The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess review

Finally, we get the Master Sword.

Review written by
Joseph the Squirrel

The Legend of Zelda games have always put their best feet forward and shown that it was a series meant to shine. Shine as brightly as its master sword. Twilight Princess is, without ANY doubt, the shiniest Zelda game to ever grace your Wii/Gamecube ever.

Overall, the entire game feels like a combination of the three best Zelda titles (in my opinion): Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. Take those three games, throw in a nice spiffy control system and just a hint of kick-ass, and you have Twilight Princess.

The story is MUCH darker and will keep you pinned to your Wii for a good long time. It's even darker than the Majora's Mask's story, which was quite dark itself. You will come to love the characters you meet in your quest, from your cute wanna-be girlfriend, to your annoying but friendly monkey of the forest. The entire story is grand and intelligent, it gives you moments where you're shocked beyond belief.

You'll start out in your simple farm town, then venture to find your kidnapped children friends, and end up getting turned into a wolf and forced to save Hyrule once again. Of course, the story is better than that, it gets better as you go along. Plus, perhaps the best news of all, the only time when you see an annoying fairy is on your wiimote's pointer cursor. Instead of a fairy or some talking boat, you get Midna who has a dark backstory of her own.

The biggest news about TP is the control scheme, which blows you away from the first moment you pick up your wiimote and nunchuk. With just a nice swing of your wiimote, you slice and dice your enemies into nice bits of sushi. The swordplay goes much deeper, as you learn new techniques along your journey from the finishing stab to the jab of your shield.

The dungeon scheme is a nice reminiscence of OOT, as they're very challenging and will make your brain think a bit. The weapons you find are very creative and will make you fall in love with them from the first time you open the chests.

The sidequests go deep and encourage much collecting. You'll spend many Saturday nights searching for that one golden bug to give to that annoying lady to get that nice wallet upgrade instead of going out with your imaginary girlfriend, but it will feel all the more worth it. As in every Zelda game, there will be plenty of nick-nacks, heartpieces (five per heart now), and rupees to give you a great experience.

In this game there are only two flaws, and they are well known by now: the sound and graphics. Although the attention to detail on the characters are amazing, all of the environments (except the water for some reason) look only about as good as a pretty Gamecube title. I'm not quite sure how good the graphics COULD be on the Wii yet, but I expect better from a next-gen system. The music will have you remember back to those wonderful moments of ocarina playing, but the quality doesn't sound that good. Also, with such great emotion conveyed on the characters' faces, it would finally be nice to actually hear more than just grunts, or "aahs!", or snickers. Lack of voice acting still hurts.

When you boil the game down, it's the crown jewel of Zeldas to date. The controls, attention to detail, and replay value will blow you away. Once you get the chance, buy this game, play this game, replay this game, marry this game. It is by far one of the best in the history of games.