Wii Hands-On: Zelda: Twilight Princess

We become one with Link in our hands-on impressions of Nintendo's killer app.

Gamers divide themselves into different camps. There are the PC geek gamers who play next generation games first, the PlayStation people who know they're playing the hippest machine in town, the Xbox players who are a crossbreed of PC and Playstation people, and then there are the Nintendo gamers with their nostalgia and Nintendo t-shirts. But what is the one common bond between all of these gamers? They've all owned a Zelda game. They've all done a sword swirl, they've all thrown a boomerang, and they've all flipped a switch to open a door. Zelda is a name everyone responds to.

At the Nintendo press event preceding this year's E3 Nintendo announced that their latest offering, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, will not only be the biggest, most beautiful Zelda ever, but that it will be available in two versions; a GameCube version and a Wii version. As soon as we got our hands on it we realized that Wii Zelda offers a much different experience from the Twilight Princess we played on Gamecube last year. Twilight Princess on Wii is all about the future.

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Imagine sitting in a canoe on peaceful still waters on a lake in Hyrule, the sun is setting and you'd like nothing more than catch a big fish to end your day of adventuring. You grab your fishing rod, pull back and hold the lock on the reel, then thrust the pole forward releasing the lock and letting the string unspool. You hear the 'whirring' sound of the reel and then 'splash'. Now your lure is flickering underwater for any wandering fish to see, you reel it in and you feel a tug on the line! A fish! Quick! Reel it in! No wait, he's going to escape, slow down! Okay, now faster! Awesome, you caught it. Too bad it's a teeny tiny tuna.

With Nintendo Wii the scene described above comes to life in three dimensions, outside of the two-dimensional confides of your television set. With the Wii Remote you will pull your fishing rod back, press A to lock your line, then cast and release the line at the same time. You will hear the realistic sound of the reel exactly where it should be, in the speaker on the Remote, then the splash on the TV.

Once your lure has penetrated the water you reel it in slowly with the A button, or quicker with the d-pad. The speed can determine whether or not a fish becomes interested in your lure, as well as whether or not you get him all the way in once he's taken the bait. Once a fish takes the bait you will feel it in the Remote via vibration, as well as the struggle to reel it in. And this is just the fishing part.

After an initial period of adjustment the Wii remote and nunchuck give players an unmatched feeling of interaction with the game and its many weapons and gadgets, such as the bow & arrow, the hookshot, the sword, the shield, and many others that were not playable in the demo. Using the controller with the bow & arrow for example doesn't make things much easier than using a standard controller, it just makes it more physical. Shooting the bow in the game requires you to aim with the remote and hold the d-pad to simulate the concentration required to shoot a real bow. Navi, your fairy is controlled by the remote as well, creating an on-screen cursor similar to the one used in Super Mario Galaxy.

While Twilight Princess on Wii is easily the most visually stunning Zelda game to date, it didn't look as solid as Super Mario Galaxy running on the kiosks right beside it. In our interview with Nintendo it was revealed that the Wii version would take advantage of the additional horsepower in the way of better graphics, but the demo we played looked as if not much work had been put into the Wii version's visuals, but mostly on its fancy new control scheme. Hopefully Nintendo will find the time necessary to upgrade the look even more before the game launches with the console later this year. A beautiful game non-the-less, and after playing it in 16x9 we never want to see the game on a square television again.

The true magic of a Zelda game lies in its sense of exploration and adventure, and it's obvious that Nintendo wants to keep the meat of the game secretive until release day. While the dungeon and fishing levels in the demo were just fine, they are no indication of how successful the game will be overall.

So we wait with anticipation of riding horseback in Hyrule Field and exploring the vast corners of Hyrule in what is promised to be the largest, overall best Zelda game ever made. What we know for a fact is that the Wii incarnation of Twilight Princess will feature some of the best videogame fishing ever. Ever!

Carl Johnson
Executive Editor, Kikizo.com