The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword review
The Legend of Zelda continues in Skyward Sword, a game that manages to mix old with the new and craft "a triumphant achievement" that fans of the franchise need not miss.
Motion control feels much more polished in Link's newest adventure, than Nintendo's previous effort.
[This Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword review is based on a retail version of the game, provided by the publisher.] Billy Berghammer is the Founder of Planet GameCube, and former Game Informer Online, G4TV, and EGM editor. Currently he’s a freelance editor and video game consultant, and frequent guest on Weekend Confirmed. Follow him on Twitter.
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replyBilly Berghammer posted a new article, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword review.
The Legend of Zelda continues in Skyward Sword, a game that manages to mix old with the new and craft "a triumphant achievement" that fans of the franchise need not miss.-
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To be fair, there has been nothing really new this year. Most of the games people were/are excited about were/are just sequels.
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That's like waiting for your mom to finally get those new tits.
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Hey, another uninformed comment on the Internet!
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How do you know this isn't that game? What does it have to do to blow you away "OOT style?"
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A more important question: how can he agree with the "yawn" when he hasn't even played the game yet? Everything in this review and others I've read/watched (expect an avalanche of reviews as the day goes on) says that Nintendo really changed things up in SS. So these "yawn" comments, especially in light of the fact that no one but journalists have played the game, are ignorant and uninformed at best.
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Well first of all be on a new system? The wii is done, I can't play games that are terribly aliased in this day and age. Even the N64 looked smoother if you ask me. Trying to make me look into the distance when it's a blurry mess is awful. So no Zelda until the new system thanks.
It has to be 100% new and original. OOT was a giant leap forward compared to the SNES now wasn't it? Much like Mario 64 was to Mario World 1&2. They were fun because they were new and fresh. You were doing things you couldn't do in the 16-bit iterations.
Mario sunshine was BS. It was just Mario 64 with an annoying device. Then came Galaxy and wow, gravity! To me it was fresh and unique. It even harkened back to the simpler level design but in a good way.
Twilight? Pfft....Majora's Mask with a facelift and annoying wolf section. Yawn. Actually pardon me, Maoria's was more unique because of the time stuff. So it actually went backwards.
Show me something very new and unique. Change the item system. Change the quest system. Change how dungeons work. DO SOMETHING.-
This is the thing I don't get about gamers judging Nintendo: people accuse Nintendo of churning out the same old games every few years, then they get pissed when they try something new like Mario Sunshine, Majora's Mask.
I mean, what do you want? New? Old? -
I don't think you're being fair at all.
OOT and Mario 64 were mainly new and original because it made the jump from 2D to 3D. Almost all of the mechanics and gameplay revolved around this change to 3D. Comparing those to SS would be like expecting it to be in 4D or something.
Regardless if you liked the water cannon in Mario Sunshine, it was new and innovative. It provided different mechanics than you saw in Mario 64, similar to the gravity in Galaxy. Again, same thing with TP with playing out as a wolf. Some of these obviously weren't as drastic as the jump from 2D to 3D, but just because you didn't care for it doesn't mean they weren't attempting to change things up.
Do you expect every sequel to be as new and original or does this just apply to the Zelda series? Are we to find similar posts when Uncharted 4 comes out?
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IGN is calling this the greatest Zelda game ever.
So maybe you should give it a try.
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wytefang, you're a PC guy, I like that. But MW3 ?!?!?!?!?!? whhhyyyyyyy
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Except it does, but you're too goddamned thick-skulled to see it. Fucking meathead.
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Aww man. Zelda despite the complaints is still my favorite console game series of all time. It's one of those series just still delights this jaded old heart of mine.
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I'd like to play this, but the Zelda games have gotten too 'kiddy' for me to play these days. I don't mind the art style so much, but the characters and themes feel like they're made for an eight year old. I couldn't play Super Mario Galaxy for this same reason. I'm not saying my games have to have blood and tits in them, but something that isn't goofy and dumbed-down would be nice.
It's like the difference between Toy Story and Teletubbies. Nintendo is sliding towards the lower end of that spectrum these days.
