More than a Legend: Hands-On with Zelda: Twilight Princess
We explore every nook and crannie of Link's newest epic adventure.
Article by Edward Boyke (Email)
May 30th 2005, 12:45AM
The boat paddling challenge is also simple, but an attention-grabber because of the beautifully rendered water. A mother's baby has fallen into the town pond and is now floating perilously in its basinet. Link can hop about a nearby canoe and paddle out to rescue it, rowing with the R and L triggers. The water looks gorgeous and reacts dynamically to oar strokes; I can't wait to see what they do with the fishing section in the final game!
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Boat Paddling Challenge
The gate-jumping challenge doesn't last long. The rancher seems as if he's setting Link up for a lengthy minigame, but it's as simple as hitting A to spur Epona over two hurdles before a cut scene is triggered, in which Link encounters a stampeding goat and then meets the town's mayor and his daughter.
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Panoramic Ranch footage
This demo ends when Link crawls through a through a cave and arrives at the scene of a kidnapping. A girl stands by a small stream, but before Link can even say hello, a band of Marauders charges in, stuns the girl and takes off with her limp body. Poor Link is knocked unconscious to discourage any pursuit--which sets up the second of this pair of demos, the Horse Battle.
The Horse Battle
It seems that later on in the game, Link happens to catch up with the band of "marauders" (no formal enemy name yet) who bumrushed him and took off with the girl. Link must be harboring a big grudge, since he has doesn't hesistate in steering Epona headlong into the whole Marauder cavalry who got him outmanned 10-to-1. The Chieftain of the pack is such a varlet that he has tied the captive girl onto a stick and is riding around with her like she's some car antenna ornament. Link must give pursuit on his trusty steed Epona, fighting off minions as he attempts to catch up with the Chieftain. Often shown in trailers for Twilight Princess online, the horse battle sequence looked every bit as impressive in person, and was an absolute blast to play.
As the horse battle demo begins, a swarm of marauders rise over a hill and bear down on Link. The goal is to catch up with the Chieftain and get within striking range, easy to tell apart from his underlings due to his hulking size and the bright red flag he carries.
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Marauders Attack!
