For the 2005 winter holidays, my wife pre-ordered for me [i]Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess[/i] for GameCube. A week before Thanksgiving ’06, nearly a year later, the game was finally released and in my hands — for the Wii. It would take an additional week to find a Wii itself in order to actually [i]play[/i] the game. Over fifty hours of game play (and about two weeks) later, I finished the game.

Those ten and a half months of waiting were more than worth it.

After a cel-shaded detour on the GCN (including [i]Wind Waker[/i] and [i]Four Swords Adventures[/i]), the Zelda series returns with the spiritual successor to the N64’s double dose, [i]Ocarina of Time[/i] and [i]Majora’s Mask[/i]. And “successor” is the operative word here; [i]Twilight Princess[/i] pays homage to both critically-acclaimed N64 titles (mostly [i]OoT[/i]), while easily blowing them out of the water, delivering an experience worthy of the word “epic.” Every new area feels more impressive than the previous, every new character has his or her role to play, and every item collected (and there are dozens, both old and new) unlocks new pathways and options in the best traditions of the series; naturally, every boss battle becomes more and more awesome (if not necessarily difficult), culminating in a multi-stage final encounter for the ages. Further adding to the experience is the Wii’s unique control interface, introducing a level of accuracy and immersion that has to be seen, felt, and heard first-hand in order to truly appreciate and understand it.

As usual, you play as Link, a young apprentice goat-herder in Ordon Village. When not corralling the herd into the barn on the back of your horse Epona, you hang around with the other village children: showing off your skills with a wooden sword or your slingshot marksmanship to Malo, Talo, and Beth; going fishing with Colin; and letting Ilya take care of Epona. They’re a rambunctious lot, and when Malo chases off after one of the local forest monkeys, you have to find him and bring him back. The other children are abducted by monsters one fateful day, and you get knocked for a loop in the process; after regaining consciousness, you give chase, only to run into an odd barrier of dark energy — and quickly find yourself pulled into the Twilight Realm, in which you take on the form of a blue-eyed wolf shortly before becoming imprisoned. An imp-like creature named Midna aids in your escape, but clearly not out of anyone’s best interests but her own. From there, you learn of the Twilight King Zant and his attempted take-over of the Kingdom of Hyrule, and your true adventure begins in earnest, with a few twists along the way to keep things interesting.

Along the way, you’ll visit most (if not all) of the mainstays of the Zelda universe: Kakariko Village, Death Mountain and the Gorons, Lake Hylia and the Zoras, the Gerudo Desert, and of course Hyrule Castle, along with its ruler Princess Zelda; you’ll also encounter strange new places and races, like the wintry Snowpeak — not to mention further adventures in the Twilight Realm itself. Some enemies will undoubtedly seem familiar as well, both small-fries like the bat-like Keese and ever-present Moblins to the heavily-armored Darknuts; even a boss or two might pay homage to classic Hyrulian badasses like the one-eyed crab Gohma, although perhaps from a different branch of the family tree, so to speak. New faces getting in your way include orc-like creatures that ride huge boars while shooting flaming arrows at you. Your items are similarly a mix of the familiar and the exotic; in addition to the new tools and toys (none of which I’ll spoil here), nearly every classic item receives some sort of upgrade, whether subtle (the Hookshot has become the Clawshot) or significant (the Gale Boomerang has wind properties that are needed to solve some puzzles), making even the old classics feel new to a degree.

Of course, the ultimate “making the old feel new” experience comes from the Wii itself. While you still move Link around using the Control Stick (on the nunchuk attachment), lock on to enemies using the Z-button (also on the nunchuk), and use the A button to perform most context-sensitive actions like picking up objects and opening chests/doors, most other aspects have changed to accommodate the Wii Remote — including Link’s traditional left-handedness. Yes, Link’s a righty in the Wii version to better reflect the motion-sensing sword action used in the game; brief slashes with the Remote translate into similar motions on the screen, although not on a direct “swing for swing” basis — think of the “waggle” as being your new B button and you’ll get the idea. You can also use the Remote to throw things like pots and bombs without needing a running start; you just make a throwing motion and Link will toss the object in whatever direction he’s facing. The actual B button (the “trigger” of the Remote) operates one of four items readied; the other three can be mapped to the left, right, and down positions of the Remote’s D-pad and either activated directly from there or swapped with whatever you have assigned to B for items that operate beyond a simple “on/off” functionality. Up on the D-pad initiates conversations with Midna, who can occasionally provide hints not unlike Navi from [i]OoT[/i] (although neither as helpful nor as annoying). Camera control is somewhat nonexistent in the Wii version, although you can use the nunchuk’s C button to enter a first-person view and then look around using a combination of the Control Stick and Remote; camera control was almost never an issue for me unless I was surrounded by enemies and just wanted to re-center the camera ([i]usually[/i] accomplished by hitting Z, but…). Finally, your three sub-screens (Items, Quest/Equipment, and Map) are reached using the minus, plus, and 1 buttons (respectively), although you can also enable on-screen pointer shortcuts for a more point-and-click approach if you prefer; the 2 button toggles your on-screen map display to round out the available buttons. Perhaps the best Wii modification, however, is for the Spin Attack: just give the nunchuk a twirl with your sword drawn and watch enemies fall. In Wolf form Link loses his ability to use items but gains a couple of innate abilities, while the rest of his controls remain largely unchanged, including the Spin Attack.

