The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Lets ignore that I just paid full price for a game that came out a decade ago or even a game that I already own for a second, I know it’s totally a Nintendo thing to do and that I am part of the problem. I know I also bought Mario 3D All Stars as well shhhhh!

Nintendo have a habit of re releasing games, if anyone has been keeping an eye on things they have done it every since the Wii and handheld systems. Sometimes they make an effort and jazz it up a little by making it HD like Wind Waker on the Wii-U or adding new things like Mario 64 on the DS and than other times they do the bare minimum and sell you a game or 3 games for full price with a threat that it will be discontinued and do nothing but emulations which most people can get for free and we as Nintendo fans just lap it up! I still see you haven’t given us a N64 virtual console Nintendo, i’m watching you!

Anyway I digress! with Skyward Sword Nintendo has actually made an effort, the game looks stunning in HD compared to the very dated Wii version and things like skipping cutscenes and fast forwarding through texts are now a thing and a very welcome one too. The controls have two options and I swiftly took the none motion control one as I never did like waving my body around to play a video game! Was it perfect? no it’s not. The buttons are a welcome one especially when controlling the bird but it has it’s issues and this all stems down to Nintendo relying on a gimmick when they released it on the Wii. The biggest of these issues is using the R thumbstick to swing your sword, it works okay but when using the sword you can’t use the R thumbstick as a camera unless you hold down L. This to me blows my mind as you will be moving and platforming much more than you will be fighting so this control method takes a long time to get used to, and I mean a long time! I was still drawing out my sword at the end of the game! Than there is coming out of lock! it’s so easy to do and Link seems to spin around so you aren’t facing the enemy. It’s these little things that frustrates players especially when fighting enemies off.

The game luckily I had forgotten. Each world is filled with interesting enemies and puzzles, it’s just a damn shame that you only have 3 of them which you will get to know very well as you come back to them again and again. The flight around the skyes is a poor wind waker but much better with the use of controls. Then there are the boss battles which only a handful that will stand out. Others like Grirahim, The Imprisoned and the mini boss crab you fight more than once, each more soul destroying than the last. In fact the only two boss battles I really enjoyed were Demise and Koloktos.

Finding extra hearts and sub quests are a bit on the poor side too, I can’t say this about many Zelda games but I didn’t care about getting 100%. I did however, get the shield as Link isn’t Link without it but it was a ball ache to get especially when I got cheaped out by one boss battle (you have to beat 8 in a row, no saves) causing me to start again.

I kept playing which says a lot, there are some areas I really liked, like returning to the same area for the third time. I liked that woods had been filled with water and the volcano was now a stealth mission and a good one at that! I enjoyed the final battle and the games music and overall story. It’s just a shame that getting around was so mundane and boring.