Quite possibly the best Zelda yet.
Reviewed by Cannon Fodder on or around 02nd Jan 2007
I was really tempted to give this a full 10 on the Game-o-meter, but one thing kept poking at me as I played through the game: The characters aren't voice-acted. All the dialogue is in text. This might have been fine back on the N64 or even on the GameCube (due to the lack of disc space on those tiny discs) but in this "next-generation" of game consoles, it's a fault.
This is especially true given that Twilight Princess brings the best story to the franchise since the SNES Zelda.... The supporting characters in this game should have been voiced. I totally understand the mute hero thing they have going on with Link, but the other characters -- largely because of the story -- deserved voices.
The lack of voice acting got me thinking more about sound in general as I played and I was also disappointed with the soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, the tunes are good . . . but they're Midi. As I sat in the middle of my surround-sound room with the audio cranked and the Pro-logic 2 doing its best to impress, I couldn't help but think how much more awesome it would be if the soundtrack had been recorded by a real, live orchestra. Because it's possible and because I know other (lesser) games do it as a matter of course, I was a tad disappointed that Nintendo didn't see fit to go that extra step in the sound department.
Besides that, Twilight Princess is a masterpiece in every way and even better than Ocarina of Time: Master Quest (which I also gave a 9.5 to, but that was then and this is now). I could go on and list every awesome bit of this game that led me to the final score . . . but let me just say this: There's more great gameplay in one of Twilight Princess' dungeons/temples than you'll find in the entirety of any average game. Spend $250 on a Wii and $50 on Zelda and, when you're finished with the game, you'll know it was worth every penny.
Also, for the first time that I'm aware of in a Zelda game, Nintendo has included a Hellgate (The Cave of Ordeals). It was awesome to find and a punishing dungeon to play through.
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