the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

One of the things I love about the Legend of Zelda series is the narrative and cinematic experiences of the games.

Once again Nintendo has the brought a new twist on the old Zelda tale of one hero who must save Hyrule from destruction by evil forces. This time creatures from the Twilight Realm are the evil forces. They overrun Hyrule which casts it into darkness and turns the people into spirits. Link must restore Hyrule and battle the baddies with his usual arsenal.

New to the Zelda series is Link’s wolf form. In wolf form Link can use his sense to discover secrets. Midna is a creature of darkness who assists Link in his wolf form and can help him warp over the map.

The world may not be as large as Windwaker’s but it’s not small by any means. The play mechanics are pretty much unchanged from earlier iterations. There is a small amount of Wii-Mote functionality added. The puzzles are just as simple clever as before and the 3-D action is just as intuitive.

This game came out in 2006 actually. And there is a Gamecube version that is nearly identical. But not many games this year had narrative moments this compelling. And like every Zelda game this is a watershed title for its system.