Twilight Princess was released in 2006 along with the the Wii launch. The Gamecube version was released about a month later. It was the first Zelda game to be given a T rating by the ESRB board. Twilight Princess was thought to be by many critics, at that time, the best Zelda game ever created. Though, I agree it is a great game, I am still not quite sure it deserves to be called the best Zelda game ever. After all, didn't they say that spot belonged to Ocarina of Time? But, whatever, critics are crazy. So, let us start the review.

Story: The story takes place about a century after the events of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Link is a young adult working as a ranch hand in Ordon village. One day, the village is attacked by monsters and the young children of the village are taken away. Link pursues the attackers, but encounters a wall of twilight. A shadow beast pulls him beyond the wall, into a realm of twilight, where he is transformed into a wolf and imprisoned. A young, shadow-like creature named Midna comes to his aid and helps him escape. She takes him to the Princess of the land, which turns out to be Zelda. She explains that dark creatures have taken over Hyrule and transformed it into a land of darkness. Link so finds out that he is the chosen hero, and after being transformed back to a Hylian, sets out to save Hyrule with Midna on his side.

Gameplay:

-Gamecube: The Gamecube version is pretty much the same as past Zelda games. You have your action button, attack button, targeting button, and the joystick to move. As in other Zelda games, you can have 2 items equipped at one time. There are 2 unique things about the gamecube version. You can quickly jump off your horse while riding and you can also move the camera freely while walking.

-Wii: The Wii version of the control scheme is a bit different. You can move with the joystick too, and you also have the action button and targeting. But, in order to attack with your sword (or bite as a wolf), you must swing your Wii remote as if you were using a real sword. In the Wii version, you can have 4 items quipped at once, instead of 2. You lose the ability to freely move the camera though. The only way to move the camera is if you zoom into first person view. You can't move while doing this. By the way, since it would look weird to swing your right hand when Link is left-handed, they switch the entire game for the Wii and it is basically a mirrored version of the Gamecube version.

The actual gameplay is similiar to that of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. You control Link on his quest to save Hyrule from the twilight. You can use your sword or other items to attack enemies. Like other Zelda games, there is a lot of puzzle solving involved and you are usually required to backtrack through dungeons and sometimes use your items to overcome sticky situations. In some parts of the game, you play as "Wolf Link", where attacks require the same button presses or Wii remote actions as if you were playing as Hylian Link. As a wolf, you can use your special senses to find hidden objects, enemies, or secrets. You can get to hard to reach places.

Link fighting a boss in one of the game's dungeons. (Wii version)

Good/Bad? - It is certainly one of the best Zelda games I have ever played. Although I didn't find it as difficult as other games in the series, it still provided some excellent dungeons, epic boss battles, and amazing, gloomy atmosphere that gave it its dark theme. I thought it was just plain awesome.

Worth the Price? - Since it's been a long time since it's release, the price has dropped to $19.99 for a brand new copy. It's totally worth the price.

Final Score: It all comes down to the final score, which is: 9.7.

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and check bak for more reviews coming soon.