Zelda: Twilight Princess - first impressions/review

Gah. I didn't want to write this review until more time had passed, but it's what i've been thinking about, so here we go:


First off, a small disclaimer: I've only played Zelda for about 10 hours, and I literally just finished the second dungeon. Since there are 9 dungeons and by most accounts 60-70 hours worth of gameplay, I'm really not that far along. So take this as a review of the first quarter or so of the game (which by itself is a lot longer than a lot of games out now).

Zelda: Twilight Princess, the latest game in the Zelda saga, returns to the realistic 3-D look first seen in Ocarina of Time. Link, a young man who's grown up in a small village on the outskirts of Hyrule, gets sucked into a mysterious "twilight realm" after attempting to save some village children from goblins. He finds that, unlike most people, he has the ability to move freely about this realm as a wolf. He meets an inscruitable companion Midna, who decides to help him so long as it fits her own purposes. Together they set out to rescue the light spirits and drive the twilight from Hyrule.

If I was to sum up Twilight Princess in a sentence, it would be "(Ocarina of Time)²." This is less due to similarities in play than the general feel: you still have that sublime sense of
exploration and accomplishment as you gradually aquire more and more tools with which to selve puzzles. The first hour or so of the game is rather slow (the game really doesn't give you enough instruction as to what to do in the first village), but after you get your sword it picks up dramatically.

The controls certainly help the immersiveness. Anyone who is holding out for the Gamecube version is doing themselves a grave disservice - within 5 minutes you'll be enveloped in the world, doing spin attacks and pinpoint arrow shots much more naturally than you ever did with a gamepad. Sure, you look a little silly doing it, but it's a small price to pay for the responsive controls.

The design and pacing in this game are absolutely amazing - every puzzle you find can be solved with proper reflection on how to use your items, and the room design is extremely varied - ranging from simple mass enemy attacks to huge rooms with 4-5 different ways across and back. The miniboss/main boss fights are also expertly made - hard until you figure out the trick, and then merely challenging.

The graphics are perfectly fine - I'm playing it through an RF adaptor into a 12 inch Quasar, and it looks good to me. People who proclaim that composite cable input "looks like shit" are really focusing on the wrong thing here - the gameplays' the thing, and Zelda absolutely nails it.


Overall, this game is an instant classic. It's just as good as Ocarina of Time, if not better. If you need a reason to buy a Wii, this will more than fit the bill.