great deal of accuracy very speedily—a must for some of those bigger boss creatures!
After the cartoon like GameCube Zelda title, Wind Waker, Nintendo decided to go for a more realistic look this time out. Well, as realistic as elf-boys and fairies and shadow monsters can get anyways. While I enjoyed Wind Waker’s cell-shaded look, the change in art direction was a welcome improvement. While the Wii can’t compare graphically to the other new consoles on the block from Microsoft and Sony, this version of Zelda is still the best looking to date.
While the sound is very rich and features great sound effects and a beautiful orchestral soundtrack, the Zelda series still relies completely on subtitles to tell the story. The game was co-developed for a GameCube release where size constraints on the games may have precluded including full vocalization of the games story elements, it would have been nice for the Wii version to sport it. Perhaps the inevitable next title in the series will be the first to let us hear Link and Zelda talk in full sentences as opposed to grunts and squeals.
With all the gushing going around about the latest adventure for Link, all is still not perfect with the game. By far my biggest complaint with the game is that of controlling the main character. As with most 3D games, the biggest hurdle of all is the camera and Zelda’s fails rather miserably. There is no camera control to adjust or pan around, save for a first-person view which puts Link in an extremely vulnerable position. Instead, you can only re-center the camera directly behind you. With rather poor fine control for moving your character it can often be very difficult to get that perspective you’re desperately looking for and with the precise movements required for some of the dungeons, this can cause extreme amounts of frustration for even the most veteran gamer.
Even with the camera issues, Twilight Princess is a solid game. It is an excellent launch title for the Wii and is another successful notch in the series’ ever growing belt. While I don’t know if I can call it the best the series has produced to date, a strong argument can definitely be made and I’d be hard pressed to argue against it. Fans of the series will not be disappointed and the ease of use with the Wii remote will make newcomers to the series feel right at home.
I've been playing games ever since I was a wee lad. My favorite games as a child were the classic Pitfall and a game called SNAFU, which was a sort of puzzle game along the lines of Tron Light Cycles. I've had most of the major console systems since the early days and have a wide range of tastes of games and I'm always eager to give a new one a try.
