Zelda: Twilight Princess Discussion (SPOILERS: BEWARE)

[dabookerman]

Muslim joke made already

 

And yeah, Zelda will outscore resistance fall of man

 

that game is just a generic fps

 

I got the original fire temple music

[triforce_keeper]

The ranch in the E3 2005 demo isn't Lon Lon Ranch, I can't remember what its called (I've played it ) but it definitely isn't Lon Lon Ranch.

 

Link was a cowboy and I had to round up some cows I think.

 

The riding demo was better And playing chicken on the bridge!

 

When did you two play on them?

[Charlie]

When did you two play on them?

 

I played it at EIEF last year.

 

I played the riding demo and the jousting part on the bridge too.

 

I was whoring 1 of the 4 Zelda pods for ages. I completed all 4 parts of the demo. The forest temple, the horse battle, the joust and the bit in the village.

[Shino]

I played it at EIEF last year.

 

I played the riding demo and the jousting part on the bridge too.

 

I was whoring 1 of the 4 Zelda pods for ages. I completed all 4 parts of the demo. The forest temple, the horse battle, the joust and the bit in the village.

 

You bastard.

[triforce_keeper]

I played it at EIEF last year.

 

I played the riding demo and the jousting part on the bridge too.

 

I was whoring 1 of the 4 Zelda pods for ages. I completed all 4 parts of the demo. The forest temple, the horse battle, the joust and the bit in the village.

 

What did you think? Give us a mini review moria!

[Charlie]

I think I did last August actually.

 

Here's another one though.

 

It's awesome.

[froztyman]

Does anyone have any info on when the GC-version releases in Europe? I understand its after the Wii-release but how long?

[Sprout]

Ah, the horseback battle/joust demo. Good fun that was at that Nintendo Allstars tour last year. As was the village demo, rounding up all those cattle things and such. Good stuff. Damn, remembering about it makes me want to play it again. Curses

[Tellyn]

Muslim joke made already

 

And yeah, Zelda will outscore resistance fall of man

 

that game is just a generic fps

 

I got the original fire temple music

 

Have I missed some big argument that angered people here and required mods? Because that message was a lot shorter and involved dismemberment. :P

[Dante]

Cubed3's hands-on.

 

The Legend of Zelda series is one that has had so many accolades poured upon it, it is a wonder it has not been crushed. From the spectacular NES original, through the sublime Ocarina of Time, right past the cel-shaded Wind Waker and up to the Capcom/Flagship-developed Minish Cap, Nintendo’s Zelda franchise has never wavered in terms of its overall quality and high levels of presentation. Now, though, we patiently await the final release of the much-delayed Twilight Princess and can only hope that with the company changing the game’s initial platform and adding in new control mechanics, Nintendo has not dropped the ball this time. With the chance to see the near-final build in London, there was no better way to find out the bottom line…

 

This is the one many have been waiting for – the first time a Zelda game has made the launch of a new Nintendo home console. But the question is whether it is merely a spruced up GameCube title or actually worthy of being classed as proper Wii title. The first time I really got my teeth into Zelda Twilight Princess was back in 2005, at the Post-E3 Tour in London, where I was lucky enough to play through all the various modes on offer and walked away feeling far more pleased than I ever felt when playing Wind Waker. Now, just over a year after, coming back to the same game gave me an ominous feeling. Had the delay been favourable? Had the inclusion of new control techniques been added in smoothly or would it all feel ‘tacked on’? After putting my fears to one side, it was time to step up and firmly grasp Link’s long, hard sword (…)

 

Grasping the teeny-tiny Wii controls in my big, manly hands, I got Link trotting around using the analogue stick of the nunchuk with ease. In fact, just like with Mario Galaxy, wandering around actually felt more comfortable with this set up since your arms are spread out further, doing wonders for posture! See, Nintendo is thinking of our hunched backs as well…how kind. So, the graphics are as sweat inducing as ever, now with extra gob-smacking polish to make it look far better than the likes of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Resident Evil 4 did on the GameCube, and rightly so if it is to be a Wii launch title. Nothing much could be heard in the way of the soundtrack due to background noise, but various video clips around the Internet will give you a fair idea of this being the usual Zelda fare.

 

My first challenge was to get used to the new attacking techniques, which utilise the Wii controls for jabbing, spinning around and so on and so forth. Waggle your freehand controller around to slash away at the beasts that swarm you, or shake the nunchuk quickly to trigger the spin attack that sends groups flying. Just like in Mario Strikers (hands-on report: here), this became second-nature after wandering for a short while and proved to be more fun than merely tapping away frantically on a single button. You need not worry about a lack of accuracy either, as targeting makes a welcome return and you could actually practice on an inanimate scarecrow before heading into the throng of enemies ahead. If you had the patience, that is, and hey, with limited time on the game, would YOU really waste precious seconds like that? Exactly! Although maybe a quick try out of the shield manoeuvring would have been an idea, as I found out later…

 

There is a LOT of fun to be had with Twilight Princess, despite what a few sources will say about clunky controls. Personally, after reading some E3 reports I was suspicious of what would be here, but I was allayed very quickly as I suddenly became absorbed by the classic Zelda gameplay. But classic-with-a-twist, for I was faced with a batch of monsters shooting arrows at me like crazy. Seriously, there was barely any let-up, which made things awkward as I fumbled to whip out my bow and arrow (using the d-pad to flick easily from sword to secondary weapon), then use the motion sensor-driven arrow shooting technique. The way to do things now is to use the B-button, which is the trigger one on the freehand controller, to draw your arrow back whilst moving the whole thing about to adjust the on-screen target, yet at the same time gently nudging the analogue stick to keep your field of vision from straying away from the targets. When ready, a simple release of ‘B’ sends the arrow thudding into, hopefully, the enemy you were trying to aim at.

