Legend of Zelda - Best Nintendo Wii Games

Reviewed By: Chris Jozefowicz

Link, the hero of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda games, may not have as high of a pop culture profile as his video game relative Mario, but gamers have been feverishly awaiting his newest adventure for more than three years. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS arrives as one of the Wii launch titles, and the wait was worth it. Aside from a jarring glitch, Twilight Princess is a long, stirring adventure and one of the best games in the Zelda series.

Twilight Princess is reminiscent of The Ocarina of Time, the classic Nintendo 64 Zelda adventure. The graphical style is more realistic than the cartoonish Windwaker, the previous game in the series. The gameplay also echoes Ocarina: Link begins as simple village boy, but after a few hours, players are guiding him into a wide, dangerous world as he embraces his destiny in a battle to save the world from forces of darkness.

The darkness in Twilight Princess is literal: To save the world of Hyrule, Link must venture into the Twilight Realm that is spreading over the land. While Link is in the Twilight Realm, he turns into a wolf that is aided by a citizen of the Realm called Midna. Playing as a wolf allows gamers to activate special animal senses, including following scent trails and digging up buried treasures. They can also tap into Midna's powers to access new areas. This boy/wolf transformation is forced on players in conjunction with certain plot points early in the game, but before too long Link is able to morph at will.

Apart from this novel dynamic, the world of Twilight Princess should be familiar to fans of the Zelda games. Link travels around the beautiful overworld, through villages, forests, mountains, etc., seeking dungeons that hold new weapons, tools, and special objects that will allow him to defeat the invasion of Twilight. These dungeons are some of the game's highlights, providing diverse locales such as underground caves, where special boots allow Link to walk on walls, and a frozen mansion, where Link can fire cannons to destroy icy barriers.

The new Wii controls work wonderfully in Twilight Princess. Link slashes his sword when players swing the controller. The Wii pointer controls the aiming of weapons like the slingshot and bow and arrow. The Wii remote, with its sensitivity to the slightest flick of the wrist, also allows for the most fun fishing mini-games ever to appear in a Zelda adventure. These interactive features really do draw players into the game. Some notably intense passages in Twilight Princess involve battles on horseback, in which Link is pursued by enemies riding giant boars; players must quickly aim with the remote to use a bow and arrow and pick them off.

This adventure is massive, spanning more than 50 hours, and the combination of the wonderful world and thrilling action makes it a truly incredible game. Yet the game cannot be called perfect. In fact, it contains at least one glitch that will destroy a player's game roughly 40 hours in.

Some plot details must be divulged here, but it will save gamers from hair-pulling frustration. At one point in the game, Link enters a chamber containing a large, broken cannon. Midna offers to help Link move the cannon, but a non-playable character is in the room with them and the cannon can't be moved until the character leaves. GAMERS BEWARE: DO NOT SAVE THE GAME IN THIS ROOM! If the game is saved here, when players begin from their save they will find themselves trapped and will have to start again from an earlier save. (Even though the character has disappeared, Midna still thinks he's there, making it impossible to move the cannon or leave the room.) Our advice: Use multiple save files.

For those who enjoy this kind of epic adventure, similar titles are Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.