Kotaku
While everyone was busy camping out for a Wii this weekend, I was staying up and finishing Twilight Princess. Now that I've finished it, the least I can do is tell you what I thought, whether it's worth your time, and how it stacks up to previous Zelda games. No spoilers included.
First, the length. I won't say exactly how many dungeons it has, but it's on par with just about all Zelda games (including old ones). When I finished, my save game clocked in at just about 50 hours, which is a bit short of the 70 hours Nintendo claimed to Mark Wilson. Granted, you can spend a lot of time searching for all the heart pieces, and thus rack up 70~100 hours of play. After finishing, I could say I still wished for more dungeons to explore and more things to do, but that's the case of every Zelda game.
Next, the controls.
Mark had minor issues with controlling Link, and I agree for the most part. The Wiimote did feel added on late in the development cycle, so it wasn't as natural as it could have been. Trying to do some of the secret moves resulted in me waving either the Nunchuk or the Wiimote frantically as Link was finishing his previous action. The control scheme definitely won't get in the way, but it's not a joy to play either.
Example: the hidden Shield Attack works by using the Nunchuk, but half the time I was trying to do that I ended up doing a spin attack instead. You'll notice various other quirks, but I don't want to spoil anything.
The difficulty level of Twilight Princess is much lower than in previous Zelda games. Maybe they wanted to ease new players into the Wii control scheme, or maybe games really have gotten less twitchy and more puzzle-oriented. Even if you're no good at fighting, you'll still manage to get through the game just fine without dying too many times. If you're decent at the controls, you'll breeze through.
Graphics weren't Xbox 360/PS3 level by any means, but still looked great enough to impress me many times. The sound, however, was a mixed bag. On the one hand I really loved hearing all the old Zelda themes pop up all over the place, but on the other hand they really should have dumped the synth music and went to an orchestral score. It didn't take anything away from the gameplay, but that's the thing that would have made it awesome.
Things I disliked: fishing and the Wiimote sounds. They tailored fishing to the Wiimote, but honestly, it was hooooooorrible. There are a few places where fishing is mandatory to advance the plot, and I wasted too much time figuring out what to do—the manual was zero help—that I wish they would have just taken out the fishing entirely, or made it optional. Again, just my own opinion.
The sounds from the Wiimote were fine at first, but they really put too much audio through that tinny, tiny speaker. Toning this down just a tad would have gone a long way.
Of course, all this is my own take on the game and you'll come up with yours as you play through Wind Waker for the Gameboy DS Twilight Princess (I'm Wii-todded). I'd give the entire experience an A-, despite any control problems and the issues faced. It's definitely a Zelda game, and if you like previous games in the series you'll dig this one.
Update: What I meant by the Wiimote was that it was too much audio, not too loud. I turned it down to 2 bars (perfect in a relatively quiet living room), but the quality of the speaker wasn't great. It's neat that you get the "puzzle solved" sound coming from the Wiimote—along with sword slashes, Midna giggling, and tons of other sounds—but I'd rather it come from the screen because the Wiimote speaker quality is poor and they used it too often.
