Graphics: 88

The graphic style in Twilight Princess is truly amazing and has environment diversity above everything I've seen yet. Much more different than in Wind Walker (although it has at the origin the same graphic engine, but heavily modified) this version of Zelda fully justifies the delays and the four years it took for developing. Let's not forget that this initially was a Nintendo GameCube project, so it has some excuses for some low res objects and character faces. Other than this the visual effects and lighting are as impressive as the Wii's graphic hardware can produce.

What impressed me a lot was the bloomy art style of the Twilight realm. The portals and the teleport movie sequences are eye dazzling. Even though this is the most complex Zelda of all times, the game runs at a constant 30 fps no matter the conditions.

As much as the game puts accent on recreational activities (fishing), the platform (water) for these activities has to be well made; and this is the case here. The hue, the distortions and the mechanic that apply to it (floating and movable objects) can't be improved much more than this.

Gameplay: 90

The new control mechanics are perfect for learning the Wii updated gameplay elements. It is fairly easy to learn how to fish, sumo wrestle, ride horses, fight/defend, surf...and much more. Some finesse issues with the control of the sword still exist though. I wish it had been a little more precise so you don't just shake the remote in order to slash your way through.

For its surprisingly long duration the game compensates with a pretty low damage taken from monsters/bosses/hazards. In fact I can't remember to have used Ooccoo or Midna to warp to a safer location and buy life or something. That doesn't mean it hasn't brain teasing puzzles or difficult jump platform phases.

The game has an enormous length (with very few redundant parts), plus some side quests and activities that have nothing to do with the plot; fishing is a pretty good example. You could literally spend hour after hour relaxing this way, when killing monsters and bosses isn't so appealing. Getting various reward items related to your fishing performance or by completing minigames is nice but not necessarily useful.

 

The very varied gameplay translates into boss battles too. Each boss has a weakness that you need to find out and use it against him, in order to pass to the next level. An example of boss battle: the mid-boss fight at Goron mines. Here you have to equip the iron boots to avoid a lava fall and to be able to keep up with the boss attacks. When he is in roll-up form you have to grab it and throw him in the lava surrounding the half sphere battle-ring, which by the way banks under the weight of both you and the boss.

Sound: 84

The sound theme has a nostalgic note. Many of the series classical melodies make their appearance throughout the game, with MIDI tracks being used for most of the parts in the game; just a few orchestral fractions remind us it's a 21 century product. Don't get me wrong this doesn't come at a cost when we speak of experience spoiler factors.

The extra mega large content has to be praised by gamers though. It's known that the sound (voice, tracks, SFX) part of the game impacts on how long a game can be. Using MIDI sounds, and the lack of voice acting probably saved some pretty much space and led to this enormous 70+ hours of gameplay.

Some sounds, like: sword actions, treasures chimes, laughing Midna (btw the only voice acting in the game) are reproduced through console's remote speaker. In principle this is a good thing because it feels dynamic when you swing the magic stick around your head and hear all sorts of sounds fading in and out. This is in theory, in practice it's another story, the quality of the tiny speaker says it all.

Multiplayer: N/A

Zelda doesn't have any multiplayer modes unfortunately...

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