The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Link's new adventure on Wii is one of his best yet. Find out why in our extensive review.

Version
Wii

Developer
Nintendo

Publisher
Nintendo

Genre
Adventure

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"Flicking the Wii remote to slash at enemies soon starts to feel natural... but swinging is little more than a button press in the end."

Your first trip to the Twilight world is also the first time you encounter Link's lupine abilities. Like his regular skills, making do with Wolf Link is not immediately natural. It's this gradual curve, where you slowly become accustomed to the new controls, which is partly responsible for Twilight Princess taking so long to get going. In the time that many people are seeing the credits roll in modern action games you'll scarcely be finishing off the second of the nine massive dungeons in Hyrule.

You could argue that Nintendo has extended the game so much to keep the hardcore appeased while they work on Mario Galaxy, and it does sometimes feel like it could have been pared down, but for the most part you'll be savouring every minute of the adventure. The bulky playing time reminds you that this is an epic journey during which you'll truly earn every new skill you get. By the time you get to the end of the game, you feel like you deserve the glory. It's hard for many people these days to justify playing one game for more than fifty hours, but when it's as good as this, it's worth it.

A big question about the Wii version of Twilight Princess is whether Nintendo has been able to retrofit the old gameplay around the new controls. The good news is that it does become second nature, but you'll need to adjust to it. Flicking the Wiimote to slash at enemies starts to feel natural and you might even be able to find a position that lets you slouch on the couch the way you usually do.

"Text dialogue can be jarring... this 20-year-old tradition harms your belief in the characters."

That said, I'm not convinced that the game couldn't have turned out just as well had Nintendo stuck with the more traditional controller. Swinging the Wiimote is nothing more than pressing a button, in the end. It's a pity that Nintendo didn't give us the option to use the GameCube controller if we wanted do. There are some advantages though. You can aim precisely and flick across the screen more quickly. But this doesn't seem enough to make the motion-sensitive controls a must-have feature.

One unfortunate relic from the series' past is Nintendo's stubborn refusal to get with the times and start voicing if not Link then at least the rest of the inhabitants of Hyrule. There are the odd exclamations of fear or surprise, but all dialogue takes place through text boxes. This is most jarring during the surprisingly frequent cut scenes that help drag the story along. When so much work has gone into creating a believable world, it's a pity that the developers' overpowering desire to adhere to the technological constraints of a 20-year-old game harms how much you can believe in the characters.

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Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Nintendo Video Interview Extensive video interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, Koji Kondo & Hideki Konno, on Zelda: Twilight Princess	28.34m	181MB	SD, 30 640x480 1Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess Extensive gameplay footage, commentated by producer, Eiji Aonuma.	28.51m	268MB	SD, 30 640x480 1Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2006 Trailer ED	00:24	11MB	DF, ED, 16:9 852x480p60 4.2Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2006 Gameplay 1	02:54	88MB	CAM, ED, 16:9 852x480p60 4.2Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2006 Gameplay 2	01:51	56MB	CAM, ED, 16:9 852x480p60 4.2Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2006 Gameplay 3	05:36	169MB	DF, ED, 16:9 852x480p60 4.2Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2006 Gameplay 4	00:25	6MB	DF, SD, 16:9 640x360p30 2.1Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2006 GameCube Trailer SD	00:52	8MB	DF, SD, 4:3 640x480p30 1.3Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2005 Trailer ED	2.14m	50MB	DF, ED, 60 640x480 3Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2005 Trailer ED (2)	2.13m	48MB	DF, ED, 60 720x576 3Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess GDC 2005 Trailer ED	1.29m	18.6 MB	DF, ED, 30 640x480 2Mbps
Zelda: Twilight Princess E3 2004 Trailer SD	1.04m	8.17 MB	DF, ED, 30 640x480 2Mbps

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Link's new adventure on Wii is one of his best yet. Find out why in our extensive review.

Kikizo:

Kikizo Classic:

Entertainment:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Link's new adventure on Wii is one of his best yet. Find out why in our extensive review.

Kikizo:

Kikizo Classic:

Entertainment:

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