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At Nintendo's E3 press conference on Tuesday, many new games were announced, one of them being the long anticipated new Zelda game, titled Skyward Sword.

Here's the video of the announcement from E3:
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stb6y0S_nNg
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnKQWLMoz0

As hoped, the gameplay utilizes the Wii Motion Plus add-on (introduced with Wii Sports Resort) to further enhance gameplay. This allows for true one to one sword combat, something the previous game, Twilight Princess lacked. In short, it means that when you swing the Wiimote diagonally, the sword will also be swung diagonally in the game. This mechanic not only makes the game feel more real, it also plays a part in your strategy, as some enemies will be able to block your blows one way, but not another. An example is shown during the demo, when one of the enemies uses its weapon to block a vertical strike, requiring a horizontal strike to land a hit.

Visually, the game's graphics seem to be a hybrid of the previous two Zelda console games, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. While it still greatly resembles TP's design, there is also a hint of cel-shading in the mix, a design that series creator Shigeru Miyamoto says is inspired from Impressionist paintings.

A screenshot from the game, showing off the new art style.


Also demoed were some new abilities for the game, such as the ability to roll bombs like a bowling ball, a beetle that can be launched (see above picture) to move items that are too far to reach, and a whip for attacking enemies and fetching items (think along the lines of Indiana Jones).

Not much is known about the plot of the game, as the demo was focused on showing off the new control scheme. What is known is that this Link will be from a land called called Skyloft, which is a floating island in the sky (yes, you read that right). You will travel to and from Skyloft and the world below (probably Hyrule) over the course of the game. Nintendo has also stated that they are planning on touching up the graphics in between now and the release in order to make it look a good as it can, and has also promised to do something special with the soundtrack. The game will be available for the Wii sometime in 2011 (most likely the first half of the year).

Personally, I think this game will be a wonderful installment for the Zelda series. Twilight Princess was good, but there were a few things that could have been done better, things that I hope are fixed this time around. I'm really looking forward to this game, along with Metroid: Other M (due out August 31st).

So, what are your thoughts/opinions/theories about how this game will go?

It looks pretty good so far though when it comes to Nintendo franchise games, I'm in to Star Fox A lot more. But I don't think I'll be seeing a new Star Fox game anytime soon anyways, from what I've seen of Skyward Sword, I probably will give it a try. The graphics look awesome and not too cartoony, the gameplay looks unique in some ways and it just looks like an overall fun game to play.

Well they're remaking Starfox 64 for the new 3DS. Of course that's not exactly new, but that could lead to more in the future.

About this Zelda, I really like the colorful design, which is much more attractive than the Twilight Princess one (which I still didn't play, partly because of that)
Although currently, the game I'm REALLY looking forward on the Wii is Epic Mickey. (which has gotten even BIGGER since the E3! I'll post a news about this soon.)

Alright, it's been a while since the original announcement for the game, and since then a few more snippets of news have surfaced.

The first is that a second trailer has been released giving us about a minute of new footage.



The trailer doesn't reveal anything more about the plot, or any new items, but it does feature a few interesting things about the mechanics. Some things I'd like to point out are the tightrope walking, where you sometimes have to face an enemy while on the rope as well. There also appears to be some sort of motion-based key, along with a shield meter with a currently unknown purpose. The trailer has more examples of the one-on-one sword combat afforded by the Wii Motion Plus as well. My favorite from this trailer is where you can hack away at enemies wooden shields and slowly cut them down to a much smaller size. Also shown is a four-armed boss that resembles the Hindu deity Vishnu, along with a new character. Other than knowing that he likes purple eyeliner, we don't know much else about this new guy.

We still don't have an exact release date, but Nintendo has said that it will be released after the Ocarina of Time port for the Nintendo 3DS comes out. Ocarina of Time 3D will be out in North America on June 19th, so Skyward Sword will come out sometime after that. My guess is that it would be released in the late summer or early fall of this year (August - September).

That's all for now, and I'll post more information when it becomes available.

