• New Gameboy Advance SP Zelda Limited Edition in gold signed by Shigeru Miyamoto
• New The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap cart
• Booklets and manuals
• Slightly crushed display box
• The new feeling of receiving something shipped from Canada
  

Why It Won: Zelda games come around more frequently than Mario games and so aren't held to the same absurd scrutiny. In fact, after a lifetime of mostly-identical storylines (the princess is kidnapped, oh noes!) it wouldn't be altogether ridiculous to wonder when something new would come along for Link to do besides spend all day fishing, blowing into an ocarina, and looking for pieces of the much-elusive Tri-force. I'd all but discounted the series as an ad-tedium retread of the same concepts when The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass came along and I, feeling sorry for my oft-neglected DS, decided to give it a whirl.

Contra 4: This was the first game in a long time to "feel" like a Contra game. The fast-paced shooter is one of the best portables released this year and deserves recognition, but the joy it takes in its difficulty makes it a game not for everyone, and besides taking advantage of both screens the only real reason for this game to be on the DS is because it would look ridiculous on any other platform. What the game needs is a boomerang you control by drawing its path with the stylus.

Look below for 14 new images from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii. Arguably the "must-have" title for the console at launch, Link's latest adventure is said to capture a darker tone, much like Majora's Mask did on the Nintendo 64. ]]> Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:55:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/phantom_hourglass_details_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/phantom_hourglass_details_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/phantom_hourglass_details_screens# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

All you need to know about the buzz surrounding The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, is that the line to play it is nearly four hours long. Fortunately, our tour with Nintendo started with Zelda, and I was able to play all four parts of the demo, logging almost an hour with one of the most anticipated games of the show. Since the demo was broken down into four separate parts, I’ll talk about each portion on its own.

Toanu Village

The game opens with the camera panning around a farm, and centers on Link, who is getting off of work early. Your boss tells you to call your horse, Epona, by blowing into a piece of grass. Of course, the tune is Princess Zelda’s familiar theme from Ocarina of Time. As you finish playing, Epona comes barreling out of the barn, and you hop on to wrangle some animals into the barn. This teaches you the basic mechanics of riding Epona, and is quite fun. You basically circle around a few of the twenty goat-like animals, and hit the A button to “whoop” and send them scampering towards the barn. After you finish, your boss shows you how to clear jumps with Epona, which is as simple as pressing A to get some speed, and letting the computer do the rest. A girl named Ilia, whose father is the mayor yells at you for injuring Epona by performing jumps, and you are scolded for being late to a meeting for which you are representing the town.

It was after making a few jumps that everyone’s favorite pastime, torturing chickens, from the SNES Zelda, came into play. You can grab a chicken, lift it over your head and then run and jump off a ledge to glide down to the ground. Of course, you don’t have to use the chicken for something useful; you can just toss it around, but beware the wrath of angry chickens. This portion of the demo concludes when you help a pregnant woman retrieve her baby’s basket, which is floating down the river. I didn’t get to finish this last part, unfortunately.

Horse Battle

The Horse Battle takes place a few hours into the full version of the game, and opens with a scene of a young boy, that has been kidnapped and tied to a pole. The pole is attached to the horse, which is being ridden by a quite nasty looking villain. Of course, Link is there to save the day, and hops on Epona to rescue the boy. The boss calls for reinforcements, who surround Link, swing swords, and shoot flaming arrows to keep you from the fleeing Boss. You can knock them off fairly easily with your sword, but you also must use your limited “spur meter” to speed up and attack the boss at the same time.

This battle is quite tense, and while not terribly difficult, does require quite a bit of concentration. When I struck what I thought to be the final blow, I noticed how hard I had been gripping the controller, and eased up a bit. Little did I know, I was about to have a head to head confrontation, where both Link and the boss charged at each other while riding across a bridge. I rode straight for as long as I could, turning to the left at the last instant, and just landed a blow that knocked my foe off the bridge, no doubt to his death. The camera panned out, showing the silhouette of Link and Epona against the backdrop of a setting sun.

Forest Temple

The Forest Temple felt quite a bit like one of the temples in Ocarina of Time. It was here that I got the boomerang, mapped it to whatever button I wanted, and immediately took out some pesky spiders that were impeding my climbing. The basic battle mechanics are introduced here, and they are very, very similar to what was found in The Wind Waker, and Ocarina of Time. There is a new finishing move, which is performed by pressing the attack button when a foe is near death. The game actually prompts you to do this, but it doesn’t seem like the prompt will be there in the final game.

As you make it through the Forest Temple, one of the suspension bridges collapses, leaving you stranded. A chimp-like creature comes out, and you learn that you can help each other out. The chimp can hang from the ropes that cross the chasms and catch you as you leap, swinging you to the other side. You’ll have to let a few more of the creatures out of their cages in other parts of the temple, in order to have enough of them to cross the biggest gap. Jumping is automatic, and Link will jump when he gets to a ledge, just like he has done in the last few games. You also learn to perform the roll maneuver, which will help you dodge attacks, and in this case, allows you to roll into a pole to knock a caged chimp off. I also spent some time smashing pots to get hearts and rupees, and also wasted a few minutes chopping some of the tall grass.

Temple Boss

The Temple Boss was the last of the four part demo, and featured Link against a plant-like creature, who then gave way to a sort-of demon. Using the boomerang, you could target bombs that were set on platforms surrounded by lava, and then target the boss. After holding down the button long enough, the boomerang charges up, unleashing a tornado that picks up the bomb, carrying it to your second target, and blowing it up. Things get a bit more complex as the next set of bombs are being carried by a chimp, who is swinging back and forth across the screen. You have to target him, lock on with R, and then target the boss, again unleashing the tornado. As he is hit with the bomb, he falls forward, and you must rush towards him and slash at his head. After repeating this process a few times, he dies in grand fashion, leaving just his giant eye on the ground. The game then thanks you for playing the E3 2005 demo, and fades to black.

It’s no secret that people have been clamoring for a realistic looking Zelda, and Twilight Princess delivers a visual style that will certainly please anyone. The graphics are crisp, and feel like a naturally evolved version of the Nintendo 64 titles. There’s no voice acting in the game, but there are the “grunts” from previous Zelda’s when you being a conversation.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is poised to be a great last hurrah for the Nintendo GameCube. The game was a blast to play, and didn’t seem to disappoint anyone – even the people that only got to play for 10 minutes after waiting for four hours. You can’t find another game on the show floor that can do that. ]]> Thu, 19 May 2005 19:49:00 -0500