The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is only five months away from release...and some fans might've felt like they waited that long in line to play it at E3. Nintendo wisely chose to keep the game behind closed doors, as putting it on the main showroom floor would have caused mobs on par with Miyamoto advertising free autographs. The downside of this scheme was that the wait to play it could swell to over four hours, a ridiculous length of time to camp out for any game demo at E3. But never mind that, let's forget about those poor folks and cut to the head of the pack. Here's an inside look at what it was like to enter Nintendo's awesome Zelda demo area and get your hands on the most anticipated GameCube title of the year.
The first of Nintendo's two demo rooms sported a forest theme, featuring a video projected stream with neon-colored fish, moss-covered trees, and a misty, smoke machine-assisted ambience. Sounds of a babbling brook and twittering birds further set the mood. It was an exceptional decorating job, and all of the noise pollution and neon lights of E3 seemed suddenly miles away. Even so, most in attendance took notice of the pastoral surroundings and then quickly homed in on the main attraction: the game demo stations.
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Zelda: Twilight Princess (Forest Room footage)
There were about a dozen units available to play, each one offering a choice of two different game scenarios: Toaru Village or Horse Battle. I admit that I rushed straight to the Horse Battle first because it just looked so damn cool, but for the sake of order let's begin with Toaru Village.
Toaru Village seemed to be one of the first areas in the game, and it unfolded at a leisurely pace, allowing the player to try out a number of minigames, or just wander around town soaking in the atmosphere. The challenges mostly took the form of training tasks, designed to get the gamer familiar with navigating through the world. These including collecting wayward chickens (yes, you can chicken-glide by jumping off of rooftops), herding goats on horseback, a gate-jumping challenge, and paddling a boat across a pond to rescue a floating baby basinet.
I could tell from watching other players that the on-screen control diagram in the upper right-hand corner clearly spelled out the contextual controls (as in most Zelda installments), but I took a look at the demo placards just in case. The control scheme is more or less the same as previous 3D Zelda games, and series veterans will feel right at home.
The chicken and goat collecting minigames were simple but enjoyable affairs. Link rides around Epona in a fenced-in ranch yard, hitting A to
"Whoop" goats towards the barn. The most important tactic is to bear down on the goats at an angle that leaves them running scared towards the barn door, then stay right behind them to keep them on track. Once they near the gate, a well-timed whoop will spur them along into the barn. But be careful not to whoop that ass too many times--the goats will flash red if they're feeling abused and charge at Epona, knocking Link into the dirt if they connect. And that would be a major setback, as Link has to corral the 20 goats within a time limit in order to please the rancher.
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Chasing poultry...
Link spends some time herding goats...
