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1up Zelda Twilight Princess review

Link

The Autumn Wind
I'm not usually one to make bold statements that can be made into a tag or linked to later for the purpose of mockery, but I can guarantee you that Gamespot will score this game at least a 9.5.
 

Pikelet

Member
Didn't Gerstmann give Wind Waker a 9.3? Judging from all the impressions and reviews I've seen thus far, I can't reasonably see how he'd score Twilight Princess lower...
They have a 'dare to be different' attitude, anything is possible. also they are stupid.
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
The best game of all time getting a 10 isn't really hit-inducing news.

The same game getting a 8.9 however...
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Ristamar said:
Didn't Gerstmann give Wind Waker a 9.3? Judging from all the impressions and reviews I've seen thus far, I can't reasonably see how he'd score Twilight Princess lower...

Hint it (kinda) rhymes with "Fraggle Rock."
 

yanhero

Member
Jeremy Parish's blog update:
http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5379721

Hey everyone, have you missed me? Possibly not, because I helped prep enough content in advance of this week for A New Leaf and Launchageddon to look like I'm involved with the site like usual. But it's a lie! I haven't been to work in four days. Nope, I've been at home playing Zelda. Truly the most grueling and thankless week of my life.

...or so I expected. As you might have gathered, I'd actually been somewhat dreading this week's Zeldathon. I have a soft spot for the series, having beaten the original back in the day (and the Second Quest) through sheer tenacity, but Ocarina of Time never really clicked for me... so the fact that Twilight Princess looked like Ocarina's second coming had me worried. And then there was that whole Wiimote business....

But as it turns out... well. I'll let our review speak for itself.

I wasn't initially blown away by Twilight Princess, actually. The first few hours of the game looked pretty but were a bit soporific. A slow trudge through territory any Zelda fan already knows -- yes, yes, I get that new players need to be brought up to speed, but when the first five hours could basically be considered a tutorial, that's not so good. But then things started to get more interesting, especially once I reached the point where I could explore freely.

And even though I was on a super-tight deadline to get the game reviewed by tomorrow (meaning I needed to finish the game today), I couldn't resist the urge to go exploring. And that's what really won me over. (Well, that and the great dungeon design... and the excellent story... and the gorgeous worlds... and the superb controls....) I'm a habitual explorer, always poking into every nook an cranny I can find in a game, and I've never played a game that rewards me so richly for my paintaking efforts as Twilight Princess does. Well, maybe A Link to the Past did. And when you start putting a game on the same rarified turf as ALttP, you're talking about a classic in the making.

So yeah, you might have noticed that the score on the review is a 10. You might also be aware that to date I've only ever given one or two games above a 9.0. I do not hand out super-high scores lightly, but it was a surprisingly easy decision in this case. As I mentioned to Skip, the fact that I enjoyed the game despite the relentless go-go-go marathon sessions meant it was a damn good game. But the fact that after being lukewarm on it beforehand, after blasting through in a four-day nonstop rush, after figuring out even the most annoying puzzles and maddening boss fights on a pressing deadline without an iota of outside help and a painful lack of sleep yet I can't wait to play it again -- well, that's the sign of a truly great game.

I'm sure there will be the requisite Internet Drama in the wake of this -- accusations of Nintendo bias despite my initial ambivalence about the game and a rather less than kind score for a major Nintendo game or game or two -- but it's the Internet's job to be retarded. So 'tard away, dudes. None of your whining changes the fact that this game is absolutely fantastic.

Just be sure to play the Wii version. Seriously, the Wiimote is perfect for this. And widesceen is how Hyrule was meant to be seen. Last week, I thought about canceling my Twilight Princess preorder since I knew I'd have seen the whole game before the Wii launch, but that won't be happening. I'll be replaying Twilight Princess sooner than later, slowly and thoroughly. The way Zelda games were meant to be played.
 
You just had to bold the most inflammatory section of his blog, did you not?

Seriously, let it go. Some people will prefer the GCN version, and that's that.