I saw many people struggle immensely with this as I had been wandering early, beer in-hand, but thankfully I was able to adapt to it quite promptly, likely due to having played the precision of Excite Truck (impressions here) previously, so I was used to gentle movements that did not send the camera into a crazy spin. Once despatched it was time to move on to a puzzle of sorts. I shot round the corner only to find there was a large switch in front of me. It turns out that I had to quickly don my metal boots in order to de-press it, swiftly switch back to the normal ones so I could run and jump off the edge of the nearby platform and then hastily put them back on (Link’s skills are amazing – putting on metal boots in mid-air, wow!)…why? Because now there is a massive magnetic moving block above your head, which draws you toward it, locking you in place (upside down, of course) and transports you across the otherwise impassable gaping space, at which point you must remove them in a timely fashion to let Link drop onto the other side rather than into an empty void. Classic Zelda indeed…

 

Then there was some more aiming to be done, with arrows being used to shoot through rope holding up a large wooden bridge. This again took a little time to adjust to, but was certainly not difficult to grasp after a couple of tries. What befuddled me was the whirlwind boomerang, mainly because for some reason I completely lost control of the camera when in first-person mode. All you have to do is lock on to four objects, following the points of a letter ‘Z’ in order (as you could see highlighted on the ground), then let fly with the crazy ‘rang. The problem was that I had stood in the wrong place, too close to one particular object and everything went haywire. I blame myself, though, not the game…Overall, whilst my time was nowhere near as extensive as last year’s GameCube hands-on, it was definitely clear that Nintendo had melded the Wii controls in sufficiently well and upped some of the graphical goodness to make this stand out from its GC brother. And guess what? I did not collapse on the floor from the fatigue that some developers seem to be talking about from constant wiggling and waggling! As for the fishing demo that was available, unfortunately I did not get time with it, but James might fill you in about his experience at some point.

 

Anticipation Rating 5/5

And there we go – full marks for anticipation. Am I swept up by the hype or generally excited, though? The Zelda thrill is still there, which is extremely important, and the extra controls have been tightened-up so they sit within the main game better than ever before. This epic game just got a whole lot better…

[Owen]

I actually preordered this game today!

 

A tear went down my cheek!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tellyn]

Are GAME taking preorders on this? I know they won't for the Wii until early October, but I really want to secure Twilight Princess.

[ShadowV7]

Are GAME taking preorders on this? I know they won't for the Wii until early October, but I really want to secure Twilight Princess.

 

GAME are doing Wii pre-orders online just now with TP.

Click here

[Tellyn]

In store though, because I don't trust online delivery.

[Owen]

In store though, because I don't trust online delivery.

 

Yes they are! Alot of GAME stores started yesterday! For the Wii. Not sure about Zelda.

 

The bloke i spoke too on Gameplay said Zelda: TTP is VERY VERY VERY popular. Most Wii preorders also have Zelda with it.

[Tellyn]

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE TO GO DOWN THERE!!!!!!

[Owen]

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE TO GO DOWN THERE!!!!!!

 

Not sure if you can preorder Zelda in Game yet....but i'm pretty sure you can preorder a Wii, as i have.

 

Just to make sure you understood my message.

[Tellyn]

Yep, thank you very much! I'm not sure I can get down there before the weekend though! AGH!

[Owen]

Yep, thank you very much! I'm not sure I can get down there before the weekend though! AGH!

 

At least your showing emotion/excitement for the Wii and Zelda. I like that.

[Drunken_Squirrel]

Zelda is something i've tried not to think about, at always seemed to be so far off. Now that i've preordered it today, i've found myself playing Ocarina in my head and remembering different scenarios from it the first time through.

 

It took me two months to complete OOT, the most memorable two months that this form of entertainment will ever give me. Now the excitement has started. And it may become unbearable.

 

72 days. 72 fúcking days.

[solitanze]

Just asking for clarification purposes, with this new control scheme [i.E. Swinging the Wiimote for sword slashes], is that the only way you're able to slash the sword now in the game or can you use both buttons and swinging the Wiimote interchangably?

[ZeldaFreak]

Just asking for clarification purposes, with this new control scheme [i.E. Swinging the Wiimote for sword slashes], is that the only way you're able to slash the sword now in the game or can you use both buttons and swinging the Wiimote interchangably?

 

Unfortunately no they are not interchangeable just the swinging - I know people have said it will be comfortable. But as anyone played it through i mean from the start of the game to the first 6 hour mark point. Because i feel many people might come out with rsi.

 

I know nintendo tried to make it comfortable but it has a problem of that you carn't lounge on your couch while playing it, I predict you'll need to be close to asensor bar to make it work.

[The Peeps]

Well unless you like to sit on your hands there's no reason why you cant lounge around while playing on the Wii. Does anyone know the distance limit on the sensor bar? I never really thought about that but I doubt it'll be a big problem unless you live in a mansion or something.

[solitanze]

Well unless you like to sit on your hands there's no reason why you cant lounge around while playing on the Wii. Does anyone know the distance limit on the sensor bar? I never really thought about that but I doubt it'll be a big problem unless you live in a mansion or something.

 

In which I do... Should be fine though.

[Smiter]

Well unless you like to sit on your hands there's no reason why you cant lounge around while playing on the Wii. Does anyone know the distance limit on the sensor bar? I never really thought about that but I doubt it'll be a big problem unless you live in a mansion or something.

Well, the official Wii website states the controller distance limit is 10 metres (32 feet). I remember somewhere else said the limit was 30 feet, so that sounds about right.

 

So unless you sit at the other side of the house from the screen, you should be fine.