Betrayal Never Felt So Good

So, as some of you may have heard, the Nintendo Wii (The new generation Nintendo system) was released about 2 weeks ago. Through the miracle of Ebay (and impatient parents) I have managed to get my hands on one. This blog entry really isn't about the Wii itself.



What this is about is one certain game. One might almost call it THE Game for Wii. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.



For those that don't know, The Legend of Zelda is a long running series spanning several of Nintendo's systems from the original... The Legend of Zelda...


...to what is the commonly held (but not necessarily my belief) to be the best (and perhaps the best game of all time)... The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (On the Nintendo 64 system)...


...to the present... The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo Wii...and Gamecube...but we'll get to that)...


One would assume that the games would feature a lead character named Zelda. That would be half-right. The main character is in fact a young man named Link...

...who lives in a land named Hyrule. The character Zelda is actually the princess of Hyrule. In each game Link must go into dungeons, collect magical items, and beat a boss character, for example the boss of the Fire Temple of Ocarina of Time, Volvagia.


So, now that we've established the series, were does the betrayal come in? Twilight Princess itself, is a game I have been looking forward to for around 2 years. Nintendo would have been wiser not to have released details regarding their new Zelda until they were sure when they could release it. First we were promised November 2005, so I went out and preordered a copy for the gamecube I already had. Then it got pushed back to March 06 to add more depth. Fans become upset. Then it got pushed back to August 06 to add more depth. Fans become irate. Then it got pushed back to November 06 so that a version could be released on the same day for both the Gamecube and the Wii. Fans become excited. Then the Gamecube version has been pushed back to an undetermined time.

However, now that I have a Wii, I have the Wii version of the game. It has several features the Gamecube version can't, for example the Wii's motion sensitive controller allows you to swing Link's sword or aim his bow and have it do so in the game. That's cool. And I had to get it so that I could figure out what happens story-wise, without doing it the un-noble way and reading it in a spoiler.

That just wouldn't have done the series justice.

So here I am, playing it. Was it worth the wait? For me, yes. For others on forums everywhere, they don't think so. Some are discontent because they think it doesn't measure up to others in the series. Some are discontent because they think it is better than their beloved Ocarina of Time. Some are discontent because it took so long to get here, and they don't think enough got added in the delays.

Personally, from the short 3 hours I have played (of a possibly 25+ hour game), I think it's great. Everything seems to be stepped up from previous. Plus at certain points Link gets transformed into a wolf so you can run around in the form of a beast. I love wolves. I think its awesome.

I just can't wait to finish it.

Thank you Nintendo, for once again delivering a stunning game.

And thank you parents, who were impatient enough to want to buy a Wii off Ebay instead of trying to find one in stores. That would have taken forever.