E3 2005: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Zelda may as well be considered the Star Wars of the video game industry. No other game franchise has had a past that is looked upon so fondly, yet managed to stir up so much controversy over its last installment. But if The Wind Waker is The Legend of Zelda's Phantom Menace, then Twilight Princess is certainly its Revenge of the Sith. The new Zelda is undoubtedly a darker, more brutal experience and one I hope we can unveil to you in the most in-depth way possible. Within, you'll find a breakdown of our experience at E3, featuring our impressions of the booth the Zelda kiosks were in, as well as a thorough dissection of Twilight Princess's gameplay mechanics, an intricate look at the entire E3 demo, the story so far & our speculation in regard to it, and even our own impressions of the demo. Enjoy.

Four hours. That is how long the line was to play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess at E3 2005. Needless to say, demand was high. Anticipation was soaring, and everyone wanted to try the game. Luckily, Nintendo went all out with the Zelda booth, making the long wait more than worth the time. Not only is the game incredible, but so was the area that housed the demo units. In fact, the Zelda booth was so incredible that it has earned mentioning.

After the long wait show goers were treated to what we can only describe as "wonderment." We were led into a dark forest containing a single tree and about 20 demo kiosks. The lighting was dark, giving the impression of night time, and all around us there were sounds of nature. Vines hung from above, but not low enough to touch anyone. In the corner, next to the room's exit, there was also a small pond. This was no ordinary pond, however. It featured fish and a small wooden bridge by which to cross it. Everything about the pond, including its inhabitants, was made from a light that surely shone from the heavens, or from the ceiling in this case. Those who dared cross it found that they could mysteriously interact with it. If you wish to know more, we invite you to check here to read what N-Sider's own Glen Bayer thought about the pond, including an analysis of the technology behind its magnificence.

Once the surprise of how nice the booth looked wore off, it was time to get down to business. Twilight Princess was, after all, our main concern at this point. Unfortunately, after waiting in line to play, it was not uncommon to hear a disembodied voice fill the room. Said voice was the source of a booth babe who had a bit too much fun kicking people off the Zelda demo. She would occasionally vary on what was said, but the message was always clear, "Stop hogging the Zelda demo, jerks." In time we learned to train our minds to reject the wants of the disembodied voice. The first time, however, we made haste to do its bidding. And so, after the disembodied voice kicked us out of the forest, we moved into a hallway en route to the dungeon.

...And were promptly stopped in our tracks to stare. Directly in front of us was an arched window with Twilight Princess gameplay projected onto it. Not just any gameplay, though. We were watching Link do battle with what seemed to be a very formidable plant boss, a battle that was playable in the very dungeon we were moving toward. We were watching it from the perspective of the boss. Walking along we encountered several more windows featuring dungeon gameplay.In an effort to be cinematic, Nintendo shifted the camera angles to ones you'll likely never encounter in the game. You can rotate the camera behind the boss while you fight it, but it would probably be virtually impossible to play. In some part due to touches like the camera angles, the videos took our breath away in presentation alone. Fortunately for us, pulling ourselves away proved to be an even greater reward.

A full-sized Stalfos warrior was staring us down from within a cage. A closer look at the bars that contained him revealed that some of them were bent, as if to say he'd been trying to escape. He perked up at our arrival and stood tall, weapon brandished. And being cocky gamers, we naturally went "cool, an animatronic Stalfos" and started taunting it and poking at the bars. ...Until we realized that getting too close meant he would rush forward and smack the bars with his shield or swing his sword (which widened at the tip, making it look like a cross between a sword and a scimitar), in a desperate attempt to get at us. A bunch of people actually jumped back in shock. Unbelievably cool. Though we can't help but feel sorry for the poor sap who had to stand behind the Stalfos and control it all day. A trail of fake blood led from the Stalfos into the dungeon itself, and through a stone doorway. And as we walked through, the door itself (essentially a stone slab) slid shut behind us, trapping us in the dungeon. Of course, it opened mere minutes later to occasionally slam shut again, but it was a very neat effect.

The dungeon itself was just as cool. It wasn't as crowded as the forest, which I can only assume was because people, once they got into the forest after waiting hours in line, simply rushed the first machine they saw. At any rate, it meant we were finally free of the disembodied voice. Without the voice, the pressure to leave the demo machine after 5 minutes (despite the 15 minute limit on the demos themselves) was -- while not gone -- greatly lessened. With a little bit more time to explore, we took a look around the dungeon before moving to the machines themselves (this room contained about 20 machines,-- approximately the same number as the forest). We both noticed a few things almost immediately.

First of all, the air was filled with some manner of smoky mist. In general, the atmosphere was much colder than its forest counterpart.. The forest wasn't meant to be as dark. This was a dungeon made of stone and brick, after all. A feeling of fear and hopelessness seemed to radiate from the walls of the area. Nintendo went all out to make their fans feel like they really had walked into a true dungeon. As we entered, a stone wall stood before us (roughly seven feet tall).. The dungeon was U-shaped and on top of it was a robotic recreation of the new wolf form of Link. Again, not satisfied with mindless patterns, Nintendo was forcing someone to control this to ensure it would respond to people. It lunged and roared as people walked close to it, spending the rest of its time howling at what we can only assume was the moon and occasionally barking at passersby. When people weren't around, the wolf would often retreat below the wall. A large screen, which showed footage of Twilight Princess in action, was also in the room and was much taller than the stone wall. And to our right, directly across from the stone outcropping the wolf sat atop, was a simple, empty wall with shackles hanging on it. A transparent ghost guard occasionally disappeared and re-appeared in various locations, often on that first wall where the wolf was situated.

After spending some time with the demos, it was time to leave the booth. On the way out, we were given Zelda t-shirts by the booth babe (a later conversation with the particular babe proved that she was in fact a serious gamer, a fact that impressed us due to its rarity) and stepped out of the dark and murky world of the Zelda booth and back into the flashing lights and brighter atmosphere of the Nintendo booth. Leaving the Zelda booth to again enter the regular roar of E3 was a most jarring occasion. We believe that the extra effort Nintendo put into the Twilight Princess booth was greatly appreciated by all who entered. It's simply fantastic to see Nintendo recognizing its big title and really putting in that extra something to promote it properly. In fact, outside of the show floor itself, there was a delightful mural painted across the staircase in concourse (the main lobby between the West and South halls):