Come Wii launch day, I was out in line with everyone else waiting for my Zelda-machine. Needless to say, after arriving home after the wait, I was ready for some epic play sessions. In the end, I found myself walking away after only a few hours play each time.
Zelda was a great game, a fantastic game for the first ten or so hours of play. I marveled at how talented the artists were to make such inspiring scenes on somewhat limited hardware. Truly, the game is a masterpiece in terms of aesthetics. The control scheme also won me over early, mostly due to the split design and how remarkably comfortable it is to lounge with your arms at your sides.
However, I soon came to tire of the bland, uninspiring story. The puzzles also struck me as infuriating rather than challenging in any intellectual way. Clearing the first dungeon was nothing too bad, but there were several necessary backtracks during later puzzles. I don't mind backtracking, but there has to be a reason to do so! I found myself facing a puzzle involving timing, and there was nothing even hinting at the fact that I had to backtrack. I simply thought my timing was off!
As for the controls, yes, the split scheme is comfortable. However, I found myself half-heartedly shaking the remote every time I had to engage an enemy. I found myself genuinely annoyed that I had to jerk my hand out of its resting state just to draw my sword. At first, I loved it, but after 20 hours of play, I could not in good conscience call it anything other than a gimmick.
This game is great, that is for sure. It's certainly the best game on the Wii right now. I think everyone would benefit from taking a step back to put things in perspective. As for me, Zelda is certainly far from the greatest game I have ever played.
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