The Wii Remote has three other functions in the game, but by far the most important after basic controls is aiming various projectile weapons. This has become as simple as pointing at your target and hitting B to unleash your attack thanks to the Remote’s spatial awareness, and holding down the Z button will allow you to move while still being able to aim freely (“strafing”, for lack of a better term) if it doesn’t lock you on to an enemy. The combination of the Remote and panning with the control stick gives Link a full hemisphere of potential aiming under most conditions. What used to be a chore is now nearly seamless, minus the “point the Remote at the screen” message you receive fairly regularly (if you hold the Remote the way I do, at least). The final two functions of the Remote are force-feedback (“rumble”), which is what you’ve been used to for some time now, and the speaker, which brings many of the game’s sounds — including the classic Zelda “secret” jingle and Midna’s laugh when she has something important to say — right into your personal space.

On the subject of speakers (and speech, for that matter), I’m going to quickly gloss over graphics and sound. This is a Zelda title, so you know that Nintendo’s team put extra effort into both above and beyond what most development teams put forth. However, it is also essentially a port of the GameCube version that was already largely in progress, so the presentation isn’t much better than what that particular console is (was) capable of — then again, anyone who’s seen [i]Resident Evil 4[/i] or other games that pushed the Cube to its limits knows just how good that can be, so it’s not the end of the world or anything. Anyone who chooses to own a Wii instead of (or in addition to) an Xbox360 or PS3 (or PC, for that matter) knows what they’re getting into graphically, so there’s no need to emphasize that aspect too much. Suffice to say that the game is (much) easier on the eyes and ears than most games, but hardly a bleeding-edge reality simulation or an orchestral masterpiece. The (continued) issue of no real voice acting could be brought up, but I don’t care so I’m not really going to; Midna does a lot of “talking”, however (essentially subtitled gibberish), which occasionally made me wonder why everyone didn’t/couldn’t get the same treatment instead of the occasional grunt or whatever.

Without trying to compare the two very different presentation styles, the factor that most separates [i]Twilight Princess[/i] from [i]Wind Waker[/i] is pacing. Having almost constant access to Epona and a nearly-comprehensive system of warps allows you to more or less journey freely from point to point without doing a lot of unwanted travel on foot; unexplored territory must obviously be opened up the hard way, but you probably expected that. There are also nine main dungeons, five villages/towns, and at least a dozen side quests and mini-games at your disposal once you’ve opened everything up — you will never feel bored playing this game, nor will you be at a loss as to what your next goal is… and if you do somehow achieve that state, 10 rupees to the Fortune Teller in Castle Town will steer you back on track — or you could ask her to point out the location of a Piece of Heart that you’ve overlooked (slight change: it now takes five pieces to make a full Heart Container instead of four).

The game isn’t quite perfect, however, even allowing for the shortcomings of its (lengthy) development process. If anything, the game can be too [i]easy[/i]; early portions when you only have four or five hearts can be overwhelming, but once you’ve passed eight you’ve usually got things under control (and are better equipped) and will rarely find yourself low if you know what you’re doing. The series’ legacy also works against it somewhat, as veterans are already familiar with most of the tactics necessary to do well (admit it: as soon as I mentioned a Gohma-like boss, you probably knew exactly what needed to be done to take it down), including the fact that the item you receive in a dungeon is most likely the key to victory against its boss as well. Also, there are seven hidden combat techniques scattered throughout the game; most of these are reminiscent of the “Reaction” commands in [i]Wind Waker[/i] — but under your complete control. Mastering these will make combat against foes like Darknuts (and even a boss or two) much easier than simply hacking away with normal strikes. While very cool, these also remove some degree of difficulty once you’ve got them down (although some are more useful than others). Finally, the additional precision of your bow and other projectiles removes some artificial difficulty of the previous 3D Zelda titles.

Another shortcoming is the Twilight Realm and Link’s Wolf form, in the sense that they aren’t really explored as thoroughly as some would have liked them to be. After the third dungeon, you don’t really see much of the Twilight Realm until the end of the game (you don’t even really see that much of it in the first place), and the Wolf’s abilities never develop beyond what you initially learn to do in it. I would have loved to have seen the Wolf’s howling be more useful, especially some way to swap day and night on the fly like previous titles had; one of the side quests involves enemies that can only be found at night, which creates needless waiting if you really want to pursue it. These are more crimes of omission than real flaws, however — many players are just left wanting [b]more[/b]. Along those lines, there have been some complaints that some traditional Zelda storyline elements felt “tacked on,” but I never felt this way personally (although at least one major Zelda term is never mentioned — at least by name).

Overall, [i]Twilight Princess[/i] features at least forty hours of game play. My last save is a little over fifty-one hours, and there were still a few side quests that needed wrapping up; to fully wring everything out of the adventure without delving into the world of intentional handicaps (like a low-heart run) will probably take upwards of seventy hours. No matter how much time you choose to invest in the latest quest to save Hyrule you will not walk away disappointed with your time spent there, nor will you feel like anything less than the True Hero once you succeed.