The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Here it is. My proudest day on the back blog. The longest game I have ever played at 45 hours. Danielle was not happy about it, but I did it over a 2-year span. 18 hours in 2011, 27 hours in 2013. I'm actually glad I played it like that. Because it seemed like non-stop action for most of the 27 hours. As a rule, I'm not a big fan of the beginning of Zelda games when I'm not dressed in my green tunic wielding my sword and shield. From what I remember, the beginning of this game was kind of boring. You spend it on Sky Loft, your hometown which happens to also be a island floating in the sky. The whole dynamic of flying feels a little bit like the boat in Windwaker, although there is not nearly as much to explore in this world. If you're like me, that's awesome. I like a little more linearity to my Zeldas because the main reason I play is for the dungeons and the puzzles. I don't care that much about everything else. However, if you are all about exploring, this game won't be as fun for you.

The dungeons in this game are some of the strongest I have played in any Zelda game. The Ancient Cistern is my favorite dungeon of all time. The puzzles are by-in-large great in this game. They are never so hard that I wanted to give up, but they were often challenging enough to force me to think for a few minutes. I found the bosses in the dungeons to be pretty easy. Ghirahim, a sorry excuse for Ganondorf, was a boss of a few dungeons and I found him to be incredibly annoying because beating him was all about accurate sword swings. I'm more of a brute force kind of guy and that didn't cut it. The final boss was very fun, but it was over too quickly (that's a lie, it took me 6 tries - but on the 6th try it only took 3 minutes to beat him).

Anyway, this game in general is all about showcasing what wii motion plus can do. Rather than just swinging your wiimote haphazardly, you are supposed to time and place your strikes to do damage on your opponents. I found that most of the time that it took away from the experience rather than improve it, but there were a few times when I thought it was pretty cool. Still, I hope the next Zelda does away with the motion controls to some degree.

I am pretty upset that the Wii is so underpowered. I know this game would have looked gorgeous in HD, but as it stands now, it looks like shit. I had a hard time looking at it. I would have rather it looked like Ocarina of Time 3D than the way it looked. For some reason, Wii games just don't have the bright colors or textures that I come to expect to the point where Gamecube games seem to outshine them in the graphics department. Whatever.

Overall, this was a great, great game. It had everything you come to expect from Zelda games with the addition of motion controls. Though this probably represents the game that best utilizes motion controls on the Wii, it also demonstrates that motion controls don't necessarily add to the experience. Still, I love this series. This is a fitting addition. I imagine most will like it more than Twilight Princess but less than Ocarina of Time and Windwaker. Now it's time for A Link to the Past.