I enjoyed this game immensely and found it to be my favorite game experience of 2011, despite an unusually amazing year chock full of great experiences. It is a game which stuck with me for a long time after I finished it, and even today I find myself humming one of the songs or thinking of one of the dungeons from the game when I least expect it. People criticized the game in respect to fetch quests and structure at the time. I think that might be a short-sighted complaint because I think the structure is just a case of Nintendo's old school approach to game design. That is, that the gameplay informs the story and not vice-versa. To that end, yes, you will be asked to occasionally fetch three of something or backtrack to somewhere. The central problem to some is that those are story contrivances to artificially lengthen the game time, but I posit a question; Is it fun? And the answer to that is a resounding yes. Even when the story contrivances are a little... well, contrived, the gameplay remains amazingly fluid, responsive, interesting and oftentimes challenging. Rarely are you asked to do the exact same thing more than once, and the objectives are often unique to the Zelda experience. The graphics are pretty amazing, especially considering what the platform it is on, thanks to the amazing art direction. The music continues the recent string of Nintendo releases which are high quality enough that they warrant its own music cd, which was a fun listen and works even better in-game where the soaring orchestral score fit in perfectly with the game's themes and premise. I understand this game has a high metacritic score and garnered plenty of GOTY awards, but I would've loved to have seen it receive more attention from Giant Bomb staff and community. Obviously, I can't be upset about a difference of opinion but it seems some were reticent to even try it. With that in mind, I strongly encourage you to boot up your Wii (or your dolphin emulator) and give this game a shot. It's a special game, a game not soon to leave your memory.