My my, where does the time fly. I've been so busy with things that I haven't been able to keep you all updated until now, a full week after the game came out. Oh well, better late than never. Now I can give you the full rundown on what's in Link's biggest adventure yet.

The wait is finally over - Skyward Sword was released in Europe on November 18, while North American gamers received it on the 20th. This time around, Link is a knight in training, living in Skyloft, an island that floats above the clouds, along with several other smaller islands in the sky. The opening scene details the legend of a great battle fought on the surface of the world, which grew to be so terrible that the goddess gathered the survivors on an outcropping of the earth and sent to the sky, keeping them out of reach while those who remained behind battled the evil forces, sealing them away. You can watch the scene here, just to get an idea of some of the backstory for the game.



In this floating paradise, the people use great birds known as Loftwings to travel around the sky. The game starts on the day Link is due to take part in the Wing Ceremony, a competition that tests Skyloft's youth to see who is worthy to advance to the rank of night. Helping out with the ceremony is the daughter of Skyloft's elder - none other than Zelda, but this time around, she's not a princess. Instead, she is Link's best friend, always there to lend a helping hand to our young hero. However, disaster strikes when a dark tornado suddenly appears, carrying Zelda away to parts unknown. When Link comes too, she is nowhere to found, but soon a mysterious blue being appears to him, and guides him to a secret chamber where the Goddess Sword is held. Drawing the sword from its pedestal, he learns the being is Fi - the spirit of the sword itself, created by the goddess to guide him during his quest. The journey will take him far from his home in the clouds and down to the unknown surface of the world, where he will have to search long and hard to find Zelda and return her to safety.

The road ahead is tough though, as Link will have to face many challenges and defeat many foes along the way, including the demon lord Ghirahim, who is intent of finding Zelda as well. What his intent is isn't known yet, but it probably isn't for the best. From what I've seen so far, he definitely looks like he'll be one of the more interesting Zelda villains - you can see a few shots of him near the end of the opening trailer to the game. He's the creepy guy with the white fringe and the skintight suit.



For this game, Nintendo set out to advance many aspects of the series, and so far it's looking like they delivered on that promise. As I mentioned in earlier posts, the game makes use of the Wii Motion Plus add on, which brings one to one sword control to the series. Whether you swing up, left or diagonally, the sword will follow your movements exactly. This means that you will need some strategy behind your movements, as some enemies are able to block your strikes with their own weapons.

The overall flow of the game world has changed as well; there are still dungeons/temples, but their setup is such that you will be going in an out of them so frequently, the line between overworld and dungeon starts to blur, making it feel more like one continuous world. The path of your quest will have you revisiting areas you've already explored, but every time you do, you will find that the area has new challenges to face, keeping things fresh for all your subsequent visits. Finally, there is an added emphasis on the development of characters and how they relate to each other. This is best shown with the deep friendship between Link and Zelda, (which starts to border on something more at some points ) which is moving enough that you actually want to save her, instead of feeling like you just have to because she's the princess.

The game has been stated to be one of the biggest Zelda adventures yet, with the main quest alone requiring at least forty hours of gameplay. So far, the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, with several reviewers giving it perfect scores. IGN has even claimed that it surpasses Ocarina of Time - long considered to be the crown jewel of the Zelda series, and sometimes gaming as a whole. The reviewers have given it overwhelming praise - but what about the thoughts of an average gamer?

I've only been able to play a few hours into the game (I can only play when I'm home from University, so I only got one day out of it last weekend) but already I'm impressed. They've stepped up the difficulty this time around, probably to address many of the complaints that the series was starting to become too easy. Combat with the Wii Motion Plus takes a bit of getting used to, but once you hit your stride, it makes the sword feel more like an extension of your hand than something you're just commanding. The characters are quirky and will make you laugh at least once as you get through your first challenges. I've only just gotten into the first temple, but I can't wait to be able to get farther into it during the Christmas holidays, to see how everything will unfold.

So that's what my first impressions of the game were, but what about yours? What are your thoughts on the latest entry in the Zelda series?

