The Forest Temple
The forest temple dungeon begins with Link immediately squaring off against a pair of Lizalfos (reptile men), last seen in Ocarina of Time's Dodongos Cavern dungeon. Though they look more diabolical than ever, they don't pose much of a challenge, and a lock-on overhead sword strike or two will make quick work of them. There are a few simple puzzles in the first room, like climbing up a vine-covered wall while avoiding a small spider.
One bite from the spider will send Link sprawling to the bottom, so you can either make a dash for it and sneak by before it can strike, or grab a nearby deku nut and bean the spider off his perch.
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Fighting evil reptiles
The next room is home to what could be the previous spider's big brother, a huge black widow-looking monstrosity that's twice the size of Link.
Unfortunately, he's between you and a tantalizing treasure chest. After slashing a pair of big web strands out of the way, you can mount a bridge to challenge the arachnid. It's better yet to lure the critter off the bridge into a more open area, where you can lock on and circle to attack its hindquarters, out of the way of the forelegs and fangs. This sucker dies a little harder than the Lizalfos, but one good combo ending in a jumping downward stab to the dome (a new finishing move for Link) will put an end to things. Afterwards, you can grab the spoils in the treasure chest...The Gale Boomerang!
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Spider Critter footage
After equipping the boomerang, it's time to use it right away in a simple puzzle. The exit door at the far side of the room won't open, but there is a conspicuous propeller-like mechanism above. Throw the boomerang at it (aiming with the handy laser pointer) and presto, the rudder spins and the door starts to open. A couple more hits with the boomerang and it's time to move on.
In the next room, Link encounters a baboon chasing a little monkey, and this baboon actually has a boomerang of its own. After some hijinks, the baboon takes off and the monkey takes a liking to Link, becoming his escort for the rest of the demo. When a gap in a dilapidated bridge proves too large for Link to auto-jump across, his monkey buddy leaps up, grabs a rope dangling in the air, and holds out his hands to Link. They swing across to the other side, Cirque de Soleil style. The gale boomerang comes in handy time and again, like when Link needs to jump onto a section of bridge that is blocked by a dangling spider. A quick flick of the boomerang sends it crashing down into the water, and the way's all clear. After a few more boomerang puzzles, and a lantern-lit walk through a dark passageway that shows off the game's lighting effects, they emerge in a clearing.
In the center, a monkey is trapped in a cage atop a high platform. Link can easily rescue the little primate by rolling three times into the platform's base, causing the rickety wooden cage to fall and splinter on the floor below. The monkey seems unharmed, but Link better watch his back-- several Lizalfos jump out and attack. Once they've been dispatched, the Forest Temple portion of the demo comes to a close.
The Temple Boss
The Temple Boss demo drops Link into a boss encounter with a plant creature that looks as if it's right out of Little Shop of Horrors. In fact, it could be that a Piranha Plant has made its way over from the Mario series. After the boss rises out of a pool of toxic sludge, I noticed three bomb plants growing nearby.
Using the gale boomerang, Link can either send a bomb cycloning upside one of the boss's dual heads, or bring one back to himself onto the shore. If the boss tries to take a bit out of Link, he'll end up with a mouthful of dynamite instead. Of the two methods, it's much faster to simply send the bombs directly at the enemy using the boomerang. Take care not to step foot in the toxic bog surrounding the boss; it means a slow death for Link as I was unable to get back to shore the one time I experimented with that approach.
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Plant Boss Introduction
After scarfing up a few Molotov cocktails, the boss retreats back into the depths... Only to return as what is known as THE SECOND FORM! This time, its full torso and central head are revealed, and they are ugly! You have a cross between a komodo dragon's and a venus flytrap for a face, which spews purple acid and opens its mouth wide to reveal some sort of eyeball-tentacle thing. Why he needs an eyeball on his tongue, I don't know. Must be watching what it eats...
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Plant Boss (2nd Form)
Things prove a little trickier this time, as there are three heads attacking Link instead of two, and the main one in the middle spits acid. Fortunately, the baboon from the Forest Temple stage pops up in a cutscene, swinging across the chamber with a huge glowing bomb clutched in its feet. Now I'll be damned if I don't need to somehow hit the boss with that. Once again, it's the gale boomerang to the rescue! Target the monkey's bomb with X, then lock onto the object you want to hit and let fly. It will take several of these bombs to fell the boss, but only one or two apiece to kill off the two pesky helper heads on either side. You can then focus on the main head, which will fall stunned onto the shore with each hit, and loll out that tentacle/eyeball/tongue thing, which Link can slash at to do extra damage. Finally, after enough munitions, the boss shrivels and dries up like a flower in the desert, cracking into pieces. The only thing left of him is the glowing eye, which rolls around and then blows up in a cloud of colored smoke. Boss dead, demo over!
Overall, I was much more impressed by Nintendo’s new 'mature' Zelda at E3 than I expected to be. Instead of the same old, slightly tired Zelda gameplay wrapped up in a new coat of mature paint, there were some truly fresh elements introduced to the franchise, and series standbys were also executed with appealing flair. The dark tone of the game goes beyond just the art direction; the enemies are the most frightful looking I've ever seen in a Zelda title, and Nintendo doesn't flinch from showing acts of violence, both Link and the enemies'. I'm glad to see that they’re finally bold enough to take off the kid gloves and include scenes like the girl being brutally kidnapped, the downright nightmarish looking Chieftain and his slobbering boar steed, and even Link himself dishing out merciless damage with his devastating downward head stab combo.
The monkey that acted as a helper character in the Forest Temple was a lot more appealing to me than the fairies in Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask, and provided a nice bit of comic relief--as did the baboon who stopped to moon the boss before swinging to Link's aid. The horse battle was so compelling that I hope there are many more spread throughout the game.
And the Gale Boomerang is one of the more inventive accessories Nintendo's come up with for Link in recent games. Not to mention all the promising aspects of the game that weren't even shown off in the E3 demo--like Link shape shifting into a werewolf! Graphics that had looked technically mediocre in online screenshots were more pleasing to the eye in person. This game just got a whole lot more interesting to me on all fronts.
Last of all, it didn't hurt that Nintendo went through the trouble of setting up such an elaborate theme for their demo rooms; the lengths to which they went to make E3 attendees feel as though they had really stepped into a corner of the Zelda universe paid off by immersing you in the atmosphere of the game. I left impressed: somehow Nintendo was able to make one of the most jaded gamers look forward to a new Zelda title yet again.
And it probably helped that I didn't have to wait in that four-hour line either!
