Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

It's about time we had a Zelda game with realistic sword controls, right? That might be one of the best new features of Skyward Sword, and probably the game's saving grace for me. That, and the dungeon design is where many Zelda games shine, Skyward is no exception. Especially the last dungeon, which is literally a bunch of dungeons within a dungeon! (BOOM! INCEPTION!)

Skyward does try plenty of new things; some great, others not-so-great. First, the good: there are these areas before you proceed to a dungeon which you can sort of call, "pre-dungeon" areas. Pretty much, these areas involve you clearing a path to the actual dungeon. It is very interesting because these make getting to the dungeons part of the challenge and not just the dungeons themselves. For the most part, the sprinting mechanic is also a very welcome (yet long overdue) feature that is implemented surprisingly well, and not just a tacked-on component. Some walls and ledges are too high for Link to climb and require a running start to get up to, and it comes in handy whenever you need to get out of a sticky situation.

Another great feature is the aforementioned WiiMotion Plus controls which allow you to swing Link's sword is pretty much any direction you want. The enemy design is made to compliment this in which you need to swing your sword into an opening in their defenses, and some enemies are even more responsive than others, as they constantly adapt to your sword swinging. This goes especially for boss fights which provide Item use is improved in this game as well, having you use dungeon items multiple times throughout the game rather than just "one and done". Even though there are less items to collect in this Zelda than in previous ones, it gives you bit of leeway to see what you can do with your current items before getting another one. It is a good contrast to previous games since item collecting got pretty hairy when you never used half of them more than twice.

Now for the bad: While the combat is mostly fun due to the controls and easily the best part of the game, most of the enemies are defensive and won't attack unless you throw the first strike. It isn't much of a problem at first, but later parts of the game consistently rely on you predicting the enemies' defensive moves before they actually make them. It's usually a hit or miss as they can make some battles really fun but others unfairly difficult. There is also the subject of the WiiMotion Plus, despite its improved sensitivity, the hardware itself is a massive power hog, and you will likely need to replace/recharge your batteries after just an hour of playtime. The Motion Plus feature works best when your batteries are at full charge, otherwise, the controller seems to develop a mind of its own and the result is incredibly annoying, and sometimes downright hilarious (Seriously, at one point, my sword went in the opposite directions of where I was swinging it!).

While the main game manages to be fun for the most part, too much of it is obviously padded and could have easily been shaved off from the final product without sacrificing anything. About after the 15-20 hour mark, the game's charm starts to wear paper-thin. In fact, it turns into cellophane it's so thin. Nearly two thirds of the entire game, you are searching for stuff, revisiting an area, combing the desert 3-4 times, etc, etc. It is so artificial at times, the game isn't even trying to hide it. There is a point in the game where you need to accomplish a certain objective in the volcano area, but to do that you need to repair an ancient robot. After that, you fast-travel back to the area you need to get to (at the top of the volcano), and are blown down to the bottom of the mountain and have to race the robot up to the top. /headdesk

There are also these four "light trials" you need to complete to get plot coupons that get annoying after the second trial. Don't get me wrong, they can be a lot of fun... the first couple times, the third is alright, but upon learning I had to do A FOURTH TRIAL? I wanted to throw my controller at the screen. To top it all off, there is this one boss you fight three times for plot related reasons, although that doesn't make it any less grating. Each time gets increasingly tedious and will probably leave you in dismay. The padding is where Skyward is at it's worst (and most obnoxious) and Nintendo really doesn't need to make every single Zelda game 40+ hours in length. The frequency of fluff in Skyward is so high that the overall game suffers as a result, and that includes poor pacing, "boner kill" moments, and (drumroll) useless upgrades. Honestly, you can go the entire game without needing a single Item upgrade. The game is not difficult enough to warrant needing any sort of item upgrade, although they are cool-looking, that's about it. It feels like a contrived, and extremely tacked-on feature. Also, some of the upgrade requirements make little to no sense, like, how does a bird feather help increase the durability of my shield? Even more disturbing are the implications of how you actually acquire said bird feathers: catching stray birds with a bug net... Wait, where did the birdie go?

You might be thinking, "Well, it's a Zelda game! How could anything in a Zelda game NOT be successful?" Well, the truth is, like all great game franchises, not even the almighty Zelda is immune to age. The whole of the game feels like a missed opportunity for Nintendo to have finally made an evolutionary step in the series, but lamentably, that was not so. Though, If you liked previous Zelda games, chances are you'll like this one too, the Zelda charm is still there as always but don't expect much in the way of breaking new ground.