The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Review

There’s no doubt that Twilight Princess is the black sheep of the Zelda franchise. It’s looked down upon against other Zelda titles in comparison, it’s odd art style is completely different to games both before and after it and it never really found its place in history along with the likes of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask or Wind Waker.

In fact, Twilight Princess has perhaps grown more out of favour with people with age as compared to Wind Waker where as at the start everyone hated it’s guts. But just because Twilight Princess is an odd duck doesn’t make it a lame one – it still does great things and now on the Wii U in HD, with improved controls and tweaks to its gameplay – maybe it’s time to look more favourably on it.

Twilight Princess might take place in Hyrule but this version of it is perhaps the most dark and twisted version of it yet. The art style here is wicked, enemies looks evil but also grotesque, Midna is a childishly impish jerk and Link turns into a wolf for a good portion of the game.

The beginning hours of Twilight Princess are still as slow as ever before, there’s nips and tuck here and there but you’re constrained in the first few hours – this is even more evident if you’re playing a second time around. Once you make it out of the forest though, the real game begins and if that sounds like Ocarina of Time well that’s because there’s a lot of that feeling in this game.

So what’s new in the Wii U version? Naturally it’s in high definition, the 1080p graphics look crisp and clear but perhaps it’s a trade off in some regards. The game looks ‘so mid 2000s’ even with the beautifully redone textures and lighting, there are spots where you plainly see the game is old. With the original release the old 480p resolution hid that, now it’s all plain to see. Wind Waker looks great now (as it did in 2002) and will into the future, Twilight Princess will forever be a product of its time – at least graphically.

This can’t be helped somewhat though due to the games locales and overall dullness; the game is grey, brown, dark green and black all over. Midna and Link pop in places which does look great in places. Hyrule Field however is still boring, bereft of meaningful life and things to look at as it was before.

The other big addition to the game, which can’t be understated at all is how much the Wii U GamePad brings to the game. Zelda‘s inventory has long been a trouble point with the series, it’s slow and painful to use and requires you go into it many times over and over sometimes just within minutes. The GamePad removes this pain by putting the inventory (and map) on he bottom screen just like it did with Wind Waker HD – it’s a great experience and perhaps if Nintendo is to ever not have a ‘second’ screen again they’ll have to look at changing Zelda‘s inventory system. Anything other than this is a step back.

The game can either be controlled with the GamePad or with the Wii U Pro Controller. The GamePad brings you the aforementioned inventory management but also the same sort of gyroscope controls we expect from any game on the GamePad these days, picking off targets is amazingly simpler than struggling with the second analogue stick and even the original Wii Remote controls on the Wii version. In case you were wondering, no you can’t play with a Wii Remote.

There’s also the addition of a exclusive dungeon if you buy the game with the Wolf Link amiibo (currently you have no choice). This ‘dungeon’ and I use the term loosely is just a series of challenges in an arena you move through and fight harder and harder enemies – boring – don’t feel robbed if you don’t have the amiibo, in fact the only way you should feel robbed is by missing out on the amiibo itself – it’s a great looking figure! You can also use other Link, Zelda and Ganondorf figures in the game for other perks and challenges, there is a limit on their use of one per day however.

Twilight Princess might not be the most liked Zelda game ever but it doesn’t stop it from having a terrific story, Midna is one of the best characters in the series and it would be great to see her (and her sass) appear in another instalment.  Zant as the initial antagonist is a great, but flawed villain – even pathetic maybe. Zant of course is just the warm up band for you know who, it’s a shame really, because up until he shows up and everything slips back into the status quo I was actually having more fun in the game.

One problem that all Zelda games face and that they recently tried to fixed with A Link Between Worlds was how your items are not only gained but used, in that game you can rent an item (or by it outright) here in Twilight Princess you get items in dungeons in the tried and true method – this on one side means there’s cool things to unlock in the dungeons but also means that those items are really only used in those dungeons. The spinner is the big offender here, it’s a totally awesome and fun mechanic but is only use in a handful of place – forget Link’s Crossbow Training, let’s get a spin-off spinner title.

There’s one thing that Twilight Princess never gets a lot of love for, it’s soundtrack. From the eerily Eldon forest, to the rambunctious Hyrule Field themes, Zant’s and Midna’s theme this game has tremendous range – it’s a good thing they give you a CD sample in the box, it’s really put together well.

Review concludes below.