The high-definition remake of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has made its way through some of gaming’s biggest media outlets, so we’ve taken the time to gather up our favorite reviews. We’ve also included brief summaries from these in depth reviews to give better insight into why it received the scores it did.
If you would like to read the full review of any of the sources included down below, the links for all of them have been provided.
IGN: 8.6/10
Reviewed by: Jose Otero
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“The fact that Twilight Princess holds up 10 years later is a testament to its ambitious scale, its memorable set pieces, and of course, its finely-tuned dungeon puzzles. You have to get through a slow opening hour, but once the story kicks into gear you’re tossed from the quaint activities of small-town life and thrust into a struggle to save Hyrule from the encroaching minions of the Twilight realm. Along the way you’ll meet interesting characters like Mayor Bo, the highest authority in Ordon Village, whose secret sumo wrestling training will help you enter the Goron Mines, or Midna, a sassy sidekick who hides her motivations for helping Link. The campaign jumps skillfully between the personal plights of these characters and exploring the devilishly clever dungeons for which Twilight Princess is so rightfully remembered.”
GameSpot: 9.0/10
Reviewed by: Rob Crossley
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“Nintendo first launched Twilight Princess in 2006, and the sharpened textures of this HD re-release can’t hide its wrinkles. The gameplay fundamentals are blind to the progress that action-RPGs have made in those ten intervening years. But, clumsy ladder climbing aside, overall there’s an ironic quality to its primitiveness. Because in that quest to catch a fish to lure that cat to appease its owner to buy a slingshot to impress that toddler, you will have covered every corner of Ordon. You’ll know the routes. How wonderfully quaint, in an era of follow-the-arrow adventure games, to map out a world in your memory.”
Polygon: 8/10
Reviewed by: Griffin McElroy
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“Twilight Princess HD’s transitional sequences can occasionally get pretty clumsy, but unfortunately, the main offender comes right at the very top of the game. The introduction to Twilight Princess is the series’ absolute worst. It’s a laborious, repetitive slog that sticks you with some chores — like goat herding, a terrible mini-game that you have to perform twice in the first hour — and sends you through the same path of the same patch of woods three consecutive times. The HD remake trims a task or two off the original’s checklist, but no amount of scene-setting or tutorial-distributing is worth the two hours effort that Twilight Princess HD makes you crawl through before the fun can begin.”
GameXplain: Meh
Reviewed by: Andre Segers
God Is A Geek: 10/10
Reviewed by: Greg Hill
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“It’s hard to fault Twilight Princess HD on anything really. Everything that the original did well, the remaster seems to do even better. It is a game enhanced for a new generation of players, with all the added conveniences of our modern consoles only improving the experience. I suppose there are the very minor graphical issues that appear in some temples when caught in a slightly awkward angle — camera getting caught in the wall, some texture clipping, etc, and fighting enemies with the GamePad as a controller is obviously not as fun as waving around the Wii remote and nunchuk like a real sword, causing all sorts of damage to the room around you, but apart from that, I’m at a loss for things to complain about.”
GamesRadar: 4/5
Reviewed by: Anthony John Agnello
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“Twilight Princess’ charms make it almost impossible to resist. This Wii U remake is especially lush and distinct. Wind Waker HD, while still a great version of the game, gained almost too much definition in the jump to Wii U. Its characters lost some of the flatness that made the cartoon style presentation so striking. The graphical upgrade here, meanwhile, makes Twilight Princess as vivid as it should have been in the first place, with all the small flourishes – like a child’s drawings on the wall in Ordon village, or the moss and vines growing on a Zora tomb – popping off the screen.”
After reading through these reviews, we found that most reviewers enjoyed the game and gameplay overall, but were disappointed by the game’s graphics. Stay tuned for our own review of Twilight Princess HD, which will be coming soon!
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD releases on March 4th for $59.99 and will be bundled with the exclusive Wolf Link amiibo. Pre-order your copy of it on Amazon today!
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Written by Frank Costagliola
Frank is a journalism student at the College of Staten Island and knew he wanted to write and talk about video games since high school. If Frank isn't on campus, he's probably gaming, spending time with his friends, at the gym, or trying to hunt down a rare amiibo out in the wild.
