Plenty of Wii games get you up off your couch. “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” is the first game to keep you there. Between motion-controlled sword fighting, archery, bowling and even skydiving, “Skyward Sword” feels a bit like “The Legend of Wii Sports.” Which is a good thing. Finally, five years after the Wii launched, it reaches its destination. “Skyward Sword” takes all the motion-sensing capabilities of Nintendo’s ubiquitous white console, and ties them together in an adventure that not only makes them feel organic, but touches your heart as only this series can.
To the uninitiated, “Zelda” is synonymous with puzzle solving and sword fighting. With “Skyward Sword,” the two at last stand on equal footing. Sword fighting with the Wii’s MotionPlus controller isn’t perfect, but it’s darn close. One senses the game occasionally “translating” your motions into premapped swings, but most of the time the movements of your sword perfectly match what you’re doing with your controller. After sword fighting with buttons for so long, it’s exhilarating to see a bat approaching you from behind, swing the controller at the perfect angle over your shoulder, and bam — right in the kisser. Enemies with their own swords can read the telegraphs you send with your windups, and block accordingly, so fighting becomes a kind of puzzle unto itself.
Indeed, whether cracking Link’s new whip, bowling bombs at bad guys, or just thrusting my left arm forward to pull out my shield, I felt more connected to the physical goings-on in a game world than I ever have. In terms of gameplay, this is why the Wii was made.
| ‘The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’ |
| » System: Wii |
| » Price: $49.99 |
| » Rating: 5 out of 5 stars |
In terms of graphics, this is why the Nintendo 64 was made. Seemingly trying for a happy medium between the crisp, cartoony look of “The Wind Waker” and the more realistic graphics of Wii launch title “Twilight Princess,” the developers have opted for a watercolor-on-parchment style a la “Okami,” but they don’t even commit to that. The graphics are a dogpile of half-measures, and the game just looks blurry.
Too bad, because Nintendo has created one of the more unusual settings for a Zelda game, a sea of clouds dotted with free-floating landmasses. These islands, as it were, can be visited on the backs of giant birds, and rumors abound of a place called the “surface” beneath the cloud floor.
Even if the graphics make you want to rub your eyes, “Skyward Sword” marks a high point in the series for storytelling. With her doe eyes and easy smile, Zelda lets there be no doubt that her childhood friendship with fellow villager Link is growing into something more. And just as she’s about to put her feelings into words, she’s yanked from Link’s company by a distant, mysterious force. Hours later, sneaking out of your room at night to find her, there’s an echo of the excitement in 1991’s “A Link to the Past.” An innocent ventures into a world of possibility — isn’t that what Zelda’s all about?
“Skyward Sword” sets in motion the modern masterpiece “Ocarina of Time,” it beats with the same heart as “A Link to the Past,” and, with motion controls that prove the concept at last, it stands as the ultimate Wii game. Not just because it’s likely the last major game for the Wii. It’s everything the console ever promised to be.
