E3 Demo, Tried and Tested!
Written by Woody007
(Click here for a short video of the event.)
It’s the 7th of August, and the sun is shining brightly, as we bask in the heat of this glorious summer day. Our one and a half hour drive from Leeds to Nottingham was not in the least bit wasted!
We arrive at the Nintendo All Stars 2005 Tour, Nottingham being the closest one to us. What game could possibly make me persuade my Dad to travel for one and a half hours in a car…nothing other than Twilight Princess. We arrived in plenty of time, making sure we were first in line, when the game stations for Twilight Princess would be unveiled to us. We watched (first in line may I add) as the Nintendo All Star team brought the game stations out. A Pokémon XD game station to begin with, then a DS/GBA Pokémon station, complete with Pokémon Rush, Pokémon Emerald. The All Star Truck housed some brilliant games, these included Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, Mario Smash Football (Super Mario Strikers in the US), Donkey Konga, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Wario Ware Twisted. Last but not least, the Nintendogs DS “bone” station…
The All Stars Truck! The Nintendogs DS "bone" stand!
But all those games are for another article. The one we’re interested in is Twilight Princess…so on with the show!!
The velvet rope was unhooked and slowly moved away, allowing entry to one of the greatest demos I’ve had the fortune to play. However, to my slight, and I say slight, this is Twilight Princess we’re talking about; the only parts of the E3 demo that were on offer, were the Toaru Village and Horseback Battle, the Forest Dungeon and Forest Dungeon Boss were not playable. Now, let’s stop waffling on and on and get to the game already!
The Twilight Princess "castle" gamestation in all its glory!
Toaru Village — This was very calming, and great to just roam around in, the start where you have to get all the goat animals back into the barn, gave me a wonderful feeling of nostalgia, remembering riding Epona round Lon Lon Ranch. The horse riding is very good in Twilight Princess, and I’ll look at it in more depth when I talk about the Horseback Battle demo. Now, once I’d wrangled all the animals I could be bothered to (I have to be honest and say that I got bored of trying to urge them into the barn, especially when I know I’ve got the Horseback Battle demo to play), I got off my horse, (lets refer to her as Epona from now on), I let the ranch owner know I’d finished and I was able to move into the village.
Here I was greeted by a raging goat which I had to wrestle to the ground. Unfortunately I failed with this task, and was mocked by the mayor standing next to me, saying how usually I could take one of them down easily. Not a very good start I must say! Anyway I moved on through the village, running up every little hill, and walking round the houses, admiring how vibrant it all looked. Then I noticed the stream, and the little rowing boat docked, and I just had to hop in. It was great and very responsive as I tried to manoeuvre it, I didn’t do very well, my oars flailing every which way, but the water looked great I must say! At this point, I decided to look behind me, a queue had built up unsurprisingly, and I felt it time to try out the Horseback Battle!
Horseback Battle — As soon as the field faded in, and I saw Link gallop into view on Epona; I knew this was going to be something very special. I gained control, and straight away whipped Epona, increasing speed and heading for the nearest moblin, who received a very forceful first slash of my sword. Straight after that I knew it was only going to get better. The Boss was in sight, I held “B”, charging up a spin slash, whipping Epona as I did…The sky grew even darker, rain fell and lightning flashed; I was gaining on him, I whipped again, and again, and as I galloped past him, I let go of “B”, dealing a vicious blow to him. Arrows careered into me; I knew I was being chased by plenty of minions. I took the time to ride Epona round towards them, and not head back for the boss until a good few had been annihilated by me! The clouds now began to part, and beams of light shone through, shadows of clouds moved over the grass. Once I’d delivered enough damage to the Boss, he made his way to a bridge, of which a final showdown would take place!
Link followed onto the bridge, hopping the wooden barrier. Once he had done, a moblin from up high fired a burning arrow at the wooden barrier, preventing me from escaping; it was now or never! It was dusk and the sky was a flaming orange. I regained control of Link and Epona. I set her off, and readied my sword, the sword glinting at its tip to let me know it had charged. My enemy ran at me also, and as we met, I was first to get their attack in, I galloped on and Epona turned. Again I readied my attack, whipped Epona and set off for the Boss, my attack connected first, and his distorted scream could be heard. The Boss was now furious, as he had already started his counter, I whipped Epona frantically, and pressed down “B” so hard I thought it was going to be lost inside the controller; I saw the sword glint, and the Boss met me; I let go of “B”…and he was finished! I was left to bask in the glory of my triumph, and was given a very nice cinematic ending, Epona raised on her hind legs, Link with his sword held high!
This article was written on a demo shown off in August of 2005, and so can only give insight as to how the game played at that point in development. We’re now 8 months on from when I played that, and though for sure the gameplay won’t have changed significantly; there could be aspects that will be new to us at the demo shown at E32006 next month.
