Revisiting GameCube: Twilight Princess

I'm skipping information on characters and story to avoid spoilers. Spoiler: I love the characters and the ending gave me goosebumps and made me feel sad to leave this world behind.

Controversy. If there's one thing video games, especially Zelda games, create, it's controversy. Whether I like or dislike a specific title, there are tons of people on the internet ready to publicly humiliate me for my opinion. There's a reason I bring this up: I both hate and love Twilight Princess. I hate the Wii implementation of the game. The pointer controls were okay but waggle sword fighting was awful. The mirrored world also felt a bit odd and that was before I played the GameCube version. Now that I've played the GameCube game, I love Twilight Princess. In fact, it is my favorite Zelda game of all time.

My history in Hyrule
Like many gamers, the Zelda series is my Nintendo franchise. While others love and excitedly wait for every Mario or Pokemon title, Zelda has been the main reason I purchase Nintendo consoles. My first Zelda game was A Link to the Past which was bundled with my Super NES. Everything about that game is bliss; I clearly remember how amazing it was to guide Link through the rain in those glorious 16-bits. At the dawn of the 32-bit era, I bought a PlayStation. It died upon completion of FFVII and, since Ocarina of Time was on the way, I purchased a Nintendo 64. As good as OoT is, I never felt that it lived up to ALttP. It was just a bit less fun to me, though still an amazing title.

My favorite Zelda games: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Minish Cap and Twilight Princess. These are the titles I revisit frequently. I haven't played much of Majora's Mask, which I will remedy soon. Wind Waker misses the list due to the momentum stopping Triforce fishing expeditions. If not for that, WW would be one of my favorites. I love that art style.

But we're here to talk about Twilight Princess, so let's get to it!



I adore the GameCube controller; not just for that fact that it can be purple or orange, but because it is the most expressive controller ever made. All of the buttons are not made equal and, due to that, the buttons can communicate the designer's intent to the player. In Twilight Princess, the standard attack is B and the big, green A button is the heavy attack. This lets the player know that the heavy attack is like a giant exclamation point, a stopping point, to the sword combo. The X and Y buttons are easily accessible but remind the player that these are your secondary weapons; the sword is the focal point of your combat arts.

The GameCube controller also has what I call the Nintendo analog stick. It has more resistance than a PlayStation pad and the divits at each point on the circle let you know precisely where the stick is at any moment. It reminds me of why I love square restrictor gates on arcade sticks.

The crisp controls married with the GC controller are a match made in heaven and a large part of why this game shines.

Conclusion
When I played Twilight Princess on Wii, I quit and said the standard "Fuck this game" as I did so. Upon revisiting the title on GameCube, my mind was changed drastically. I love this title. I think it's the best Zelda game ever. I truly believe that Twilight Princess is so much better on GameCube because that is the system it was designed for originally. Everything about the game communicates that fact and it's an incredible experience because of it.

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