Also I found the WiiMotion stuff to be awful. Doesn't feel intuitive at all.-
But SMG was not an easy game, was it? You could get the 70-odd stars to see the end credits without too much trouble, but getting all 120 of them meant doing some extremely challenging levels. The third level you unlock (Sweet Sweet Galaxy? Can't remember) for example is way beyond what most 8 year-olds are capable of.
Nintendo have made a (fairly) easy path to the end to cater for the wider audience they have now and moved the experienced-player-difficulty sections to optional parts of the game. I suppose it means you now have to play a lot of easy levels, but they were so well-designed and so inventive I didn't mind at all.-
Not disputing the difficulty, but the presentation is definitely geared towards kids. Here's another example: The Professor Layton games. They're obviously made for kids or pre-teens, but they're not 'dumbed down' like many of Nintendo's games.
Either that or someone is seriously missing their target audience haha.
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You've obviously never penetrated past the surface of a Zelda game. Your loss.
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It seemed inevitable I'd get defensive replies. I really liked the original, and A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time (though I was much younger then), and Twilight Princess. I didn't care for Wind Waker for the same reason. Maybe I'm just getting older. I'm not saying anything about the quality of the game; it just doesn't seem to be designed for my age group.
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This. So many gamers judge a game's sophistication by surface-level details. It frustrates me to no end.
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I have a friend who is a bro gamer through and through. He refuses to play any games that he quickly labels as kiddy.
Even when I showed him that beautiful new Level-5 JRPG he wants nothing to do with, since it looks like a cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aAs-vZ4rZE
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I think it depends. Do you hate Hello Kitty, or does playing it make you feel childish? Is it really so bad that you can't look past it?
For me, if the game play is there I typically don't care about the presentation. The same thing goes for the quirky Japanese games that obviously weren't marketed specifically to me. The super cheesy characters and terrible voice overs don't make it better by any means, but I'm not going to completely stop playing it just because it's silly.
There are obviously limits to this, where if it was completely over the top cutesy Hannah Montana game that awarded me in sparkles and lollipops I would probably have a hard time looking past it. However, Zelda is no where near those levels and actually is a pretty serious game despite many people's first impressions.
I still think most bro gamers are self conscious and don't want to be seen playing these games. Also, it's easier to justify being a 'gamer' if you are playing 'serious' games such as CoD and the like.-
I don't hate Hello Kitty, but you can't deny that it has a target audience: little girls.
I won't ever buy a backpack that has Hello Kitty on it, even if Outside magazine says it is durable enough to summit Everest. There's a line there.
When Super Mario Galaxy started up, the sounds (grunts?) Mario and Peach vocalize, and the presentation made me think: This is not made for me. It's made for my son.
The fact that certain people in this sub thread are getting angry at me makes me think I've struck a chord. If they really didn't care they wouldn't be upset. The responses I was hoping for were, "Despite the cartoonish experience, Zelda isn't dumbed-down or childish" in contrast to say, Wind Waker.-
So you're argument boils down to who it's targeted towards and that's it? If it's not clearly marketed to you or your demographic - you're not interested at all? Regardless of how fun it is?
I'd say that's pretty telling of a bro gamer, yes.
Also, who cares? If it's fun, why does it matter who it is targeted towards? This gets back to my previous point about people feeling self conscious in regards to their gaming habits.
Finally, what did you expect Peach and Mario to say there? Their grunts, yippees, hooahs and such have been a staple of the mushroom kingdom universe since it started.
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This is like someone telling me to watch Anime because it has sophistication. I don't care how sophisticated it is, it isn't for me. I have no interest in that stuff.
The way the game is presented definitely effects how it will reach the audience. Here's an example. I enjoy the Professor Layton games. Some of those puzzles are hard as fuck. Yet the story and characters are obviously designed for a teenager. That doesn't quite jive. So something is going on here - either teenagers are far smarter than I give them credit for, or the game designers are not properly targeting their audience. The most likely answer is, I'm getting older and dumber. lol. -
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Psst. When the first Zelda came out, you were probably 8 years old, but I would assume you are not 8 years old anymore.
The Zelda games are pretty generalized when it comes to the demographic it's marketed to, it doesn't inherently market to 8 year olds or the "young kiddy crowd" but it certainly will provide a game they can enjoy.
