The wait has been quite long, only comparable towards the time between Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time's releases. But Skyward Sword has finally been released, and it is the ultimate way for the Wii to blastoff into history, and the amazing gaming year that 2011 was.
There are so many changes towards the established action adventure formula, I don't even know where to start. Visually, it is inspired by Impressionism. Gamers and journalists have simply called it a mix between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess's styles instead. This is one of the great standards to see nowadays, seeing that many Zelda games simply look so different from each other.
The orchestral soundtrack that was at first used for the Super Mario Galaxies has now been fully used in here, allowing for epic, dramatic and interesting songs to appear all over the place. Flying around above the clouds while you hear a motivating song is an effective, atmospheric experience.
Seeing the new fluent control surrounding swordplay instantly reminded me of a little obscure game called Die By the Sword, developed by one of the teams responsible for the present Call of Duty franchise. That was no doubt an experimental game, as it is the only game from the 90's I recall having similar swordplay, which of course plays much better now on the Wii.
It successfully sets itself apart from the other Zelda entries, for feeling as fresh as it possibly can, while at the same time keeping familiar in gameplay, story and design. I have skipped on Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, so comparisons won't be made with those, as the handheld games are separated usually from consoles in several ways anyway. But I will play them in the future.
Skyward Sword is the largest Zelda game yet. And that does not mean that there is lots of traveling to be done. Sure, it's there, but the 3 main areas you will be venturing into are absolutely large enough by themselves, filled with level designs of entertainment. Not to mention the enjoyable sidequests awaiting you as well.
The Lanayru area is pretty much all the way so much fun to discover, and it's dungeons are probably the best the game has to offer. The Mining Facility dungeon is pretty much spot on when it comes towards a balance of puzzles, enemies, length and atmosphere. Only the boss was content at best, but that's still okay for me.
Difficulty wise, I am finally happy to say that this has been improved. Starting with 6 hearts as Link now is exactly one of the reasons the difficulty is better than before. It's not the hardest Zelda game by far, but it does not make fools out of veteran gamers playing their beloved Zelda games right now. As far as enemy design goes, this is spot on. Ghirahim is a great example.
One of the best things that have been designed are the sharpened controls though, thanks to Motion Plus, which is so underused by the way. Enough has been said about the swordplay. It feels much better than when Twilight Princess first started with the idea. But not even the Wii remote's innovating way of controlling are well presented, the interface and the buttons on the remote itself have been carefully selected as well, to allow for a consistent way of playing and navigating the game.
I also liked the little changes some of the traditional elements have gotten out of this entry, such as bombs being able to roll around the fields now. Boss battles implemented have been reasonable for most of them, which is good. But thinking about it in a broadway sense, The Legend of Zelda almost never has any great boss battles, except for final ones usually. But atleast this time, they are memorable, much more than earlier ones.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is innovative, feels fresh, has an astounding presentation, crafts precise controls, is lengthy, challenging, explorable and most of all fun. How Link has progressed in all these years, my my.
Rating: 8.8
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