The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Classically inspired

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Playing a new Zelda game is like the actual experience of a day that you've been looking forward to for a very long time - such as your grandmother's 80th surprise birthday bash. For months previous you've been eyeing up everything in exact detail, from the size of cake to the colour of the balloons and just how the octogenarian might react to the stripper you've ordered to arrive after the dessert of jelly and ice-cream. Of course, the day passes better than you could ever have hoped, but it's just that, the sheer faultlessness of the time that highlights the bits that, though almost inevitable (after all, nothing's perfect) you'd wish hadn't occurred and will doubtlessly want to forget. You know, like the moment that granddad lost his teeth in the blamange, little cousin Sarah going AWOL for the whole day and Dad's trousers splitting in the middle of some desperately dated disco dancing. Like the pre-described party invite of a lifetime, Twilight Princess is a videogame full to bursting with flawless highs, marred by some teeth-grindingly annoying moments and technical oversights that, just momentarily, are bitter pills to swallow.

The grand adventure begins gently with Link, employed as a farmhand living in the quaint village of Ordon. Goats are his speciality and as you will no doubt discover, he's a dab hand at keeping them in line. Before things really kick off, a chance to get to grips with the controls is cunningly concealed amongst a range of simple tasks. Herding animals on horseback is delightful, calling on the ability of a bird of prey is mesmerising and fishing; fishing is frustrating. The fiddly Wii remote controls turn a task renowned for its serenity into a mission to Google for help faster than a salmon caught in the river rapids. One of the most enjoyable pastimes in The Ocarina of Time is just plain broken this time around and a disastrous example of how the Wii's unique controller might have ruined what is, essentially, a GameCube game.

Thankfully, however, this early snag turns out to be just that - a snag - because for all the fretting and worries over the Wii controls being 'tagged on' as an afterthought, they function brilliantly otherwise. Sword fighting is obviously the biggest test for the controller, and, whilst it might not consist of much more than waggling the remote back and forth to slash and jab, (with a little nunchuck rotation added into the mix), the experience is completely engaging. The nunchuck also takes care of targeting, movement and defence leaving your other hand free to unleash your wrath. Soon almost without realising, you'll be gesturing towards your television at a speed incomputable by the human eye and with an increasing amount of vigour and intent as the difficulty of enemies increase. In addition, the pointing capabilities of the Wii remote make (with a bit of practice, admittedly), using range weapons such as the bow and slingshot more captivating than the originally-penned, traditional method could ever have been.

Swords, bombs and bows are, naturally, dangerous pieces of equipment, so it comes as no surprise that Nintendo have provided young Link a lot of room away from innocents to master them all. In fact, Hyrule is the biggest it has ever been, a scale that you can only fully appreciate when galloping from one end to the other on the back of Epona. Luckily, Link's other travelling companion, Midna, a creature from the Twilight world, is on hand to nudge you in the right direction as well help warp you from one end of the map to the other at the touch of a button. She's your Navi (Link's fairy helper in OoT) of sorts, but with a wittier charm and a much more physical presence.

Midna isn't the only similarity that Twilight Princess shares with its 64-bit predecessor, especially in terms of locations and place names. From Hyrule Castle to Death Mountain and Lake Hylia, these recognisable sites and their mix of temples and dangers all appear as beefed up, extended re-creations of their former selves. Also similar to OoT, many locations can be visited in two forms. It was as a young and grown up Link in OoT and this time it's as in human form or, in the Twilight realm in the guise of a wolf. What at first appeared in screenshots as a potentially risky deviation from Link's ordinary form reveals itself as an exciting and refreshing change from the norm that lasts exactly the right amount of time so to not outstay its welcome. It works because the wolf's control is set to the same controls as that of Link's, so there's no need to memorise any extra skills. The highlight has to be wolfie's ability to leap great distances up and across perilous terrain under the guidance of Midna, closely followed by the feeling of satisfaction brought about by leaping upon enemies, tearing them apart with a pair of gnashers powerful enough to make any dentist proud.

Of course, temples are the real meat and potato of Zelda's pie, and Twilight Princess does not disappoint in the size of its helpings. There are nine in total, filled with classic Zelda puzzling. The problem solving elements within each dungeon will present a more than familiar test for veteran fans of the series, but somehow they have managed to remain as appealingly fresh as they did since Link set out on his first quest nearly 20 years ago. Unlike the overprotective, handholding nature of Wind Waker's temples, Twilight Princess is more than happy to dump you in each giant, sprawling structure and let you figure things out for yourself with almost complete independence. Many of the bamboozling solutions to opening locked doors and reaching chests in seemingly impossible locations boil down to a mixture of skill, luck, experimentation and a keen eye for subtle environmental details. And while nothing can be taken away from the trials and tribulations that exist within each varied dungeon, it is important to note that, as novel as they appear, the same temple framework has existed for a month shy of two decades and isn't the innovation it once was, particularly in the light of titles such as God of War and Shadow of the Colossus.