Well there's your score right there - 10 out of 10. But we all knew Nintendo's biggest Zelda yet would snatch the top marks, but is it really the greatest Zelda game ever?
As always the answer to that question comes down to personal taste, but if it's just a question of 'does it stand toe-to-toe with Ocarina of Time' then the answer is a definite yes; as Nintendo have long promised, Twilight Princess holds no punches, offering a truly gigantic Zelda experience with some superbly-designed dungeons, gorgeous environments and finally a story worth writing home about.
As we are well aware of the fondness surrounding the series, we'll do our best to avoid any spoilers in this review - be assured that in the words that follow, the story will remain largely unspoilt but the obvious gameplay features demoed in early E3 trailers will be discussed in brief.
The story tells the tale of a new struggle in Hyrule with the coming of the all-consuming Twilight Realm, which has engulfed Hyrule in bloom-shaded darkness. When Link travels to this bizarre realm the twilight transforms him, via some Majora-esque cut-scenes, into a blue-eyed wolf who, with the help of a new friend, has a set of all-new abilities.
We'd love to go into detail why playing as a Wolf is so enjoyable and downright cool - but as promised we're doing our best to avoid spoilers. Combat mechanics are totally against the Zelda convention, yet aren't wild enough not to feel at home with the series. Travelling and adventuring brings some equally-unique features, but we'll leave that for you to discover.
Of course the real meat of Zelda is its dungeons and Twilight Princess doesn't disappoint, with a massive dungeon count surpassing any Zelda game before. Thankfully they're not lacking in quality either; the usual variety of dungeon themes are in there, and will strike as familiar to seasoned Zelda fans.
Yet, far from feeling stale, all of those familiar themes greatly benefit from Twilight's gorgeous art direction and enhanced realism, creating rich atmospheres superior to any previous Zelda quest.
Thankfully the quality doesn't drop in later challenges either, which is something that marred the otherwise sound Wind Waker. Gamers looking for a challenge will be please to hear that one of Twilight's dungeons in particular rivals even the mighty Ocarina of Time's Water Temple in terms of difficulty - our telly would be well and truly smashed if it wasn't for those handy Wii Remote wrist straps.
One of the most striking things about Twilight Princess over previous 3D Zelda games is the sheer scope and scale of its version of Hyrule. Sure, Wind Waker had its vast ocean but it was a largely empty and uninteresting blue void. Twilight's world is easily the best version of Hyrule yet; not only compelling in a design sense but also in terms of artistic flair as well; quite simply it's gorgeous.
Comments
38 comments so far...
Mr Vengeance on 19 Nov '06 said:
Excellent review, I'm glad it has been awarded a Ten. I'm sure it deserves it. December 8th can't come soon enough!
stealthgate on 19 Nov '06 said:
I truly hope, through Wii, that Nintendo will take back its once glorious reign of the gaming world!
This game looks amazing, and is sure to feel amazing as well. This review, I'm sure, certainly reflects the kind of quality we've all been waiting for.
Adropacrich2 on 19 Nov '06 said:
Wow only the second post so far for a likely game of the year candidate(mind you , Gears is truely the most amazing game i have played so far this year)
Every review so far has been incredibly high for Twilight(except Gamespot - Windwaker got a higher mark) and this pleases me enormously.I am going to lose massive amounts of time this december and Wii's launch is about the most exciting thing to happen in a very long time.I'm getting Wii just for Zelda but i'll also be glad to play Wii sports when resting a little from Zelda.
Truely happy now the review scores have come in.Hopefully Edge will rate this a 9/10(unlikely to get a 10) as i get that before Zelda is released and that will make me happier still.
Can't wait
rak49 on 19 Nov '06 said:
I want I wantI wantI wantI wantI wantI wantI wantI wantI wantI wantI want ...sori someone had to do it
Anonymous on 19 Nov '06 said:
Zelda TP is truly a masterpiece. Just as I thought.
ps. Let me just say that Gamespot are an absolute disgrace by the way. A couple of their Wii reviews(zelda especially are way off the mark).
crashmer on 19 Nov '06 said:
Good to know, Nintendo does it again and again...no questions asked.
Chris_Eals on 19 Nov '06 said:
want... so.. badly...