That aside, great, if expected, score. Enjoy the game come Sunday, guys.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Jeremy Parish's blog said:
Just be sure to play the Wii version. Seriously, the Wiimote is perfect for this. And widesceen is how Hyrule was meant to be seen. Last week, I thought about canceling my Twilight Princess preorder since I knew I'd have seen the whole game before the Wii launch, but that won't be happening. I'll be replaying Twilight Princess sooner than later, slowly and thoroughly. The way Zelda games were meant to be played.

But has he played the Gamecube version? I really wish the GC Zelda review was coming out at the same time so I knew what the differences were like. I have a feeling it'll really just come down to personal preference, but I wish there was a bit more coverage of the GC Zelda. Earlier on everyone was saying the arrow shooting in the Wii version was flakey, but is it still frustrating? We know that the sword fighting has massively improved over the E3 version but what about some of the other issues? I just haven't heard that much about the differences.

I know everyone here is getting the Wii version because they're getting a Wii around launch, but in my case I only have an SDTV and I'm not getting a Wii for now (unless I get it for xmas...) so the GC version is a real option for me.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
do we really need to play GC version of TP to know how it plays? I mean really...

it probably controls the same way WW did.
 

ethelred

Member
Pureauthor said:
You just had to bold the most inflammatory section of his blog, did you not?

Seriously, let it go. Some people will prefer the GCN version, and that's that.

That aside, great, if expected, score. Enjoy the game come Sunday, guys.

I prefer the GBA version of GRAW to the Xbox 360 version.

Zaxxon said:
But has he played the Gamecube version? I really wish the GC Zelda review was coming out at the same time so I knew what the differences were like. I have a feeling it'll really just come down to personal preference, but I wish there was a bit more coverage of the GC Zelda. Earlier on everyone was saying the arrow shooting in the Wii version was flakey, but is it still frustrating? We know that the sword fighting has massively improved over the E3 version but what about some of the other issues? I just haven't heard that much about the differences.

Well, if you find Parish credible, no the controls aren't flakey, as flakey controls aren't perfect, which was how he described them.
 

Jiggy

Member
So he compares it to the best Zelda ever (LttP), which wins points with me, and says that Ocarina of Time never clicked for him, which also wins points with me, and says that he was worried about Twilight Princess being the spiritual successor to OoT, which further wins points with me, but then he throws it all to pieces when he says he was bored for the first five hours--and yet the game still gets a 10/10. I don't understand. If five hours of a sixty-hour game are "soporific," it's not a 10/10--unless you're using the "7-7.5 is average" scale (as I would and do), which 1-Up and Parish himself clearly don't.



On another entirely separate note:
AniHawk said:
IGN's given 3 10s this decade: Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons.
Also, deservedly, Dragon Warrior III. :D
 

AniHawk

Member
Pureauthor said:
You just had to bold the most inflammatory section of his blog, did you not?

Seriously, let it go. Some people will prefer the GCN version, and that's that.

That aside, great, if expected, score. Enjoy the game come Sunday, guys.

I prefer the GBA version of GRAW to the Xbox 360 version.
 

beelzebozo

Jealous Bastard
parish said:
I'm sure there will be the requisite Internet Drama in the wake of this -- accusations of Nintendo bias despite my initial ambivalence about the game and a rather less than kind score for a major Nintendo game or game or two -- but it's the Internet's job to be retarded. So 'tard away, dudes.

let's get started
 
AniHawk said:
IGN's given 3 10s this decade: Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons.

Technically true, but completely misleading; IGN's Game Boy site only scored in one-point increments at the time. Maybe you knew that, though.
 

WARCOCK

Banned
beelzebozo said:
i wonder what it was about jeff's corpulence that caused him to give majora's mask an 8.3

Bingo, i think TP is gonna get dinked on the control section because waggling is probably too much effort for his fat ass. Probably ****ing needs to take a rest after every hour and shit, i can easily see a "TEDIOUS CONTROL" remark coming.
 
