Twilight Princess Unravels!

Now we all can honestly use the term Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii as a compliment.
 
ZELDA LOOKS BAD-ASS

The controller looks perfect for the game.
 
C'mon, we need news to keep coming. We've been dry for a year, please nintendo!
 
Wouldn't they have to rework the entire control layout?
 
not sure if i should get loz: tp on revo or gc.
 
seems like alot of work for a game thats gonna bomb
 
Unleashed said:
seems like alot of work for a game thats gonna bomb

First you say SSBM wasn't that good of a game, now you think TP is gonna bomb? Either you're on crack or ******ed.
 
Zelda was a joke, I'm definitely getting it.

SSB wasnt a joke
 
Do you mean SSB or SSBM? Because SSB was only good. SSBM was awesome.
 
Perhaps the Gamecube version will be better:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Format Nintendo Wii
Developer Nintendo
Publisher Nintendo
Genre Action, Adventure
15-May-2006 Nintendo slaps Zelda onto Wii as a launch title, but there's something amiss with its controller support

This week, Nintendo finally managed to put everyone's fears at rest by confirming that the long awaited Zelda: The Twilight Princess is still bound for GameCube. Of course, far more excitingly, it's also set to be the first Zelda game ever to be a launch title for a new Nintendo console, what with the company having been beavering away on a beefed up version claimed to take full advantage of the Wii's unique controller.

In the spirit of discovery, we skipped the queues at Nintendo's E3 stand (peeving a large contingent of our US bretheren no end - but there's always an A-List) and put the Wii-controlled Zelda to the test. Of all the things the company had on display, this was the biggy for us - after all, there's been a lot of concern that the Wii remote, while fine for specially designed games like Wii Tennis, just wouldn't be cut out for more traditional games types. So how does it fair in the heady world of third-person actioners? Well - brace yourselves - so far, we're not convinced.

Advertisement:As with many Wii games on display, Twilight Princess uses the nunchuck analogue stick for movement while, in this instance, holding the nearby Z button performs your standard Zelda lock-on action, as well as centring the camera behind you. Meanwhile, over on the remote, B (that's the trigger underneath the wand) looks after actions like talking, lifting and - when engaged in battle - sword slashing. Your primary inventory items can be accessed using the d-pad and, for the purposes of the demo, included a crossbow, boomerang and iron boots.

Link starts off the show on a winding wooden walkway stretching across a vast expanse of water. Given that the demo was clearly designed to introduce the basic controller mechanics to the masses, it's reasonable to assume that it's either a heavily altered version of a level from the main game, or something put together especially for E3. After a bit of traipsing, we encountered our first enemy, and thus got chance to test out the fighting system Nintendo's got in place on the Wii. As it happens, it's not far removed from previous 3D Zelda games - simply lock on and hack away. The one twist we saw was that quickly moving the nunchuck in a circle causes Link to perform his trusty spin attack. At this point, we're not sure if the remote can also be used more creatively in swordfights as our booth assistant wasn't overly elaborate - we've already heard that actions like throwing have more intuitive equivalents using the controller's unique abilities, so it wouldn't completely surprise us.


Far more interesting however is the precise aiming used for firing your bow and flicking your boomerang. Both work in pretty much the same way and the next part of the demo introduced us to each in turn. By selecting your crossbow from the inventory, pulling the remote trigger switches to first person mode. A central circle appears on screen, as does a firing reticule controlled by the remote's pointer. Keeping the crosshair inside the circle ensures your view remains stationary while moving it out shifts it in the direction of your choice. Once you've got your target in sight - in this case a bunch of angry trolls bombarding us with projectiles on a nearby outcrop - it's simply a matter of hitting down on the d-pad to launch your arrow.

With our assailants eliminated, it was time to get to grips with the boomerang. The puzzle in place for the E3 demo involved individually targeting four small wind turbines by holding down left on the d-pad to enter boomerang mode, selecting each turbine in turn by pointing and locking on, then releasing to unleash a small cyclone that sets them in motion. There were a number of formations required to open the door behind us - each one sequentially then in a Z shape - but it all worked the same way. Once completed, it was time to head through the door and up onto a high ledge where a gigantic magnet waited to be activated. Once operational, it was time to test out Link's trusty iron boots.

By jumping back down to the ground, slipping into your shoes and waiting for the magnet to pass overhead, Link is yanked into the air and carried, upside down, to a previously unreachable jetty - we envisage there'll be plenty of upside-down sections in the final game, given that we've not seen this in a Zelda title before.