GT500 on 19 Nov '06 said:
Have you played through it like.
splojgonxee on 19 Nov '06 said:
yes gamespot are very anti nintendo.their reviews are way off the mark.they gave this masterpiece 88% when at least 10 other sites have given it 95% and above plus they are ignorant sony and halo(not microsoft)fanboys.i cant decide whether to get a wii or 360 as twilight princess and gears of war both look awesome.
Anonymous on 19 Nov '06 said:
Who has been moaning the most in the CVG office about arm ache? Come on, name and shame!
ryaneld on 19 Nov '06 said:
only 18 days ppl. start thinking of good illnesses for work/school ect. cause this game is gonna take over our lives for a good while.
-Bosco- on 19 Nov '06 said:
good review, im really looking forward to this game a bit too much, i was planning on picking it and the wii up launch day and then saving them until xmas morning but after reading so many reviews and them saying its the best zelda ever made, im going to find it very hard not to play it
Adropacrich2 on 19 Nov '06 said:
Good luck on holding out until xmas mate , not sure i could.
Wind Waker getting a higher score than Twilight from Gamespot did seem a little odd considering all reviews pointing to a total eclipsing of WW.I liked WW a lot for it's charm but it's perfectly fair to say that it didn't reach the dizzying height of Ocarina and was lacking in some areas.
18 days to wait is a very long time to wait for what is the greatest franchise ever created so i guess a lot of us here are going to be wishing our life away until then.
-Bosco- on 19 Nov '06 said:
wind waker was great and i think on par with ocarina of time, the great sea with it being void of life bar for a few settlement on small islands really painted a great image of the bleakness that is the future of hyrule, sure the build up to the end was slow and it would of been better just to have had 1 dungeon were all the tri-force pieces were...
and as i have said to people before with nintendo saying they might go back and port some of the cube games to the wii which will use the remote, it would be nice to see a directors cut of wind waker.
Diddy_Kong on 20 Nov '06 said:
yeah I read the gamespot review and they felt the wii controls were tacked on and were a hindrance, but considering every other review mentions that the shooting is so much more intuative, I think I can just put that review down to shoddy journalism
Adropacrich2 on 20 Nov '06 said:
WW was hardly a bad game of course and if viewed on it's own merits instead of direct comparison to a previous Zelda , then it's a lovely game deserving of good review scores.Beautifull graphics and a wonderfully convincing game world that's let down by it being simply too easy and with less to do than than there should be in an game as epic as this.Nice game and i'm very glad to have played it however.
creamerybutter on 20 Nov '06 said:
How can a game with downers receive a 10.0? Personally I very much doubt the game is perfect but I shall wait till I play it.
me4pd on 20 Nov '06 said:
Get both. That's what i'd do if I had the cash. I don't though and since i've always had nintendo machines in the past (and now that Wii looks great) I see no reason to change-only add.
Wouldn't work with a ps3 mind.
splojgonxee on 20 Nov '06 said:
i'm a nintendo fan
and this game looks awesome but i'm feeling the need to do a wii60 as pro evo(love it) gears of war,f.e.a.r,nba 2k7 and assassin's creed(amazing) are all on the 360.but nintendo just keeps on making the best games in the world.
varsas78 on 20 Nov '06 said:
Assassin's Creed is on PS3 too right? Pro Evo's nice on the 360 but I'll stick with my PS2 for the moment until they do a proper next gen version...it'll probably be better on ps3 than 360
Anonymous on 20 Nov '06 said:
You cheating bastard you!
And you said it was because of your cousin.... FORSHAME!!
Miss Marvellous on 22 Nov '06 said:
Think I will reserve judgement until I play it myself.
Its no doubt going to be good as Nintendo wouldnt let one of there flag ships sink on day 1 but 10/10 we will have to wait and see
lobo666gaara on 22 Nov '06 said:
surprising yer review compared to the average score on other such sites....i truly doubt it is a 10 rating due to certain reasons but who knows, its obvious a zelda fanatic played the game and gave it a good score, Im not a fan boy i find that word insulting when im doin psychology at uni lol.
personally i hope it is a 10 rating because every other WII launch game from what ive heard state side is pure dreadful.
The WII really needs its nintendo's own home bread games to do well, cuz 3rd party support will die away when its sales flunder which it certainlly will, those saying it wqont.....well denial is a ugly thing lol.
