And now after about two decades of being around, a great soundtrack is another thing that has come to be expected from a Zelda game, and Koji Kondo has delivered yet again. The music fits the moods and atmosphere of the game perfectly, whether it calls for something soft and gentle or fast paced and intense. In addition to the new pieces, there are several that have become regulars in Zelda games over the years, such as the music that plays while in certain buildings or the music from the main menu. One thing that would have been would be to have had more pieces that were orchestrated. It’s not that the music that wasn’t was bad, I just enjoy hearing what they can do with real instruments. As another treat, they’ve brought back numerous ocarina songs from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Though what’s different here is that almost all are played not as Link in human form, but as the wolf through what are called howling stones. As for sound effects, with a lot of games anymore there isn’t really much to comment on. They’ve gotten to the point where most can realistically recreate sound effects, or in the case of fantasy sounds such as magic, make it sound like you’d imagine. So saying that, the sound effects have nothing wrong with them, just little that stands out.

Of course now, with all of this I’m talking about the Game Cube version. I have yet to get a chance at playing a Wii, let alone that version of Twilight Princess. One of the main differences is obviously the controls with the Wii remote, but there’s also the fact that they mirrored the entire game. The reason for this was because Link is a lefty, while the majority of people aren’t. So since most people would want to be swinging their sword (remote) with their right hand, they needed to make Link right-handed as well. Now instead of just mirroring Link, they went ahead and did the entire game to avoid any chance of things being awkward from the switch. Now for most, the choice would be obvious to go with the Wii version, but there are still some that prefer the standard controller. There are also some that would rather have the game the way it was meant to be, instead of being mirrored. Then of course you have the people who still don’t have a Wii and maybe don’t even plan to, which kinda forces the choice. So those are basically your deciding factors if you have the choice on which to get.

If you think about it really, it’s gotta be hard for the team at Nintendo to keep making an already great franchise better, but they still pulled off making a superb game, just with a few flaws. If some of the problems in this game had been fixed, such as the difficulty, the rushed feeling during the second half of the game, and maybe some better mini-games and side quests, then this could have been, without a doubt, the best Zelda game ever. It had the right stuff in a lot of places, it just fell short in enough of them to keep it from being quite as great as it could have been. As it stands, it’s still an awesome game. It beats out several of the other Zelda titles, just not all of them. Having said that, whether you’re a hardcore fan or just a casual gamer, do yourself a favor and go out and buy what is another solid Zelda game that should be in anybody’s collection.

Pros:
+ Fun game play
+ Epic bosses
+ Great graphics
+ Superb soundtrack
+ Nostalgic elements

Cons:
- Too easy
- Second half is too rushed
- Lack of good mini-games/side quests