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Forest Temple

The first of the Indoor sections of the demo, the Forest Temple gave the biggest indication yet of how the dungeons - traditionally the core of the Zelda experience - will function in Twilight Princess. And it will probably come as no surprise to fans that any true innovation has been stifled in favour of refinement of familiar puzzle forms.

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We begin by fighting and killing two Lizalfos warriors, Wind Waker's L-Targeting once again back in effect and now working with an added finishing move that sees Link plunge his sword into downed foes.

The next room of note is where the dungeon begins proper. Acting as a hub, there is a treasure chest in the middle on a raised platform, with a door behind it. This middle platform has overhead rope going to platforms in the walls to the left and right of it. Each houses doors but are too far away for us to reach, and the rope too high up to grab.


... a room bearing a new weapon will almost always house the first of the game's puzzles based around it.

We first dispatch two huge spider demons before opening the chest - that ever nostalgic puzzle solved tune playing in the background - to reveal the Gale Boomerang. Initially a little thrown, we soon remember Zelda puzzle discourse: a room bearing a new weapon will almost always house the first of the game's puzzles based around it. Looking above the door, we see a rotor and assigning the boomerang to Y, target and throw repeatedly until the door's barring grill lifts open.

In the next room we see a cutscene. Across a large rope bridge crosses a small monkey. On the far side appears a hairy white baboon and cuts the bridge - the monkey scampering back to Link's side for safety, the baboon taunting us by manically tapping its behind before exiting. Amused, we exit and immediately see the game's intrinsic puzzle hook: the monkey has followed us, and now hangs itself from the overhead rope on the right side of the room like a trapeze artist, affording Link access to that side of the dungeon.

Enemies are very detailedEnemies are very detailed

The rest of the dungeon proceeds to be about freeing further monkeys. The first puzzle involves a monkey trapped in a wooden cage atop a stone pillar. Our free monkey chum shows us what to do by rolling into the pillar, and when the much larger Link copies him repeatedly, the cage falls and breaks and his primate pal is free.

The two monkeys now give us access to the left side of the temple. One jumps onto the rope overhead, the other swings from him and then lands further along the rope. Running off the edge towards them then sees Link auto-jump into the waiting arms of the first monkey and be thrown along in sequence.

The left side of the temple is much bigger, and sees us free two more monkeys. One puzzle here has us fighting a giant Deku plant, hitting smaller bomb plants and throwing them into its mouth until it finally dies, revealing a key to free one of our caged monkey friends. Another room has a tiled floor with items hidden beneath each tile. We use the Gale Boomerang to lift the tiles until we find another dungeon key, and then solve the simple puzzle of raising four platforms by standing on certain floor buttons. This allows us access to the final imprisoned primate.

Monkeys!Monkeys!

With four monkeys in tow, we finally have a way to get across the large rope bridge which had been cut by the baboon earlier on. Using the hand-over-hand technique our little friends pass each other, and then Link, along the rope until we stand at the other side where a mini boss encounter with the baboon awaits.

The baboon stands atop a central pillar of a stone circle of pillars and bounces between them. Link must use the same technique as he did in freeing the first monkey, all the while avoiding the baboon's projectiles and trying to knock the baboon from his perch. After a minute of getting adjusted, we have our first success: rolling into the pillar the baboon is on to topple him and leave him exposed for sword slashes. Eventually we are victorious; the baboon stands up dazed, a black parasite rolling from his crown and fizzling out in the ground. Without its possessor the ape bounds freely from a nearby skylight and the demo ends.

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