Dellinator on 22 Nov '06 said:
So wii controls aren't the best representation of wii's use.
/strokes Gamecube.
gbenlcfc on 22 Nov '06 said:
I don't know what you've been reading because apart from GameSpot, Wii is getting very good reviews.
azmandu on 22 Nov '06 said:
I have no intention of getting a Wii until next year (when I have the money) so am I gonna be the only one playing this on my good ol' Gamecube?
seancuk23 on 23 Nov '06 said:
Without a doubt i knew this game was gonna rock and i hope i will be playing this xmas day Merry Christmas Everyone
PS DanDoc is a DanDork
varsas78 on 23 Nov '06 said:
Indeed it's been getting 9.5 or 10 out of 10 except for GS and even then it only just missed out on 9 with a 8.8 score.
If you check reviews for other games they aren't on the same level but some are still getting 7 to 8. Go check the gameranking website!
If you look at the DS you can clearly see that 3rd party support has never been better. If devs come up with interesting uses for the controller then Wii will continue to do well. However I think Nintendo will again have to take a lead as they did on DS.
nintendo is the on 8 Dec '06 said:
i've played twighlight princess and cleared the first castle so far. and i can say as a huge zelda fan that its all ready better then the wind waker and majora's mask!!!!! ill have to clear though to deside if its better then ocarina.
Anonymous on 9 Dec '06 said:
So, let me get this right, this is a game for a 5 year old sytem, but with some added tweaks for a newly released system? Yawn. Not taking my money you ain't.
What I really want is a side-by-side comparion between the Wii and the Gamecube's version of this game.
Would I buy Halo (1) if it came with a new gamepad? Hell no.
Anonymous on 9 Dec '06 said:
I find myself pretty ambivalent to it so far:
The joint nunchuk and wiimote control feel nice, but the onscreen cursor is laggy and not fun to use.
Textures aren't really as sharp as they should be but are nice enough.
A lot of the personality I expect from the characters and towns is missing.
Still a good game, but a bit of a let-down. Certainly not something I'd give 10 to, but scores are opinions and I'm sure some that for some people TP will be worth that much to them.
ptechg on 9 Dec '06 said:
A lot of people have given this good reviews, but a ten? Is that not just a little OTT? I mean sure, go for a 9.7 or something, but 10? Famitsu gave the equivalent of an 8.75 - maybe their tastes are different? You're in the company of 1up.com though, who generally gave it a ten in the video review, though I haven't seen the site score to see if it is reflected there.
ewiepoo on 10 Dec '06 said:
cvg only do integers, so if they think it's better than 9 it has to be 10!
dead_head1 on 29 Dec '06 said:
After 35 hours of play TP and finishing it, i can say in my own personal opinion, i like OOT better, dont get me wrong the game has a good storyline and wonderful graphics but to me it didnt seem......enough like a zelda game, it was easy to finish allbeit not as easy as windwaker but still i feel a bit let down by not having the same hardcore-ness that OOT and MM gave me. IMO 8.5/10
Anonymous on 14 Jan '07 said:
I got TP on Christmas and haven't stopped playing it since... I do think that 10 is a bit OTT, 9.5 would be a bit more reasonable. Quite frankly I never got annoyed at the faerie curser and the bosses were awesome (so BIG (especially the 3rd dungeon's boss)). I've played The Ocarina of Time and The Majora's mask and personally I think this is way better. Overall it is a good game and I'm still trying to finish it.
Geriden on 24 Aug '07 said:
Going out to buy a wii today gonna pick this up with it weee *runs out the door*
Death_bug on 11 Oct '07 said:
OOT is the best zelda game
and will always b.
though TP was a greater
improvemnet from the
stupidity of WW.
Mel88 on 18 May '08 said:
well cant really comment too much as iv never played any other zelda game, looking to but OOT and majora's mask now though as this game has made me a complete zelda fan. As for people who sid it was easy (okami forum)don't no what your on about. Maybe the bosses were easy but the item related puzzles were quite difficult. what i liked is that although the puzzles were thought provoking, they weren't throw your controller out the window whilst swearing stupidly loudly provoking. they were fun and stimulating and iv really enjoyed it! i hope they bring back the more realistic zelda look for they're next games as i feel it worked really well