At the same time though the gameplay is broad and general, one could say even, agnostic, enough for people of all ages to enjoy.
A game doesn't have to involved death, rape, murder and nightmares to be fun. It's what you make of it.
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Excellent review, Billy. I was especially glad to hear that the game can be played comfortably from the couch. I was looking forward to the Wii Motion Plus controls, yet rather nervous about how much effort I'd have to exert to ensure the game comprehended what I wanted to do.
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Holy shit, the soundtrack is knocking me on my ass. I cannot wait for this game. :D
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I got sick of Twilight Princess because it felt like for every 30 seconds of gameplay I had to sit there and learn a new technique, listen to someone ramble on, follow onscreen prompts, hand holding, etc
FUCK OFF AND LET ME PLAY. In OOT I felt like I was largely in control with minimal guidance, even from the start. Twilight felt like I was being dragged around non stop for the first hour or so. I never bothered beyond that.-
Are you kidding? You get a "HEY! LISTEN!" constantly till you're out of the beginning forest area.
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A A A A and she shuts up. In twilight no no, I have to dig here. I have to jump there. Some more talking. Oh look over there, lets move your camera for 30 seconds. Some more talking. Midna this, shadow that,
I was so bored with the game I started critiquing the lack of AA and shit textures. I don't know to me it was garbage compared to OOT.
I enjoyed the DS game far more.-
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Yeah, it's because of the whole wolf thing and it was a launch game for the Wii so it's not like there was a set pattern yet for the control scheme.
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Hey I didn't tell them to put the wolf shit in, and the "wii" isn't much of an excuse given it barely even used the waggle. I actually didn't even mind the controls.
I just felt the game was boring. I finished the first dungeon and explored and outside and whatnot, but really....I lost interest. I just felt like it was a giant hand holding experience rather than the classic exploration style.
This wasn't on my current console either, so my save is gone. In order to start it up now I'd have to go through that giant tutorial shit again. No thank you.-
The "hand holding" does stop and the dungeons get progressively better (the next to last one is probably my favorite out of every zelda game ever). They should have cut the initial tutorial down though, given they basically had to double it for the wolf stuff.
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This I agree with, mandatory tutorials ftl :(
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Twilight didn't do that, though. It got you started--as most games tend to do--and then you were free to explore, just like any other Zelda game. And believe me, this is coming from a die-hard OOT fan. I didn't prefer Twilight to OOT (and MM to OOT, actually), but I thought it was a great game.
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avatar_58, I'm with you man. I can't stand sitting there reading/watching a game play instead of actually playing it. Probably why I never could get into it myself, even though I've tried like 3 times :(
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this makes me very excited all over. i'm sad, though, because i promised my family i wouldn't buy anything for myself because my birthday is coming up. luckily we're doing the family thing on the 24th & 25th, so if i don't it by then, i'm picking it up myself.
shit... this is gonna be the first zelda game i didn't buy on launch day... -
I played Minish Cap for GBA and came away feeling it was the worst possible introduction to LoZ.
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Minish cap was a good game, but I would definitely recommend a Zelda game that was actually made by Nintendo as your first forray into Zelda, either OoT, LA, or ALttP.
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Nope, and at this point they shouldn't.
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It is when you are mashing A through the pages of exposition where the characters are just standing there idle watching you read.
It was why I couldn't finish Super Paper Mario which had amazing writing but there was just so much of it every 5 feet when you talked to anyone.
It works for Gordon Freeman, why not Link?
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yep, agreed.
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Eurogamer review: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-11-the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-review
10/10
This is shaping up to look quite epic!
http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword/critic-reviews-
There you go. Zelda 25% better than MW3 (MW3 got 8/10)
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-08-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-review -
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Speak for yourself, bub. I'd take Twilight Princess over Wind Waker any day.
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LttP was the best Zelda.
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^^^^ lending my support here! Nintendo is apparently thinking of doing a remake of that for the 3ds, or a newer blend of that same formula. Either way, I think I'd prefer that over this Skyward Sword stuff, but I'll wait until I play it.
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Wind Waker is far from the best Zelda. Go back to the Reddit circlejerk over that mediocre installment.
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