The Legend of Zelda Slashes into the Next Generation: Twilight Princess Review

Since the first time Link circled the lands of Hyrule on his epic quest to save the Princess Zelda and set right the evils of Ganon, his and her names have been synonymous with brilliant game making. The first mention of Twilight Princess some three years ago was met with as much excitement and hoopla as any Zelda game in development. But then they showed us a video of the gameplay. There in full glory was the grown Link of Ocarina of Time fame slashing away with the Master Sword. The vision was beautiful and after the cel shaded diversions of Wind Waker, nearly brought tears to fanboys the world over.

The Legend of Zelda was back, and with a vengeance. The name of Link would filter between avid Nintendo fans for months and years to come until it finally saw the light of day. It took a long time for Link's newest adventure to finally show up on the shelves, and a good part of that delay was announcement and late 2006 release of Nintendo's newest console, the Wii. The Big N held back their biggest game of the year to retool and revamp it for their next gen console entry.

But was it worth it. The controls, the gameplay, the little changes made - were any of them worth the wait and the dual release of the game on two consoles? The answer to that question is the simplest thing I get to say to you here. Absolutely.

The newest Zelda adventure, Twilight Princess, is by far the best reason to own a Nintendo Wii. The game is a masterpiece on almost every level, to the point I'm almost willing to call it the greatest game ever made. We've heard this a lot, that this game is the greatest. That it surpasses what Ocarina accomplished 8 years ago. And as my own favorite game, it's hard to ever put anything above Ocarina in terms of scope, depth, and innovation. But we're going to try.