P.S. - In another bit of Zelda related news, series producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed in an interview that a brand new Zelda game is also on the way for the Nintendo 3DS. Not much else is known, so we probably won't see it for a couple years or so. In the same interview, he also said they were considering a 3DS port of Majora's Mask, the sequel to Ocarina of Time that was also originally an N64 game. However, any port would wait until after the brand new 3DS game came out, so we probably won't see anything of it for years - if they decide to pursue it at all. Personally, I think a Majora's Mask port would be amazing, as that is one of the more unique instalments in the series. That, along with the already released Ocarina of Time port, the brand new adventure, and the soon to be released Mario Kart 7, might finally be the prompting I need to get a 3DS of my own (now if only they could improve the battery life on that thing too).

...having never played Zelda before, I decided to give it a try when the demo rolled into town. Just to see what the fuss made by my friends was about.

Well... the demo only once gave me instructions on what to do. Like what the controls were. So I ended up flailing around half the time trying things in order to actually do something and the other half the time calling over my boyfriend to help me with controls, because none of the Nintendo reps bothered to do so when I pretty obviously barely had a clue of what I was doing (although this is pretty much the level of competency of the reps of this country's Nintendo branch in general summed up right there)


So, I tried this dungeon demo. All seemed okay and easy to grasp. I managed to get a hang of killing things without much difficulty.
Then there was a part with a random spider hanging from the roof that would swing into you. Cue me trying to swat at it and dying a bit, then trying to jump and swat and failing, then using what arrows I had to shoot at something that was supposedly "glowing" on its back.
None of this worked. In the end I just gave up and set the remote on the table.

Then, I decided to try the flying demo! One of the big mechanics of the game. Well, after a bit of what I thought was useless plot-related rambling by the characters which I skipped, I was booted off into the sky on a bird in some 'race'.
Then I realised that "rambling" was actually instructions on what to do. Bugger.
The boyfriend informed me that those three "feathers" on the bottom of the screen were pretty much usable speed boosts, but if you used them all up you would drop from the sky. Okey dokey, so I tried to refrain from using them so much, thinking they might take a while to respawn.
Then, all of a sudden, Link starts plummeting from the sky on de bird. Oh dear. I thought it was the Wii hallucinating that the Wii Remote wasn't pointed at it. Cue more flailing to get myself back up flying. Then finally, I used one of my speed boosts and I was magically flying again.
Although there was not much point to being magically flying again, as I has no idea what direction or course this race was supposed to be taking. In the end the NPCs ahead of me finished and the game faded to black.


Now, what good was this Nintendo? I understand that one of the points of this game is working out the puzzles for yourself. But you put this game on demo, wanting people to try it. I, being a new player, tried to try it. In the end I just ended up walking away feeling like Skyward Sword was only something for the prized few, Zelda fans whom wanted to see the little green fellow in yet another installment... and now I am rather unwilling to ever touch another game in the series again if it is going to mock me for being a greenhorn to it.

^ Sorry to hear that your first experience wasn't that great. Of course, part of the problem may have been because it was a public demo unit - those things get used/abused by so many people that after awhile, the hardware running it starts to go funny. I remember once trying to play a demo of a DS game, only to find the touch screen had been used so much, it barely registered any input.

If you're interested, the way you fight those spiders (known as Skulltulas) is this: First, make sure you're holding down the Z button (if you weren't already) to lock onto it - this will make landing strikes much easier. Since you need to spin it around to expose its weak point, you just swat it with your sword to get it moving, then when the time is right, thrust the Wii remote forward to do a sword thrust, which should take it out in one or two strikes. If you get a chance, maybe give that a try.

As for the flying, it can take a few tries to get the hang of it, but what's important to know is that the idea there is not quick, fast actions, but slower, more fluid motions. Having the controls go wonky on you can be frustrating (sometimes the pointer on the remote does need to be recentered, but that's relatively simple to do and allows you to get back into the action quickly) but more often than not, that's a hardware issue rather than with the game (like I said, public demo units can be hit and miss).

