Note: The Wiire editors will be updating this page throughout E3 as further impressions are gathered.
Shawn White, The Wiire Senior Editor
In development for three years, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a title long-anticipated, long-awaited and long-delayed. After much speculation, Nintendo has confirmed that this new Zelda adventure - which Reggie Fils-Aime described during Nintendo's pre-E3 media briefing as "the most beautiful game Nintendo has ever made" - has been officially confirmed for Nintendo GameCube as well as will extensively utilize Wii's functionality.
First things first, Twilight Princess is a beautiful title and for the most part, the Wii controller works in the game well. The Zelda team has poured an extraneous amount of time, resources and passion into every faucet of this adventure. However, for a game having spent three years in development, and only another few more months before a fall launch, I was expecting a much fuller demo. Wii functionality also brought other issues, but we'll come to that shortly.
As for the demo itself, it was comprised of two sections: a scaled-back dungeon and a fishing sample. With the dungeon, the goal is to lead Link through an decrepit, industrialized area, fighting Moblins, Lizalfos and a giant fire boss at the end. During this stage, players become familiar with Link (whose in-game model has definitely been cleaned up since the game's last showing, which applies to most of the game as a whole), Midna and the returning fairy.
Using the Wii Remote is intuitive enough for sword fighting, lock-on targeting and item swapping. The only issue I came upon was shooting arrows. It felt as if the sensitivity of the controller was too precise that anything other than the smallest hand gestures caused Link's reticule to swing outside of where I needed it to be. Thankfully, this is a matter that could be easily tweaked in the coming months of polish. Overall, the game controls very well, and the development team will no doubt fix any quips before the game's fall launch.
With the fishing demo, players are introduced to a young girl who has befriended Link and accompanies him in a small boat as he paddles through a lake to catch some fish. This aspect of the demo is highly relaxed, and it only take a few swings of the controller for the feeling of tossing a reel to become natural through hand motions. When you're not fishing, you can paddle your boat using the motion-sensing technology available in the Nunchuk and Wii Remote. However, this component takes some practice, if only to understand the flow of stroking. The fishing game in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was sublime enough to become a title in itself, so it's nice to see it make a return in Twilight Princess, albeit on a possibly far grander, more immersive scale.
Unfortunately, wolf Link was not available to play, which was surprising since members of the development team recently told Nintendo Power magazine that this new Zelda mechanic was one of the reasons for the game's delay and would be playable at E3. Given how vastly large Twilight Princess is expected to be, with Director Eiji Aonuma stating the game could go for as long as 70-100 hours, it was slightly disappointing seeing only a miniscule fraction of this new Zelda at Nintendo's booth. Of course, in Nintendo's defense, the focus was probably on showing off Wii functionality more than the game's other merits, and in that regard I think the company succeeded with their Twilight Princess demonstration.
The Zelda team still has a few more months to wrap up work on what is arguably the grandest, most beautiful and most anticipated Legend of Zelda game to date, and given everything riding on the title, my confidence that all concerns will be laid to rest is high.
Rob Galbreath, The Wiire Managing Editor
If you haven't seen the light of day for a few years now, there's this one Nintendo game called The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that has been hyped up to be quite possibly one of the most anticipated titles in the history of video games. Congratulations, and welcome back to civilization.
Otherwise, Twilight Princess needs no introduction. The game was finished and ready to go out last year until a sudden delay with no launch date in sight. Speculation spread across the world and a long chain of events happened since then that really needs no detailed specifics at this point. After all, you don't care; you want to know what the game is like.
The game was never designed with the Wii controller in mind. Just when the game was ready, Nintendo halted all mentioning of the game and decided to work on a totally new version for their next-generation console. The GameCube version, as ready as it was, had to wait until its twin sister version made it to the Nintendo Wii.
In all honesty, I think I will enjoy the GameCube version far more than I will the Wii version. The game's controls feel identical to Ocarina of Time, but a game like Ocarina of Time still isn't designed for the Wii controller. The movements, mechanics, and puzzles for Ocarina of Time had the Nintendo 64/GameCube-style controllers in mind, and I feel the same for Twilight Princess. I would have a much harder time controlling Link and the fairy when there's no real need to do so with the GameCube version.
I appreciate Eiji Aonuma's efforts in giving the Wii another game to help the system's success, the Zelda franchise has had a long history of proving their games to be succesful, but it still feels like Ocarina of Time with a Wii controller. While I could breeze through similar mechanics on the GameCube, particularly the bow and arrows with the analog, I had a very difficult time trying to aim and avoid enemies with the Wii remote. I also had difficulty hitting the propeller puzzle objects with the boomerang.
The bow-arrow attacks took some time to get used to, and the hookshot will probably be the same way. I'm sure after a few hours, I'd be able to master it. I feel the limited time on the Wii prevented myself, and all other gaming impressions, from getting a really good feel of how the controls work. It's a shame, because this game could potentially teach people how to learn the nunchuk-style gaming on a far more advanced level from the beginning of the console's life.
If anything, I can look forward to Wii's Twilight Princess as a more challenging version of the GameCube version. Perhaps it was because of the limited amount of time that I had with the Wii controller, but the movements and abilities really took some time for me to get accustomed to pulling off. I'm not sure if I appreciate that. I managed to beat the magnet boots puzzle with relative ease, but the fighting mechanics had me really concerned.
Still, despite the experience, I'm leaning towards the GameCube copy rather than the Wii copy. This isn't to say I'm convinced to own the GameCube version, but I would really have to consider whether the swordplay is more worthwhile on the GameCube or the overall gaming experience of the Wii would be more beneficial. Sword fighting seems to be more set and stable for the GameCube version because the game plays like Ocarina of Time, but I would like to learn advanced Wii controls at an early stage. Look forward to the game, but choose wisely.
