Best Game Boy Advance Game
Best GameCube Game
Best Gizmondo Game
Best Mobile Game
Best N-Gage Game
Best Nintendo DS Game
Best PC Game
Best PlayStation 2 Game
Best PSP Game
Best Xbox Game
Best Xbox 360 Game

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 2005

Could it have been otherwise? The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the Zelda game--perhaps the game, period--which diehard Nintendo fans have been waiting for ever since that first GameCube tech demo showed a highly detailed, grown-up Link squaring off against nefarious Ganon and his massive sword. Hey, we love The Wind Waker--we awarded it our 2003 Game of the Year award, after all. But despite the last Zelda's lovable aesthetic departure, something about Twilight Princess' design feels like a brilliant return to form for the series...one that we can't wait to explore in full.

Spending just a few seconds at the controls of Twilight Princess will tell you it's a Zelda game through and through. The mechanical vocabulary is so consistent with the brilliantly simple design of games like Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker that you can instantly do everything you're used to doing. From targeting enemies and engaging in complex swordplay to hurling your trusty boomerang at a distant switch to allow you passage deeper into a dank dungeon, you'll know how to play Twilight Princess as soon as you pick up the controller.

Bleeding Blades

Link is all grown-up.

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Despite its fundamental similarity to past 3D Zeldas, it's already apparent that director Eiji Aonuma and his team are giving the new game its own identity. Link doesn't start this one as the would-be savior of Hyrule; in fact, he doesn't even live in Hyrule at the game's beginning. The bustling little hamlet of Toaru Village is among the liveliest we've seen in a Zelda game, with many of its citizens giving Link minor, optional tasks to complete before he's even set out on his proper adventure. From herding goats to rowing a canoe to instructing a trained hawk to do your bidding, it looks like even veteran Zelda players will have plenty to do here. And that's before you even get into the proper adventure, where you'll find equestrian combat waiting for you.

Link's back for a swingin' good time in Twilight Princess.

Let's not forget that whole werewolf thing, which is clearly the most significant new gameplay aspect of Twilight Princess. Link's lycanthropy was revealed in the game's new trailer at Nintendo's press conference, and while we know next to nothing about how it'll tie into the storyline and affect the flow of the game, it's obviously going to be important. Nintendo's going to keep its baby close to the vest, though, so we may well have to wait until release to find out exactly what's going on here.

The GameCube had a surprisingly strong lineup at E3, but none of the system's other games approach Twilight Princess' striking artistry and masterful design.

Finalists