In our second instalment of Wii game reviews, TwitchGuru looks at the blockbuster title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as well as Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Need For Speed: Carbon, and Metal Slug Anthology. But before we get into the specific titles, here are a few trends and points of interest we've noticed since the release of the Wii.

First, from a THG perspective, Excite Truck is still the runaway favourite in our office. Whether it's racing game junkies or casual gamers, we always seem to have at least one person playing Excite Truck each day. Fun with Wii Remote steering plus a short learning curve and outrageous stunts apparently equals universal fun.

Second, the early Wii games library is extensive, boasting a number of strong titles, including Excite Truck, Twilight Princess, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and others. However, there are even more examples of lacklustre games (Red Steel, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2), atrocious ports (Call of Duty 3, Far Cry Vengeance) and weak movie adaptations (Cars, Open Season). Thus, the Wii launch library is long but not quite as deep as we'd hoped it would be. In the near future, we're looking forward to trying WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Trauma Center: Second Opinion, as well as some other titles.

Now, on to the games.

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The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Rob: I always appreciate a good wrinkle in the gameplay, especially in a lengthy series like The Legend of Zelda. And Twilight Princess has such a wrinkle, where early on the in the game Link is turned into a wolf. Okami fans may cry foul and claim that there's nothing new here, but I did enjoy the way that Nintendo's designers shook up the Zelda formula a bit for Twilight Princess. In the game, Link sets off to rescue some young villagers of Hyrule and gets sucked into the Twilight Realm, where he suddenly turns into a wolf. His only companion is a mysterious, fairy-like creature named Midna.

I've previously criticized Twilight Princess for what I consider to be a truly boring first hour of gameplay. I'm not about to back down on that assessment, but I will say that Twilight Princess quickly corrected itself and got better and better the more I played it. In fact, it's an excellent game and easily one of the best in the Zelda series.

Twilight Princess is also a deep game; we discovered recently that we had played as many hours as it takes to finish most games these days, and still weren't close to completing it. There are, however, some aspects of the game that I found less than desirable (besides the first hour). These include the traditional subtitles and lack of voice acting; the incredibly annoying Midna character; and the old-school sound effects and music.

Still, the blemishes are small compared to the game's riches, such as its outstanding visual design, which evokes the look of Ocarina of Time. I was apprehensive about using the Wii controllers, but my fears were put to rest; you can use the Wii Remote for targeting range weapons and Link's sword, while movement is controlled by the nunchuk's thumbstick. The reactions to players' movements with the controllers are accurate and graceful.

Twilight Princess has a number of new magical realms and dungeons to explore, companions to befriend and evil foes to fight, and all have been created with the inspired design and magical touch of previous Zelda titles. It's not perfect, but Twilight Princess comes close.

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