➤ The time of twilight 🎮

When, almost two and a half years ago, we found ourselves reviewing the remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for Wii U, the situation of the Nintendo console was very different from today. Certainly the need for greater support from third parties was perceived, as well as the not particularly comforting sales figures were observed with some concern.Yet the period was nothing short of sparkling for users, with the renewed commitment of the Kyoto house and a 10-month window capable of seeing titles such as The Wonderful 101, Rayman Legends, Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country come to light. : Tropical Freeze and Mario Kart 8. Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the great revival of Wii U, but more sadly the apex of the career of a home console finally destined to be the least sold in the entire history of Nintendo. To open and close this 2016 which will probably be the last year of "real" life for Wii U, in the expectation and hope of an NX called upon to carry an enormous responsibility on his shoulders, it is almost symbolic that he finds himself the hero of Triforza, that Link protagonist of some of the most beautiful stories lived on the hardware of the great N and one of the most indestructible defenders of a way of understanding the video game that can only be conceived in the society of the new president Kimishima.

Twilight Princess HD is a solid and well-crafted remake, though perhaps not entirely necessary

Ten years ago

If the most important and awaited appointment is undoubtedly the one with the new episode of the series, hopefully destined to come out at the end of the year with the probable double publication for Wii U and NX, in these first months it is instead another remake to take center. of the scene, in an attempt to at least partially alleviate the chronic lack of games and the schizophrenic distribution of the same that has unfortunately characterized much of the life of the console.

Of course, for the longtime fan this high, not to say excessive frequency with which the name of The Legend of Zelda resonates in the ears lately, compared to the long but exciting waits that separated the various chapters a few years ago, can only be strange. : between re-editions, remakes, Virtual Console, spin-offs and so on, it is inevitable to find yourself reflecting on the opportunity of an exploitation that risks inflating and impoverishing such a precious brand. But anyhow, these are the more or less obligatory choices of a Nintendo that is going through a crucial moment in its history. The episode chosen this time to return to the spotlight, even in a rather predictable way, is that Twilight Princess that came out at the end of 2006 at the same time on the now retired GameCube and on the brand new Wii. At the time, no one would have imagined that the new hardware would later become a phenomenon with over one hundred million pieces sold all over the world, the absolute protagonist of the bubble of motion sensors and casual gaming. That Zelda episode was almost driven by fans, who criticized the originality and courage of The Wind Waker to such an extent as to force Aonuma to set up a decidedly more conventional adventure in terms of settings, graphic style and elements of the gameplay, in a kind of direct connection with the seminal Ocarina of Time. A choice that obviously paid off, since Twilight Princess became the second installment of the best-selling series ever. A goal reached certainly not by chance, let's be clear: it was in fact, and it is still largely a question of a wonderful adventure, engaging, full of personality and balanced in its components. However, the fact of being an episode in some ways more predictable, probably the one with the least innovative charge ever, has led it to be criticized by some fans. The vast but rather empty overworld, some drop in quality in the dungeons and the less incisive plot, as well as the secondary characters, have in fact made Twilight Princess also one of the most controversial Zelda, and perhaps one of the less well aged ones. However, this does not seem the right place to question the absolute value of the product, rekindling controversies that have been going on for two decades, but rather to evaluate the work done in this remake and consequently its opportunity.

From Australia with love

In this sense, it is worth underlining that there are two substantial differences compared to The Wind Waker HD: first of all, where the latter gained further interest by representing the only concrete opportunity for the Wii U user to access the chapter in question, on the contrary with Twilight Princess there is the "problem" of backward compatibility with Wii, which in fact has always allowed owners of the Nintendo console to play with it. Secondly, if The Wind Waker HD was made - in just six months - by Aonuma's internal Nintendo EAD team, on the contrary with Twilight Princess the task was entrusted to the Australians of Tantalus Media. Although it has undoubtedly been carefully supervised by the executives of the Kyoto house, it is clear that at this moment the vast majority of the commitment of the "dad" of Zelda is focused on the new chapter in development.

This gives a little sense of the boundaries within which this latest remake can be found, starting with the fact that from a graphic point of view the detachment with the original is less marked than in the case of The Wind Waker. HD. In fact, to refresh the original, the programmers have done little more than would be frankly expected by adapting a product of 10 years ago to the present day: here is the high definition at 1080p, 30 frames per second and higher quality textures that guarantee a cleaner image, capable of making visible even all those details that were obviously lost with the 480p of the original. The whole obviously gains a lot, but at the same time the reduced polygonal complexity of characters and settings is more jarring. In partial help comes the new lighting system used by Tantalus, which makes everything more realistic and enjoyable, albeit with some excess as regards the bloom.It could be argued that roughly the same treatment was also guaranteed to The Wind Waker HD. This is only partially true, because while on the one hand Link's aquatic adventure could also enjoy the addition of 16: 9 (more important than one might think), on the other it is clear how cel shading is. more prone to being fully enhanced by brighter colors and increased resolution. That said, the improvements that Twilight Princess HD can count on are not solely related to the graphics component. The most obvious addition is obviously the support for the GamePad, which in addition to providing the ability to play in off screen mode, allows in the case of the classic use of the TV to manage the inventory via the controller screen and always have the map of the area in which you are located. A solution that makes the action more fluid and less fragmented, as it is easy to understand; possibly one could have hoped for a slightly more aesthetically pleasing work as regards the menus in question on GamePad, really at the minimum wage if not downright ugly. Adjustments have also been made to some sections, rebalancing them based on the criticisms raised by fans: for example, the tears of light to be collected have dropped from sixteen to twelve, a ghost lantern has been introduced to make it easier to identify the Souls of Specter, adjustments have been made to the control system and speeded up dialogue and timing of the transformation into Wolf. All problems that, in modern games, could be corrected with a free patch, but which instead were destined to remain immobile and invariable ten years ago. The lazy camera of the original has not been modified, however, forcing numerous corrections during the action. Compatibility with amiibo is inevitable, which finds its most interesting expression by bringing the beautiful Wolf Link statuette created for the occasion to the controller. By doing so, you can unlock a sort of arena survival mode of increasing difficulty, obviously focused on combat. Unfortunately Nintendo did not provide us with the thumbnail, which is why we cannot make a first-hand judgment on this additional content. Even some of the amiibo of the Super Smash Bros. series are compatible, bringing with them some changes to the game balance: for example with Ganondorf the damage received is doubled, Link restores the arrows, Zelda and Sheik instead the hearts.

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If in some ways the remake of The Wind Waker was something that "had to be done", to restore that artistic and moral dignity that the dull criticisms of the first publication had partially taken away from him, with Twilight Princess this need was felt much less: either by the relative proximity of the first publication, or by the lower impact of the aesthetic rejuvenation treatment, or by the simple fact that the Wii version of the original has always been available to Wii U users thanks to backward compatibility. The result is therefore a remake made in a more than honest way, without smudges, but which inevitably appears a bit academic and therefore unable to fully surprise. All this consequently translates into a product of sure interest for those who have not previously had the opportunity to play this adventure of Link, or for those who want to find a good opportunity to relive it in its best form. The others can instead also consider the possibility of moving on, thus keeping intact the "desire for Zelda" until the new chapter coming out at the end of the year.