My only advice would be to not let this one instance discourage you. Maybe instead of a demo, try the real thing with your friends (who could give their own tips and advice on how to handle things), or rent the game from somewhere. That way, you can get the full experience the way it was meant to be. I've played through the first few hours of the game, and I can tell you that the real thing does a very good job of walking you through the controls and mechanics, giving you ample time to practise and get the hang of things, and to ease into it instead of just being dumped into it like on a demo.

Failing that, you could always try a different game in the series, one that doesn't use the new control scheme. The previous console game, Twilight Princess, uses a much simpler control scheme (since it doesn't use the Wii Motion Plus), with sword strikes easier to land, and no crazy flying that can go wrong. Or, one of the older games, such as The WInd Waker or Ocarina of Time, which don't utilise any motion controls at all.

I hope at least some of this is helpful to you, and that your next experience with the series is much better than that frustrating demo.

Considering I own every game in the series, save Link's Crossbow Training, I think I know something of the Legend of Zelda franchise. And honestly, I believe most of the games are either ridiculously hyped-up to the high heavens, and others are just plain inadequate, whether it's in terms of storyline, gameplay, or difficulty.

But you know what? Skyward Sword is an incredibly different and wonderful experience, and though I've not won it yet, I finished the fourth temple last night, and judging upon the events that lead up to that point, I'd say the game is unique in almost every way. Hidden text : click to show

The gameplay melds together beautifully with your own, real-life swordplay skills, and thus makes the feel of the game more interactive. It gives you the sense that you are actually Link, and are striving your hardest to rescue Zelda as well as all of Hyrule. The enemies only compliment this extrodinary phenomenon; some need to be thrust and stabbed through, others need to be horizontally cut, and some even need to be knocked down with a backwards vertical slash, only to be dealt the impending finishing blow to their exposed weakness. (Did I mention the Vertical Spin Attack is just... awesomeness served on a silver platter?)

And that's JUST the Goddess's Sword's gameplay. Anything from having to carefully roll Bombs into cracks and holes, controlling a mechanical Beetle to retrieve distant objects or smash into switches in an act of glory, to swinging from pole-to-pole with a Whip, and even involving realistic, logical motives, such as grabbing hold of a small key not from a treasure chest, but from lasso'ing it off from an unbeknownest enemy's belt.

Also, all items aside, the ability to Sprint, climb up walls, swim with pure and unadulterated bliss, and toggle the Wii Remote to control Link's very actions are all what I find to be exceedingly immersing, adding to the replay value. Hidden text : click to show

The sidequests blend well with the characters, as for once in Zelda's history, it feels like the characters are actually interested in talking to you, in an interactively realistic fashion. Each and every one of the cast is memorable, in my opinion, my favorite NPC being Groose. His personality is humorous, and it must be pretty good if he actually drives me to the point where I can't stop laughing. He, among others, feel to me like they're a real person, figuratively speaking, and are talking to Link as though they're speaking with me.

The graphics are refreshing; a mixture of Twilight Princess and the Wind Waker, only more amazing than those two combined. Since Shigeru Miyamoto based their foundation on a random oil painting of Link and Fi, I'd say things went pretty well - not too realistic, not too cartoony, but fun and pleasant to look at. I'm actually encouraged to swim in a pool of water... just for the sake of immersing myself in such fluid wonder! From the water, to the trees, to the earthen rock, just... wow.

And who can forget music? Every track of the OST is magically orchestrated and composed, to me, and like the characters, feels memorable and realistic. Ghirahim's theme excites and reminds me of his evil presense, whereas the Song of the Goddess relaxes me, and tells me of Link's destiny. All of the music that plays in the Temples are very well done, as are the boss battle themes. And however odd this may sound, the music for Eldin Mountain just seems so addicting, to where I find myself humming it all day. No... it wouldn't be fair to say that Eldin Mountain is the only addicting track of the set. Not one bit. ;D

That's about it. I suppose I'm probably forgetting to say a lot about it yet, but as usual, my tight time frame doesn't allow too an extended period of computer access. In a nutshell, the game's awesome, and I'm definately glad that me and my brother were able to afford it together. Life wouldn't be the same without it.