TIM BENITEZ

The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

ESRB: E 10+ Publisher: Nintendo Year: 2011

Platform: Nintendo Wii Genre: Action,Adventure

 

   The are not many video game series that have lasted consistently for the past 25 years. Many of the Nintendo made series have. The Legend of Zelda is one such game series that had reached it's 25th anniversary in 2011. Nintendo decided to release a brand new Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, as part of the 25 year celebration.

Skyward Sword starts off on a floating island above the clouds named Skyloft. It is here the player takes control of a young student at a knight academy by the name of Link. After a ceremony to allow Link to advance to the next class, Link and Zelda, Link's childhood friend, go out flying together. On this island they fly from one place to another on birds called Loftwings, because they can't walk on the clouds. Disaster strikes and Zelda is swallowed up in a whirl wind which takes her below the clouds. It's from here that Link must embark on his adventure to rescue Zelda on the Land below the clouds. Link is lead by a sword's spirit to the sword in which the spirit resides. He takes the sword on his adventure. The rest of the story is rather simple, if it was not simple enough already.

   I think the story was well told through the cinematic events throughout the game. The characters had realistic movements which helped communicate what was happening. The game had no voice actors which pushed the use of body language communication and expression. The camera work helped even more by showing dynamic angles to illustrate the grand adventure. All the main and random characters were great assets in telling this story. All the characters look unique with a cartoonish style to them. Each character, whether great of small, has their own story to tell even if it may seem meaningless. That's part of what's so great about The Legend of Zelda series. Even the smallest character helps paint the picture of the game world bringing it to life.

   The Wii does not boast HD visuals like the other consoles of its time. Skyward Sword does look very good though and shows an impressive Impressionist art style. The game moves fluidly without any slowdown. I felt that I was not playing on a less powerful system when I got near the end of the game and I saw the lighting on a particular figure that had much detail.

   As mentioned earlier, the game sports no voice over work. May have been to conserve memory on the game disk or just because the developers did not want it. This pleased me because I am skeptical about voice over work. Everything else in a game can be so wonderful but bad voice acting can bring entertainment down. Skyward Sword does have a nearly fully orchestrated track which was recorded very well. Even though it's not the best soundtrack in the series it does work well enough to set the mood of the game.

   The greatest aspect of Skyward Sword and what sets it from the rest of the series is the control. Skyward Sword utilizes the Wii Motion Plus to control the majority of the movements. The Nintendo Wii boasted of motion controls from the beginning, but few other Wii games had used them as extensively as Skyward Sword. The Wii Motion Plus acts as the sword arm and wherever the player's arm is so is Link's arm. Dynamic sword play was advertised on the game case and this is truly the best feature of the game. Enemies will defend themselves at various angles and with the Wii Motion Plus technology the player must find a hole in the enemies defense to attack. The Nunchuck was also used as a shield to raise and defend enemy blows. Other items also were controlled through motions and natural ones at that such as: a bow and arrow, bug net, whip, and others. While the motions are natural motions there is a bit of a learning curve to them. As they need to be somewhat precise. With the sword for example, if you are thrusting, you must do a direct thrust with your arm. If you are swinging down, you must do a vertical swing down. Not everybody knows how to swing a sword but the game does make you learn. For the game that is and not a real sword.

   I think the motion controls for this game show really how fun motion controls can be for other games. I think there is more promise for motion control gaming than what other companies have tried to do with their games. Skyward Sword is a testament to how much motion controls can be incorporated into a full scale game. And Skyward Sword does it so naturally. I say again, all the items in the game feel so natural to use because they require real world movements.

   While the game starts off in the sky the game takes Link on an adventure on the land below the clouds, which the box advertises. There were plenty of things to do under the clouds like: fight diverse enemies, collect spoils to make potions and upgrade gear, and find other treasures. Past Zelda games had an overworld that connected all the levels together. This time that overworld served as the sky rather than the ground. I thought this was less appealing because I was all about traveling on the ground on foot. Instead the surface, as the people in the game called the land below the clouds, was broken up in three different areas. Now these areas were not too small, but you could not walk from one to the other and for some reason this disappointed me. So that is maybe the only thing I would have done differently in the game.

   All in all, The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword is a great game and one of my favorites. It was super enjoyable to play through and it still is. I even sometimes stand up and play the game in a sword fighting stance. The Legend of Zelda series is my favorite game series too and I hope it continues for another 25 more years.