N-Philes

Page 9

Desiré: I played while at Nintendo's private Roundtable event, which had an open bar, so I don't remember *entirely* my gaming experience with Zelda. I do, however, recall going to the boat and then getting in the boat and fishing.

The control for fishing, while only a small part of the game, speaks volumes about the responsiveness of the control in the entire game. Basically, if they spent this much attention to detail on a fishing mini-game, you know the rest of the game will control well. To cast a line you flick your wrist and the line goes in the water (though I couldnt figure out how to get the fish to even bite). But flicking it like a real fishing pole felt very solid, and gave hope that the Wii would be capable of making true on its promise of perfectly mimicking real-life movement in-game. If you flick hard the line goes far, soft it barely goes at all. I always found it strange that Ocarina's fishing minigame had such a rabid fan following (not that it wasn't really fun, but it's still a fishing minigame within a gripping fantasy epic) but to that following I say this: you can look forward to having a new favorite Zelda fishing minigame when the Wii hits.

Although a fan favorite, the game in its entirety really didn't seem all that different from last year, other than the obvious addition of Wii control. So yeah, you can use the Wiimote in some pretty cool ways, but the graphics and overall gameplay were basically the same as last year. I'm still getting this at launch though.

 

Jared: Surprisingly, Desiré was the ONLY N-PHILES STAFFER who played Twilight Princess on Wii. And seeing as she did so while kind of tipsy (understatement) I'm going to fill in some of this room by discussing Twilight Princess as it was when I played it last year, while making assumptions about how it changed based on what I saw at Nintendo's press conference and on the show floor. My faded memory and lack of knowledge on the title should make this a pretty fair battle between Desiré and me on who can deliver the most accurate Twilight Princess impressions. Of course, I did take in a lot of Zelda media at the event so I'm not just talking out of my ass here. OK let's get started!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess stars this boy named Link. He is a farmer who picks up the sword (literally and symbolically) to become a hero in the land of Hyrule. The portion of the game that I played was in a forest style temple (because apparently Link won't set foot in a "dungeon" anymore). Once again Link operates under the Ocarina of Time game engine, now nearly a decade old, but luckily it was a solid engine to begin with so Link's movements are precise and intuitive, as befitting a warrior (I stole this last phrase from a very early "Zelda 64" press release). In fact, this GameCube port is one of the few Wii titles that boasts precise and intuitive controls that you won't have to think twice about using. Of course, the game's been in development forever so that's pretty much expected. The combat in the game puts a nice spin on the near-combo style used in Wind Waker, making this probably the fiercest swordplay you'll find Link display outside of Smash Bros. and Soul Calibur 2. That's right, Adventure of Link can step down as the king of gritty Zelda violence.

The game has a fantastic look that I think represents where Nintendo really should be on the graphical front; whereas most Wii games look like the graphical equivalent of getting out of bed and going straight to school, Twilight Princess looks artistically rich and graphically impressive without quite reaching the "next-gen" standard set by some of the more advanced Xbox360 and PS3 games out there. Yes, graphics aren't everything, but they're still something, and they should have as much pride taken in them as any other part of the game; the story and acting are the main drives of a movie but I wouldn't want to watch one shot by a lazy cinematographer.

In retrospect I really wish I had played Zelda at E3, not because I was dying to––lines were horrible for the game and I figured I'd already played it and wanted to keep myself as virginal to the experience as possible until its release––but because it would have helped me decide whether I wanted to get the GameCube version of the title or the Wii version. Do I want what I already know and feel comfortable playing, or do I want a completely new experience that simultaneously brings the hope of renewed discovery and the threat of alienation? Well, that's what you all have to decide for yourselves come Wii's launch, so I just want you to know that even though my meager impressions of the Wii gameplay probably haven't helped you decide what to do about the problem, I'm in the very same boat as you.

Wait a second, what's this? Nik had actually played Zelda, too? I'll forward his thoughts from his blog, for your convenient viewing pleasure.

 

Nik: Of course I wasn't going to leave without playing Zelda. So I stayed for another half an hour.

This was hands down my favorite game of E3 2005, and pretty much the only reason I really wanted to go last year. So why wasn't it my favorite game this year? Well I have to say I liked it on the GameCube more. Everything was fine, but shooting arrows and aiming the boomerang were not that easy. Maybe I had a bad controller or maybe I just suck at shooting games. It's probably the latter, but because of that, I will probably be playing the GameCube version before I get the Wii version. I probably won't get the Wii at launch anyway, so I thank Nintendo for keeping the game on the GameCube.

I never got far enough to play the boss, and I didn't even look at other people playing it. While it disappoints me greatly that I didn't get to play the rock-monster, at least it means there's one more fresh boss I get to play at the end of the year. Tragically that was the only time I played Zelda the whole show.

That part with the Iron Boots was great though....

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