Review of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Nintendo Wii

By Richard Southam

Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Nintendo
Genre: Third-Person Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Release Dates:
US: November 19, 2006
Japan: December 2, 2006
Europe: December 8, 2006
ESRB Content Descriptors: Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence

When an evil darkness enshrouds the land of Hyrule, a young farm boy named Link must awaken the hero – and the animal – within. When Link travels to the Twilight Realm, he transforms into a wolf and must scour the land with the help of a mysterious girl named Midna. Besides his trusty sword and shield, Link will use his bow and arrows by aiming with the Wii Remote controller, fight while on horseback and use a wealth of other items, both new and old.

The Game:

Gameplay:

Like most other Legend of Zelda games, the game starts off very slow. Nintendo does a very good job of building the storyline and its characters. This is a single-player action adventure game; however, you will find a number of interesting mini-games within the game’s storyline. The most popular of these being fishing. With the addition of the Wii remote, fishing has gone from a necessary chore in older Zelda games, to fantastic fun. You can easily spend hours simply fishing in Twilight Princess. There are a total of 9 dungeons in this installment of Zelda, each with its own unique set of monsters and bosses. Conservative estimates have put this installment of Zelda to be over 50 hours of gameplay for the main storyline alone. One could easily put in over 100 hours of gameplay if you take the time to do all the quests and play the mini-games. The game sticks to its traditional roots by not having any voice acting. This can be quite a nuisance for some players, but I don’t find it a big deal at all.

The Controls:

The Wii remote and nun-chuk are on full display for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Link is controlled using the nun-chuk attachment. A simple flick of the wrist let’s you use your sword, and the combination of both remotes lets you use your bow in the most satisfying way of any video game ever. You simply aim, pull back the remote, and fire. The controller also emits the arrows’ sound from its internal speaker.

Graphics:

Of all the Nintendo Wii launch games, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has by far the best graphics. Although it is basically a direct port from the GameCube version, which is scheduled for release later in the year, the graphics are superbly well done.

Audio:

Twilight Princess has a fantastic musical score with many classic Zelda chimes. The sound effects are also well done. The internal speaker on the Wii remote is often used and adds a lot to the overall experience.

Pros and Cons:

+ Fantastic story
+ Great puzzles
+ Great level design
+ Incredible graphics
+ Very long
- Very long

The verdict:

10 / 10

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