The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Preview

I played two sections of the game at E3 and both of them blew me away.  The first part of the demo I played was a horseback battle out in a field.  This is the boss battle for what appears to be the first part of the game.  The boss was a huge Orc like creature with enormous horns and a kidnapped girl was tied to what appeared to be a spear that was on the Orc’s boar like creature he was using as a horse.  Link was on horseback and I had to chase down the Orc (who was running away from the beating I was about to unleash) but the Orc decided to call upon his minions to try to run interference for him.  While on horseback you can use a turbo like feature to (from the N64 version) speed up the horse in order to attack the Orc.  Attacking on horseback was a breeze since you just pressed the B button to swing your sword at the Orc or at his attacking minions.  One part of this battle that had me saying “oh man oh man” was seeing Link deflect arrows being shot at him from the Orc’s minions.  It was so amazing to see this happening and see it happening with this type of Zelda game was unbelievable.  Once the initial first battle with the Orc was finished he still ran away onto a bridge where we decided to duel.  Yes that is correct, the next sequence was the Orc and I playing a deadly game of chicken on a bridge with no barriers to keep you from falling.  Once again my words cannot do this sequence justice it was just an amazing and incredible experience.  I will freely admit that I did die twice during this encounter but once I vanquished the Orc off of his stead Link decided to pose in what was an amazing cinematic moment that reminded me of a movie.  

The other section of the game that I played was one of the dungeons.  The dungeon really allowed me to focus on the normal combat system in the game and use a special weapon, the boomerang.  The only issue I really had with the this area was the camera.  Sometimes the camera would seem to zoom in just a little too much and it made it a little unforgiving during certain battles.  One of the main themes of the dungeon were the monkeys.  It seems as if animals will be a big influence on the final version of the game because during this dungeon battle you had to help one of the monkeys rescue his friend.  But the interesting part with the monkeys was the fact that you can use them during certain parts of the dungeon.  For example there was a bridge that you couldn’t cross but the monkey offered to catch you and throw you over to the next ledge.   It was so awesome seeing that sequence happen over and over again with the other gamers playing the game. 

The game plays almost exactly the same as the last Zelda game on Gamecube.  There really isn’t that much of a difference between the controls since the N64 versions came out years ago.  But that’s OK with me since I thought the controls were almost perfect for a 3D Zelda game.   The game allows you to perform a finishing blow to an enemy once you knocked an enemy down for the (hopefully) final count.  The screen will indicate to press the A button to finish off the enemy with one final blow which felt so gratifying. 

The way the game looks is where the game excels at becoming the Zelda game we’ve all wanted for so many years.  The graphics are simply incredible with all of the locations being incredibly detailed with gorgeous textures for the stages.  The animation of the characters and the enemies were also amazing but that was the case with the last Zelda game on GC.  This is adult/grown up Link that we’ve waited for and the entire world has a much darker mood as well.   This is, in my opinion, a game that could help attract some of the gamers Nintendo has lost to the more adult and mainstream titles that the other companies are making.  The video on display at Nintendo even shows Link morphing into a wolf and howling at the moonlight.  This is not Wind Waker 2.  This is the Zelda that I’ve wanted and I’m sure many of you have wanted for a long time.  We’ll have to wait until later this year before we can play it but it will be worth the wait. 

For All E3 2005 Previews