Jiggy37 said:
So he compares it to the best Zelda ever (LttP), which wins points with me, and says that Ocarina of Time never clicked for him, which also wins points with me, and says that he was worried about Twilight Princess being the spiritual successor to OoT, which further wins points with me, but then he throws it all to pieces when he says he was bored for the first five hours--and yet the game still gets a 10/10. I don't understand. If five hours of a sixty-hour game are "soporific," it's not a 10/10--unless you're using the "7-7.5 is average" scale (as I would and do), which 1-Up and Parish himself clearly don't.

Agreed in general with all of the above, except with LttP, where IIRC a lot of those secrets were of the trivial sort (secret rupees mostly).
 

Zaptruder

Banned
They should reserve 11s for games like this... just to let you know that it's heads and shoulders above everything else!

It's like if GoW didn't have annoying control problems and lasted 25+ hours!

That's the impression I'm getting from this game, reading various reviews.
 

Mar

Member
Martoo said:
Haha. Now that's a post for the ages.

Quoting myself because I want to expand upon what I said in response to Luke's comments (now that I have the time).

I am honestly impressed with the review. It's extremely well written and I didn't think I'd read something like that outside of EDGE magazine. So props to Jeremy, he's definately a good writer.

This has nothing to do with Zelda or me being a fanboy by the way. As the only Zelda game I've ever liked enough to finish has been Link to the Past. But I thought it was time to give the guy some props, he deserves it.

So while I'll never side with his review scores on a personal level. I will stop the UGnG score bashing and recognise Jeremy as a good writer.
 
Zaptruder said:
They should reserve 11s for games like this... just to let you know that it's heads and shoulders above everything else!

It's like if GoW didn't have annoying control problems and lasted 25+ hours!

That's the impression I'm getting from this game, reading various reviews.

I agree whole heartedly with this post.

CO_Andy said:
So, uh, is TP better than Okami?

Yeah sure, why not....?

I imagine this game woulda got 100% across the board if it had used a Wii Graphics Engine instead of a GC one
 

Lobster

Banned
Spire said:

Gamespot deserved to lose all rep they had on Zelda reviews after this review..

Gamespot said:
Majora's Mask is a great game, but it isn't for everybody. Even though it uses the same engine that drove Ocarina of Time, and the gameplay is the same on the surface, the adventure is extremely different. Some will appreciate the game's differences, while others will find the game's focus on minigames and side quests tedious and slightly out of place. While the game definitely has a lot going for it, and in the end comes together in a pretty tight package, skeptics should definitely rent this one first.

OoT got a 10 for being different from the past games so its only right to give MM a 8.3 cause its different? TP is getting a 10 for this from 1UP.. Gamespot need to sort themselves out..
 

gconsole

Member
BlindN-Fan said:
Gamespot deserved to lose all rep they had on Zelda reviews after this review..



OoT got a 10 for being different from the past games so its only right to give MM a 8.3 cause its different? TP is getting a 10 for this from 1UP.. Gamespot need to sort themselves out..

Being different for good = 10
Being different for bad = 8.3
 

Lobster

Banned
gconsole said:
Being different for good = 10
Being different for bad = 8.3

MM wasn't different for bad..I loved the game alot and no way was it bad. It was like a drama act. Filled with everything. Such as tension, focus, characterization etc..

MM was everything OoT wasn't. It was like..all the things OoT didn't have crammed into a N64 cartridge.
 
Error2k4 said:
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3155329

1up-100.gif
1up has mercy on the servers of GAF.
 

gconsole

Member
BlindN-Fan said:
MM wasn't different for bad..I loved the game alot and no way was it bad. It was like a drama act. Filled with everything. Such as tension, focus, characterization etc..

MM was everything OoT wasn't. It was like..all the things OoT didn't have crammed into a N64 cartridge.

Not 'bad' in term of the meaning but MM was lack of fun factor .Its new elements was quite annoying rather than fun to play. I enjoyed explore the world in ocarina but not in MM. One thing I love about MM was the masks design though.
 

Lobster

Banned
Fregin users..STOP LOWERING THE OVERALL RATING! Its a shame cause alot of trollers are just gonna do it on purpose...
 

Slurpy

*drowns in jizz*
Great review. Anyone who still has a single iota of doubt about any aspect of this game should be able to drop it at this point.
 
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