Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

Well, it took 8 posts and 36 hours of play time, but I finally finished Twilight Princess. I'll now regale you with my final thoughts:

Loved

• Quality. This game is just VERY high quality. It pushes the Wii to its limits, it's practically bug-free, and the level design is just superb. Regardless of things I may say down below, this is a GREAT game and there is just no getting around that.
  
• Similar but Different. Twilight Princess is a Zelda game. If you've played Zelda games, you'll know what to expect here. I appreciated that because well, I like Zelda games and this definitely was one. Twilight Princess did a great job of not only providing all the "classic weapons" (bow, arrows, hookshot, etc), but also providing some new, fun stuff as well, with the bomb arrows and the spinner being my two favorite weapon additions.
• The fortune teller. I thought this was a great feature. Secrets and gathering are staples of all adventure games, but they have a tendency to either be ridiculously tedious or practically require the use of a FAQ. By being able to go to her and have her give you a clue to the location of a heart container, it allowed the locations to still be "secret" without being super annoying to find. My only grief was that I couldn't use her to point me towards golden bugs and Poes.
  

Hated

• You've found a blue rupee (5)! At the end of the game, this was hands down the thing that annoyed me the most. The very first time I encounter a rupee of a specific color, it's alright for it to show me this message. It's even okay for it to show it too me when I pull the rupee out of a chest. It is NOT okay to show me the message EVERY time I pick up a blue rupee in a new area. NOT okay at all.
• Climbing. I mentioned this before, but this was something that continued to annoy me throughout the rest of the game. It was just too slow. Period. Furthermore, the climbing controls were not very precise -- there were multiple times when I was pushing the control stick to the side and watched Link climb right off the bottom of the vines. It was hands down the WORST mechanic that has ever appeared in ANY Zelda game and was only slightly behind the rupee messages in annoying me.
• Mini-games. Again, already addressed, but they just didn't live up to the mini-games from previous games. They were alright, but I really could have used a couple of really solid bow/slingshot/bomb bug shooting galleries, and there just weren't any.
• Item progression/requirements. There were definitely some fun items in this game, but it really didn't do a very good job of working them into puzzles. While I felt like I used the clawshot and bow all the time, I was almost never forced to use the spinner. Also, the Dominion Rod was basically only used in the Temple of Time and in the lead up to the City in the Sky. The slingshot was NEVER used nor were the bomb bug things. The game could have done a lot better in working ALL the items into the game a little bit better.
• Pacing. This game started WAY too slow. I've completed entire games in the amount of time it took this thing to get started. I also felt like the game was just way too long. Something in the 20 hour range probably would have felt pretty decent too me, as it was, there were just lots of really long, relatively boring interlude sections.

I could probably ramble on for quite awhile, but that is most likely sufficient. So, in a sentence, how is it? It's a brilliant game. It really is. It's not without its flaws and it's definitely not a 10, but it is a really good game. If you are a Zelda fan of even a small degree, it's for you. I definitely enjoyed my time here, but I'm also VERY ready to move onto something else. Expect some Mirror's Edge initial impressions soon.

Oh, and playing through and reviewing a 3 year old game? I'm pretty sure I'm this guy.