The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)

Having finished this I’ve been mulling over how to rank the dungeons and it’s proven pretty difficult. I think the only truly weak dungeon might be the Palace of Twilight and maaaaaaybe the forest temple. Every other one is really memorable or uniquely fun in some way for me.

So for my tentative ranking:

1. Arbiter’s Grounds
2. Snowpeak Temple
3. Lakebed Temple
4. City in the Sky
5. Temple of Time
6. Hyrule Castle
7. Goron Mines
8. Forest Temple
9. Palace of Twilight

Starting AGAIN. I've probably gone through this intro ten times. This time I'm using crt-royale in dolphin, which is fun & cozy. I think I'll stick with it this time.

My only gripe so far is that the game doesn't really respect the player's time - like how long it takes for the hawk to land on your arm after using the whistle grass. Or how a 1 minute walk through foggy Faron Woods takes 5 minutes because you have to wait for the cute monkey to swing YOUR lantern overhead like some kind of hooligan. I guess the lack of respect isn't without precedent. Who could forget King Zora scooting his ass to the left in Ocarina? At least that cutscene felt like a joke.

I've been hesitant to review Zelda games because I don't know if there is anything to do but gush about them. They're all 9s at least. So what is there to say besides I really really liked it?

Nintendo probably always knows better than us. After the Wii U failed, Nintendo essentially doubled down and decided to crack their idea with the Switch. I think if a lot of us heard that, we would have been like "No Nintendo, don't do that! Just do something else! Do ANYTHING else!"

Boom millions of units sold immediately. We're dumb. Nintendo is smart.

Nintendo released Wind Waker to a fanbase that didn't want it on a system that was floundering. Despite Wind Waker being a stellar game and a direct sequel on the way, Nintendo listened to their fans. They made the Ocarina-esque Twilight Princess. And they launched their reassuring Zelda game alongside a revolutionary game console. If the games media feared that the Wii was going to be for the newbies, they certainly quelled those fears by launching it with a game for the hardcore.

As far as the game itself, it delivers. I was 16 when it came out, but it made me feel like a man. What felt like real danger, two or three humanized villains, a moody alternate world. It certainly wasn't the cel shaded cartoons of Wind Waker. I don't know how prevalent of a complaint it was at the time, but Twilight Princess also makes up for the missing dungeons in Wind Waker. The adventure is definitely not lacking in length.

My nitpick complaints are that some of that maturity feels surface level (In hindsight, Majora's Mask has deeper and more daring stories) and some of the items feel very limited. Like whenever I saw the prongs on a wall, I knew I could use my spinner. But that was the only reason I ever used my spinner. It was just a key to solve some of the puzzles' doors. TP lacks the innovation that Nintendo perfected in Breath of the Wild.

Outside of a couple little nitpicks, TP is another essential member of the Zelda family. It is an adventure you should take.

1001 Games - #730

Pros: some unique dungeon designs, excellent graphics, dark atmosphere suits Zelda well, large number of mini-games

Cons: uneven success in boss battle design, wolf combat is repetitive, lacks method to cycle between day and night

Recommendation: If the next console Zelda game follows the same tried-and-true Zelda formula, then I think Twilight Princess may be the last great 3D Zelda game. While it still plays close enough to the N64 classics to be fun, the linearity of Twilight Princess is a tad overbearing, lacking the same caliber of side quests the Majora's Mask or Wind Waker offers. The biggest standout feature of Twilight Princess is the new darker and more epic atmosphere that it brings, which I think is enough to make it worth playing. I've never played the Wii version so I cannot comment on the motion controls.