The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Zelda is by far my most beloved franchise in gaming. I started playing back with A Link to the Past on the ‘ole SNES and I’ve beaten every title currently released — except for the CD-i games, of course (we don’t speak of those). My level of excitement while standing in the line to play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was beyond what I’ve ever experienced before. Naturally, the press had some worries about the game — Miyamoto had trouble getting the motion controls to work properly during the on-stage demo. Rest assured, though, because the controls work amazingly.
Right off the bat, the Motionplus and Nunchuck units needed to be calibrated in order to play Skyward Sword. This is to be expected, as Motionplus-only games such as Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2 had to be calibrated before they could be played. It took about three seconds to be calibrated, and then I was ready to play.
Hyrule has never been so beautiful.
As seen from the trailer at Nintendo’s Conference, Skyward Sword sports a visual style mix of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. The game features a mature Link as seen in Twilight Princess, only with the cel-shaded visuals of The Wind Waker. It’s the perfect combination — Nintendo received tons of flack for the “kiddy” theme of The Wind Waker, despite it being a fantastic title in its own right. The scope of Skyward Sword is also large, as the horizon can be seen in the distance. There aren’t any slow downs or hiccups in the frame rate either; this new Zelda runs at a perfectly fluid 60 FPS.
This lush, colorful world runs perfectly fluid.
The show floor demo for the game let me play through a small forest-like area with a boss and mini boss. Although only a small portion, it’s evident that Nintendo will be changing up the way dungeons are progressed for this new title. The first thing I did was pull out my sword — which is the Master Sword — and begin to wave it around. My motions were picked up 1:1, flawlessly. The first two enemies I faced were Deku Babas. As we saw in the on stage demo at the Nintendo Presser, enemies can only be killed by specific sword swings. For instance, if a Dekua Baba’s mouth was slanted horizontally, only a vertical strike can cut it in two.
Owning Moblins has never been so fun.
Moblins are very similar to Deku Babas in that only certain sword slashes will destroy them, due to their sword that blocks attacks. Luckily for us, the sword combat isn’t limited just to horizontal and vertical. Any motion you make with your arm, Link reflects with his sword. I was able to do downward thrusts, upward strikes, stabs, side jabs — anything that came to my mind. The sword controls are flawless.
Horizontal strike!
A few of Skyward Sword‘s weapons were available for use in the demo: Bow, Slingshot, Bombs, Beetle, and Whip. Contrary to what was seen in Nintendo’s Conference, the Bow works very well. Aiming can be done via the IR pointer and can even point off screen thanks to Motionplus. The Bow is drawn by holding the C button on the Nunchuck down and drawing it back, then releasing the button. The really cool part about the Bow is that Link can move around in first person view while it’s out. The Slingshot works very much like the Bow, only pulling back isn’t necessary. While the Slingshot was virtually pointless in Twilight Princess, it seems like the projectile weapon can possibly be a quick-fire option to the Bow in Skyward Sword. Bombs can be set down like in every other Zelda game, but now when they’re thrown an angle line appears on screen to let players know where it’ll land. The Bombs can also be rolled with an underhand flick of the Wiimote. The Beetle is new to the Zelda series with this entry, and it acts as a type of scout and collector that can be sent out into the air and controlled for a short period of time. In this demo, however, the Beetle didn’t have much use to it. The Whip is a pretty nifty little weapon — it’ll lash out in any direction you swing the Wiimote, with the same accuracy of the sword controls. It doesn’t have the power to take down Moblins, but it can kill perky Keese and grab items from afar.
Will the Slingshot have some use?
The boss monster in the demo was actually rather challenging to defeat before I got the hang of things. It’s a giant arachnid-looking creature — similar to Queen Gohma — that has two pincers with eyes. Obviously, the eyes are its weak spot, but the battle is a little more complicated than that. The eyes can only be struck while the pincers are open, and the pincers themselves rotate in different angles. This means that players will have to precisely angle their sword slashes in the correct manner to fell the boss. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is no waggle-fest.
Accurate strikes are the path to victory.
Two more interesting tidbits: Link’s shield can deflect incoming projectiles by slightly jabbing forward with the Nunchuck, and the Hylian hero can sprint for a short time by holding down the A button. Actually two more can be added to the list — by swinging the Wiimote Link can climb vines faster, and I received a super cool Skyward Sword t-shirt after playing the demo. Expect continued coverage of this new Legend of Zelda title as the days before its 2011 release wind down.
