Twilight Princess is a game I often find myself thinking back on in my day-to-day life. It was one of the darkest entries in the series and offered many new gameplay elements and concepts that future Legend of Zelda titles would adopt. One of my personal favorite additions was horseback combat. While horse riding has been in Zelda since Ocarina of Time, this time you could swing your sword. It was definitely a breath of fresh air to finally be able to become a sword-swinging, horse-riding warrior in green. Though, back then, one thing I did not appreciate was the first major opponent you’re made to fight in horse-riding combat: King Bulblin and his trusty bacon buddy, Lord Bullbo.
Ever since the cutscene at the start of the game where Bulblin raids Link’s village, snags his friends, and clubs him in the skull, I wanted to get my revenge on this guy. I knew I would eventually get the chance as I remembered one of the trailers showing Link fighting against him, so I pushed on through the game with the motivation of striking him down. Finally, I managed to make it to him, one-on-one with flames roaring behind us. The music kicks off and the two run at each other — only for Link to get knocked into the blackened abyss of the Bridge of Elden for the next ten minutes.
I just couldn’t figure it out: Every single time I got close to him, he’d backhand me off of my horse (sometimes backhanding me and the horse). I tried everything I could think of to get an edge: approach him from the left, approach him from the right, zigzag, swing before he could, swing after he did — heck, I got so desperate I was shooting slingshot pellets at him.
Eventually, I just got sick of it and put the game down and hoped that some kind of stroke of genius would come to me and help me win. Believe it or not, it did (and I didn’t have to wait three years for this one). The following weekend, I was over at a friend’s place, and we often liked to watch each other play through games and just chitchat while doing it, often making jokes and the like. When he got to Bulblin, I was telling him, “Dude, this guy is impossible. We’re gonna be here for a while.” He beat the guy in like two minutes. I absolutely couldn’t believe it — but I learned a lot from watching him.
I learned that you can Spin Attack while riding horseback, which the game doesn’t teach you about, and on Wii is much harder to figure out since there isn’t a dedicated button for it. I also learned that Bulblin mimics your movement patterns and how I could use that to my advantage. The second I got home (and finished my homework because sixth-grade life is hard) I turned the game on, started the fight, and mentally prepared myself. I thought to myself, “Alright, this is how it ends. You and your horse versus Shrek and Donkey. Remember what you saw.” I didn’t take a single hit, I used the Spin Attack each time I got close, and after three shots, the fight was over.
Seeing the incredible shot of Bulblin falling to his (supposed) doom and the shot of Epona standing on her hind legs while Link posed with his blade out was one of the most striking images of the game, and I’ll always get chills whenever I see it. It was a massive victory for my young preteen life, and even though I can trash this sucker nowadays, I’ll always remember the incredible feeling of finally winning that battle and saving the kids.