Following the jetty up and across a steep incline lead to another set of doors - this time revealing a small dungeon that should be familiar to anyone who's played a Zelda game before. However, there's wasn't much in the way of excitement to be had inside this one - just a few enemies to skewer with the crossbow and some more opportunities to test out our spin attack. The final part of the demo saw us tackling a giagantic cyclops in the depths of our cavernous surroundings though, which brightened things up no end.


Again, careful aiming of the crosswbow came into play with the boss' weakspot - unsurprisingly - being his lone eye. A successful strike caused him to stop dead, giving Link time to run around and grab the chains attached to the behemoth's limbs. By grabbing them and dashing in the opposite direction - while wearing your iron boots to counter the beast's flailing - it's possible to send the cyclops toppling over, exposing his eye for strikes of your sword. Repeating the whole thing over brought the boss to his knees once and fall all, signalling the end of the E3 demo.

In truth, we've got mixed feelings about this Wii version of Twilight Princess. Firstly, from a technical standpoint, although the game undoubtedly looks lovely, it's nowhere near on a par with the titles designed from the ground up for Wii evident elsewhere. It's clear that this one's a GameCube port from the off, with slightly murky textures and a fairly inconsistent frame rate - we've been told the game will get some more tweaking to make the most of the Wii's hardware though, so hopefully this won't be a deal-breaker.

More troublingly though was the sense that Nintendo's attempts to adapt the game for Wii's unique remote are more than a little half-hearted. Before we'd had chance to play with the demo, we we're pretty excited by the idea of sword fighting and boomerang slinging with the controller - it was more than a little disappointing to find out that both required nothing much beyond an unimaginative button press, especially after having had so much fun mimicking real-world actions with the likes of Wii Tennis. The cynic in us might suggest that the only reason Nintendo's chosen to shoe-horn this into Wii's launch line-up with its currently lacklustre controller support is because the far more promising Mario Galaxy isn't going to be ready in time.


One last issue that bothered us was something we suspect might dog the Wii's lifecycle - the camera. Given that Twilight Princess' origins are on the GameCube, its camera system has clearly been designed to take advantage of that machine's C-stick. With that second analogue stick simply not available for camera adjustment on the Wii, we were constantly battling to get it pointing in the direction we wanted - the behind-centring function was rarely enough for our needs. Although it's quite possible Nintendo's already on top of this - or that our booth guy simply didn't know how the Wii's camera system worked - it's already apparent that cameras are something developers are going to have to work hard on as they bring their game's to Wii. Mario Galaxy uses a system where the camera is all but locked behind Mario during play and is all the better for it.

It's not all doom and gloom though - there's plenty of that old Zelda magic in the demo and we're sure the game itself is going to be an absolute blinder when it hits shelves later this year. The trouble is, the Wii controller supports feels so half-hearted and uninspired right now, we've got a worrying feeling it's the GameCube version we're going to be recommending come release.
 
well isn't it possible to just buy a normal controller for the revolution and play the REV version of TP like the GC version?
 
Damn it, Unleashed was banned!! He was gonna make me that SSBB Triforce Slash super move into an avy for me....:(
 
jaydawg said:
Damn it, Unleashed was banned!! He was gonna make me that SSBB Triforce Slash super move into an avy for me....:(


why was he banned :confused:
 
Galactus said:
One last issue that bothered us was something we suspect might dog the Wii's lifecycle - the camera. Given that Twilight Princess' origins are on the GameCube, its camera system has clearly been designed to take advantage of that machine's C-stick. With that second analogue stick simply not available for camera adjustment on the Wii, we were constantly battling to get it pointing in the direction we wanted - the behind-centring function was rarely enough for our needs. Although it's quite possible Nintendo's already on top of this - or that our booth guy simply didn't know how the Wii's camera system worked - it's already apparent that cameras are something developers are going to have to work hard on as they bring their game's to Wii. Mario Galaxy uses a system where the camera is all but locked behind Mario during play and is all the better for it.

I guess I'm going to have to buy both versions :o




If the camera is the main problem, that's easy to fix without an extra analog stick... the Wiimote can be used as a second analog stick itself. All it takes have a button on the remote designated the camera control, then you would just hold that button down while moving your Wiimote as if it were a real camera into the position you want it, let go of the button and your camera has been successfully adjusted.
 

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