The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I have never written a review on Amazon before but I love playing games and this one has compelled to to put hands to keyboard.

I played the N64 ocarina of time which was my 2nd favourite game after FFVII. This is probably the same if not better. The controls are simple but effective. The story is immersive and the gameplay fantastic. The weapons are similar but include some welcome new and innovative additions.

One of the best things about these sort of games are the subquests or games that you can play away from the main story. They give you so much freedom to do what you want and not carry on with the main story if thats what you want to do.

I agree with other reviewers. If you own a Wii you have to give buy or at least rent Zelda to see what your missing out on. I rate it highly, so do other magazines and gamerankings which tells you average ratings for loads of mags.

Play this game now!

Once you start you will find it very hard to stop.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess carries on the successful Zelda series and once again Link is back to save the day. This is my first 3D Zelda I've play as i have missed out on Nintendo's past console and only got a few glimpses of Ocarina of Time. The game starts off in a small, quiet, peaceful village of Ordona which is a sly tutorial to how games like Zelda are played and how the new Wii Remote is used to control our hero. You start off with no weapons and no items, and you have to go and around and do certain tasks around the village to acquire different items which you will end up using throughout game. Once you get your first sword, the fun really begins. The three children who you teach how to use weaponry run after a monkey which has been terrorizing the village and soon get lost and it's up to you to find and save them. You will soon meet Midna a new addition from the Twilight Realm who helps you along on your quest. By pressing up on the d-pad you can get hints from Midna if you forget what to do. This comes in handy but it does seem a little like cheating in my eyes, but thats just me. Midna is in your shadow when Link is in Human form and rides on your back when in Wolf form. and turn into a Wolf when you enter the Twilight Realm.

The Wii Remote works well as a game remote, and i don't think i could go back to the normal remote. The controls feel natural and easy to use, to get your sword out you give the remote a quick shake and to attack shake the remote again or target with Z and press A to do a diving attack. The Remote really shows off when it comes to firing you bow, all you do is aim at the enemy on screen and press B simple yet very effective. The Nunchuck is used to shield bash and a swirl attack. This works well about 90% of the time but sometimes the Nunchuck doesn't pick up the movements and doesn't respond which is kind of lame. However that aside the controls work with ease and can be used by any age group.

Twilight Princess has a great story which keeps the player interested, and keeps the same formula as previous Zelda games, outside to dungeon, get new item, beat boss with new item, get outside again, go to next dungeon. But don't get me wrong this is still excellent, the formula not being change is a good thing, however the latest big change is Links wolf form. Links Wolf form controls the same as the Human form but Wolf Link has several advantages like, sense which allows him to use the wolf's sense to find objects and people, which normally wouldn't be seen by Human Link. Wolf Link also has a special attack which Midna helps him do, she creates a large circle by pressing and holding B for about 5 seconds around Wolf Link and release B to kill all the enemy's surrounding you. The wolf addition is a good add on to the Zelda series and varies the gameplay well enough to keep the player enjoying the experience. Twilight Princess looks great, although the Wii is not as powerful as say the Xbox 360 it still can create stunning visuals. The graphics are detail and have lots of different effects. You've got lot's of particle effects and weather effects that look fantastic, the rain is very dramatic. There are no camera angle glitches and no gameplay stopping glitches. The main thing which annoyed me the most was that his floppy green hat went through his sword and shield when they were on his back, but this doesn't affect the game, and I didn't notice it till near the end of the game but still bugs me. As you play you will notice some blurred textures, this is because the Wii cannot handle sharp HD textures. Hyrule is huge and will take you around 45 minutes to run from top to bottom. The really good thing I like was the short loading times, between large areas of the map, the longest loading time was around 3 or 4 seconds which is great and keeps the game flowing.

Another new addition was the use of the Wii Remotes built in speaker. Which overall was OK, it was great in some bits while awful in other situations. It added the real feeling of being there and definitely would be missed if it wasn't there. You would hear the string being pull back and the twang of the arrow whipping by your ear and a thud on the TV, amazing! Other sounds like the clawshot sounds got on my nerves because there the same sound each time and what annoying sound it was! The downside of the speaker was that sometimes it crackles or was very quiet, and sometimes never made any sound at all, which is kind of lame.

Twilight Princess really could have done with a full orchestra soundtrack instead of a low-fi cheap soundtrack. Though all the Zelda sounds were there, but this is still not what you would expect from a game from the 21st Century. The other miss was no voice acting, the closest thing they had to voice acting was sounds to represent voices, which weren't annoying. The text wasn't bad, in fact the text was very well written, and i enjoyed reading it. It was written like a well written book, and it's didn't ruin the game by being text.

The game itself takes around 35 to 45 Hours to complete this doesn't include all the side quests and things to collect. I have been playing for 60 hours now and am still playing. You will find yourself just riding around on Epona firing arrows at Moblins, exploring the land, findings chests, buying new things, collecting bugs, finding Poe's, and just having a good time all over again.

Overall i had an excellent experience playing Twilight Princess and you should really pick this up whoever you are.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Think The Ocarina of Time, but longer and with better graphics. The only reason this game won't go down in history as one of the best ever in the same way is that Ocarina was the first. This game has the added dimension of nostalgia, as there are several subtle references to the previous game.

Gameplay is the classic Zelda formula. Explore a vast (epic would be a better word) landscape, working your way through dungeons and solving puzzles, collecting equipment and killing monsters. The dungeons are, as always, excellent, and there are a couple of puzzles make you feel seriously clever for solving them. Although the main quest isn't really that difficult, I'm fairly certain that the enemies have got harder. Even the lowly moblin archers can cause you serious problems, and the axe-weilding knights are trully deadly if you encounter two at once.

The use of the Wii Remote as a sword (and the Nunchuck as a shield) actually makes the combat more involving. There are 7 special techniques for you to learn, which against some of the harder, armoured enemies, creates some of the most enjoyable swordplay I've ever seen. The addition of horseback combat is also very well implemented. It is also extremely useful for items like the bow and slingshot, where speed is required as well as accuracy.

As usual with Zelda games, part of the fun are the side-quests and distractions. The fishing from Ocarina of Time makes a comeback, this time with full motion tracking, which inputs a level of skill that illiminates the pot-luck of the old system. Finding Poe souls (the new gold skultullas) is a massive undertaking that will have you exploring every dark corner of the map.

Overall, this is an excellent game. New players will love it, and old hands will feel a nostalgic surge at least once, as they realise they are back somewhere they remember from long ago. Whilst Ocarina may have been the great leap forward for the series, this could be considered the definitive Zelda experience: everything that makes the 3D games great is here, and done extremely well.