The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

 

 

This was the first Wii game I bought for myself. I had some Christmas money earmarked for a video game, and at the time (early January 2007) there still weren’t more than maybe twenty or so Wii titles to choose from. Twilight Princess was the first Wii title to garner high praise and lofty reviews, so I figured I’d give it a whirl. I hadn’t played a Zelda game since I gave up on the original Link adventure when I got stuck on the eighth and final labyrinth, but I figured this could be fun.

And it was. I found Twilight Princess a game that really sucked me in. I just didn’t seem capable of playing it fewer than two hours at a time, and more often I’d get drawn in to Link’s adventures for four hours or more. Of course, I didn’t appreciate how my save file recorded and updated my total time played, serving as a frequent reminder of just how many hours I had logged in my quest (I think I wound up at forty-something hours, which, if you consider I spent 50 bucks on the game, meant I got a return of about a dollar an hour, which ain’t half bad for entertainment).

There are a lot of different weapons and features that are pretty cool. You get to wield a sword, of course, along with shooting arrows and firing a slingshot. But you also get to ride a horse at times, and you actually transform into a wolf at times, which is interesting. Plus, the graphics in Twilight Princess are beautifully rendered. I remember the big debate back when the Wii and PlayStation 3 came out virtually simultaneously was whether people would want the Wii when the PS3 and Xbox 360 both boasted high-definition graphics and all sorts of processing power. Turns out, they did, especially because the Wii was often seen as more fun. But while the graphics in a lot of Wii games seem sort of rudimentary (not eight- or even sixteen-bit rudimentary, just not terribly complex or detailed), Twilight Princess and other titles show that you can still pack a lot of punch into the Wii, creating a really pretty-looking game. Plus, not owning a high-def television (unless we’re counting my laptop), it would’ve been overkill to get a higher-end system.

Overall, Twilight Princess is arguably the first classic title for the Wii. It was good enough to make me want to acquire all the previous Zelda titles (sort of like my unfulfilled passion for beating every Mario game Nintendo ever produced). And really, when a game leaves you so pleased you want to start tracking down games from obsolete systems, well, you can’t argue with that.