I got my hands on Skyward Sword this year at E3 2011, but before I get into my thoughts on the demo, let’s start at the beginning.
The year is 2010. Nintendo has just confirmed that they are developing the latest game in the Legend of Zelda series for the Wii and that it will be playable on the E3 2010 show floor. My inner fanboy could not be happier because I will be on the E3 floor to get a sneak peak at the next title in one of my favorite series. Ask anyone and they will tell you that my favorite game of all time is Link to the Past. Go to the Nintendo Channel on my Wii and it will tell you that I have put more than 65 hours into Twilight Princess. And then on the E3 2010 floor after waiting in line for over an hour to play Skyward Sword: utter disappointment.
I can’t describe how I felt about the game last year but after E3 2011 I feel much better about the game. Last year there was a single stage that showcased the new Motion Plus controls and some of the new items that would be available in the game. This single stage felt like a tech demo and that’s really all that it was. What a difference a year makes. Then the Nintendo rep running my demo station reminded me that Skyward Sword is the prequel of sorts to what many believe is the best Zelda game of all time: Ocarina of Time. This could make the story behind Skyward Sword that much more intriguing.
I got a chance to play through two out of the three demos, each with a 10 minute time limit. All three of these demos were confirmed to be actual levels of the game that will be seen in the finished product. The first demo showed how the word “Skyward” fits in with the overall theme of the game. This stage was a flight stage with the new “Epona” taking the form of a giant red bird and bird wings replacing the carrots for energy bursts. If you have played through Super Mario Galaxy 2 then you will be familiar with the way the flight mechanics work with Skyward Sword. You use only the Wiimote to control the bird which follows how you roll the Wiimote left or right to turn or how you raise or lower to go up or down. I personally hated the flight levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2 but this felt a lot more responsive with the Motion Plus.
The second demo was for a dungeon stage that mainly focused how the Motion Plus features will be used for puzzle solving. The standard Zelda puzzles will be found here with finding switches to open doors and pushing boxes into the right place in order to get where you need to be. The difference is going to be how Motion Plus works with the new items and sword play. One of the main things featured here was how to use the new beetle attachment to fly into tight spaces to find hidden switches or to take out enemies waiting to drop down from the ceiling to prevent you from advancing. Another puzzle featured was the standard moving a box from one room to another room. The difference is that this was not to move it into place to push down a floor switch or get to a higher ledge. In this case you needed to stand up higher in order be seen by an eye on the wall so that you could confuse this eye with the new sword movement to open the door.
The final demo was a boss battle against a new character Ghirahim. This demo was put in place to show how you can use the shield bash feature of the nunchuck and the Motion Plus capabilities of the sword movements. This was all overshadowed by the oddity of this new enemy. Let me put it this way for you: David Bowie’s character from the movie Labyrinth doesn’t have shit on Ghirahim. He is one creepy bastard and I mean that in the disturbing way possible. He looks like the long lost lead singer from some hair metal band of the 1980’s and his behavior in the opening cut scene of this demo is what I can only describe as ambiguous. For the grand finale there is another cut scene where he looks at Link and then starts licking his giant white lips with his gigantic tongue. Other than that, this demo showed how the Motion Plus sword fighting will be used with boss battles and how the angle of your attack will make a big difference.
I’ll reserve judgment for the real deal, but for now they’ve regained my attention and excitement. Look for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Nintendo Wii on store shelves this Holiday season.