So today I’m going to run a short and sweet review of probably the last amazing experience that Nintendo’s last-gen Gamecube has to offer, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess narrates the story of the Hero of Hyrule, Link, in his quest to save the Kingdom and it´s Princess Zelda from the dark power of the Twilight that has befallen their land. That’s basically the storyline, in a nutshell. Sure, you are probably thinking it’s nothing special. But it is. The way the story is laid out is sweet, has momentum and has enough plot twists (albeit not many, but enough) to keep you interested like a page-turner book. The characters are polished for the most part, have personality, charm and you can identify with them easily; then again this is Nintendo who we are talking about. The game itself provides a full 50 hour adventure with the most beautiful locales that we’ve seen on Nintendo (and maybe on the last-gen itself, rivaled in my opinion by Shadow of the Colossus in it’s “Epic Feel” to it), which is nothing to scoff at on this day an age were the Big Name Publishers shell out short & expensive crap one after the other.

The Gameplay on the Gamecube of Twilight Princess is probably the thing I should focus the most on, since it’s what makes it radically different from the Wii version. In a nutshell? It just works. Many have argued that the Gamecube controller detracts from the experience and the Wii doesn’t, but that’s not true: while the Wii version might be more immersive, that doesn’t make the Gamecube version of the game be unplayable. On the contrary, it’s just as playable, and for people used to either of the 3 last-gen console controllers, it’s easy to pick up and play. As expected, you move Link around with the Analog Stick, you can move the camera around with the C-Stick (Feature which I understand isn’t present on the Wii version, although I could be wrong), you draw and use your sword with the B button, you assign 2 different tools or weapons to the Y and X buttons, you Lock On to things with the L-Trigger and you Lock On manually to the targets of certain weapons (Like the Bow or the Dominion Rod) with the R-Trigger. And of course, the omnipresent A button does several things like Put Away your sword, Place a Bomb, Speak, Mount/Dismount from your Horse, etc.
Worth mentioning of course, is the fact that in Twilight Princess, our hero has the ability to shape-shift into a Wolf, which enables him to do some really interesting things like Dig, Smell, Bite and even use his canine Senses to see hidden spots, detect outwordly things like Ghosts, etc. It’s really interesting once you get into the second half of the game and on, how the puzzles involve switching forms a lot, which adds a lot of depth to the gameplay and keeps things interesting.
The controller works just like expected as I said, and it provides a more than satisfactory experience. I rarely messed up due to the controller or the button layout, using your side-weapons feels absolutely natural and moving Link and the camera the same time feels completely intuitive and responsible, no complains there. In fact, there are no complains at all. The control works even better than it did in Wind Waker, the camera locks on better to your targets and there’s way less blind-spots thanks to the camera’s placement, which makes controlling Link even easier. Everything about the way you play the game just makes sense. Period. It might be a different experience because you don’t actually swing the controller to hit your targets, but it’s by no means inferior. This is good stuff that works. 5/5

The Graphics in Twilight Princess definitely do the job, and although they are not Gears of War or TES4: Oblivion, they definitely hold their own. The quality of the designs is superb as usual from a Zelda game (I did like Wind Waker’s different and fresh style, thank you). Some people complain about the game being “too brown”, but that’s definitely untrue when you visit places like Ordon Village, Hyrule Field and Zora’s Domain. The game doesn’t lack variety, color and crispy beauty. Technically, the game holds up pretty well considering the hardware: thankfully the GC always have good AA support, and the Bloom effect on the lighting in the game adds a lot of atmosphere and character to the overall feel of the game. Everything is animated swiftly and smoothly. and there are close to no slowdowns even in the most heated battles. This is really really good stuff for what it is, and maybe the only thing you can say it’s not good about the graphics is that it’s not Gears of War. But other than that, this is really amazing stuff. 4.5/5

The Sound and Presentation of the game is equally as epic and flawlessly executed as you’d expect for a game this caliber. The score feels important, big, present and it adds to the atmosphere of both gameplay and cut-scenes. One thing that I didn’t enjoy is the lack of Voice Overs for the dialogues, but then again that has never been something expected from Zelda… and no voice acting is better than a crappy one. Still, the characters make some sounds like grunts, laughs, etc. – and the characters from the Twilight Realm have some sort of “dialect” that’s almost like a voice-over which serves the purpose of portraying the characters really well. Still, no full voice-overs is kinda hard to overlook in my book, but that’s just a personal nagging. Also, the score does include versions of older Zelda songs albeit in a sort of remixed way: when you are in Wolf form, there are some Stones you can Howl to as a part of a side-quest to obtain more skills for Link’s Master Sword. Each of these stone Howling “mini-game” has basically howled versions of older songs, which has a strangely amazing appeal to it that personally drew me in big time. Overall, it’s still a very solid score and it definitely holds it’s place within the whole game. 4/5

Conclusion & Final Score: Definitely a candidate (if not THE candidate) for 2006′s Game of the Year in my book, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is excellent. Everything about the game is masterfully executed, and while yes some quirks appears here or there, it’s nothing too major or at least it’s nothing that wasn’t intended. The lack of voice-overs does make it feel a bit dated, but there’s not an excessive amount of reading to do: this isn’t Final Fantasy XII. The gameplay is great, the graphics are really good for a last-gen system, it uses resources to make it look less dated, and the overall Epic feeling of this whole adventure definitely makes this one a Home Run for Nintendo. It’s hard not to recommend this game even if this isn’t your favourite genre; it is a unique experience which feels great. If you have a Gamecube, pick this up before you kiss goodbye to that system. If you have a Wii, chances are you are probably enjoying this masterpiece already. That’s all there is to it. Home Run. So without a doubt, this game deserves my personal score of… 4.5/5