Skyward Sword review thread [Newest Reviews - Cubed3 10/10, GC: A, AusGamers: 7/10]

lopaz said:
This game is boss.
Click to expand...

djBB1.gif
 
After playing it for myself, I seriously cannot understand how anyone can say this game is too much like previous Zeldas, let alone list such a thing as a substantial negative. I mean holy shit, you'd be hard pressed to make a big list of things that are <i>similar</i>. Everything, from the characters to the gameplay to the swordplay to the whole tone, is unlike anything I've seen in a Zelda

Further, wtf @ people bitching about the intro. First, every annoying tutorial is entirely optional (they act as sidequests), and I went from intro -> sword -> fighting enemies in record time - maybe half an hour with sidequests, most likely 10 minutes max if you skipped them.

I'm so glad I went on a media blackout for this game, but I think the next time around I need to go on a review blackout as well. I've spent far too much time playing the game and looking for the good and the bad they mentioned and trying to confirm if it's a problem for me.
 
so I just got this game with wii motion plus gold controller. aside from calibrating the wii motion plus, do I need the sensor bar after that? (first game I bought that uses wii motion plus)
 
This whole control debate is beginning to remind me of Other M. I remember so many people complaining about how they couldn't tell where they would be looking when they went into first person mode and that 1st person view left you completely open to attack which made think that all the hits they kept taking were cheap shots. So many players completely missed that your view was where Samus was looking before you made the switch and that you could dodge in 1st person. If you took the time, Other M was blast once you start switching perspectives, dodging in both views, and linking evades and counters into finishers, etc.

People love to whine that Nintendo dumbs everything down, but it seems to me that people have more trouble keeping up with Nintendo than anything else.

Hell PES on the wii is another perfect example of this.
 
vaelic said:
so I just got this game with wii motion plus gold controller. aside from calibrating the wii motion plus, do I need the sensor bar after that? (first game I bought that uses wii motion plus)
Click to expand...

You won't need it to perform actions, but the game definitely uses the sensor bar to recalibrate the controller.

--

And yeah, the controls really are perfectly.
 
Just reading this Venturebeat review for a laugh. Wow.

I'm beyond caring about the scores now, because it's just the case that this is a divisive game. It seems that there are many people who simply aren't willing to put the effort into enjoying it, and are looking for flaws. No complaints about the controls other than I'd rather throw stuff with a button. Aside from that they are, indeed, perfectly.

Played 90 minutes so far, avoiding OT for a while yet, but I've paid this much attention to the story in a Zelda game since Majora's Mask. Can't wait to play this some more, but I'm missing a cable in my setup that means I can only play through TV audio, which ain't good enough.
 
Observer review

"The combat is tighter and harder, the story and characterisation are peerless, the music is symphonic and sumptuous, the dungeons are more puzzling and supremely well designed and the bosses are, frankly, boss… So is it the best Zelda ever? Very possibly."
 
OK, so the folks in the other thread didn't answer my question, so I'll ask here:

I checked everywhere I know for the bundle, and all of them are sold out. Will I ever get a shot at the bundle again? I know Walmart is saving some for Black Friday, but I prefer not to get trampled to death for a copy. Will there be more shipments of the bundle or is it over for me?
 
The Awesomest said:
OK, so the folks in the other thread didn't answer my question, so I'll ask here:

I checked everywhere I know for the bundle, and all of them are sold out. Will I ever get a shot at the bundle again? I know Walmart is saving some for Black Friday, but I prefer not to get trampled to death for a copy. Will there be more shipments of the bundle or is it over for me?
Click to expand...

You can try amazon, but they have to get it from other sellers and all are > $100 instead of $70.
 
The Awesomest said:
OK, so the folks in the other thread didn't answer my question, so I'll ask here:

I checked everywhere I know for the bundle, and all of them are sold out. Will I ever get a shot at the bundle again? I know Walmart is saving some for Black Friday, but I prefer not to get trampled to death for a copy. Will there be more shipments of the bundle or is it over for me?
Click to expand...

Nintendo usually really means it when they say "Limited". Sadly, I would not count on a bundle. If no one near you has it, I'd get on Amazon marketplace, or Ebay before it goes up more.
 
I'm on 6th/7th dungeon (who knows right? Dungeon within a dungeon?) and yes indeed 10/10 is fully deserved...

This is worth getting a Wii for alone...
 
I swear, I personally think people really do love to exaggerate stuff..., like, every small mishap the game shows will be treated with such tremendous rile one might think Nintendo is out to screw gamers with one of its biggest gaming franchise ever.

- "Swordplay controls sucks!" No way, they're fine--not without occasional issues, absolutely, but the issues present are so negligible I find it really weird that some people really go out of their way to complain about them.
- "Swimming controls suck balls!" Hell no, it's fine.
- "Aiming controls sucks!" Hell no, they're working just fine.
- "Flying controls sucks!" They're perfectly fine.
-
"Tears collecting!!!!!!!!!!"
It's new, different, and very tense scenarios that are very different from the boredom that was featured in Twilight Princess.
- "It's the same Zelda over and over again!" --proceeds to give lavish praise to Uncharted 3, Gears of Wars 3, and Modern Warfare 3. The fact that Nintendo had the courage to actually implement full Motion+ for one of its biggest gaming franchises speak volumes about their commitment to freshen things up. And no, this game is different in many ways than any of the previous Zeldas.

I mean, obviously this game is not perfect, but for God's sake people really do love to complain about every-single-thing and treat the game's every little mishap as if the end of the world is coming for them.
 
I have to say, from my time with the game (30+ hours, at the point of no return) this is easily one of, if not the, best Zelda game. Easily deserving or the 9s and 10s it's got and I can see why people could give it 8 or there abouts (depending on how the person played the game and if they liked the controls).

I think this is my favourite Zelda.
 
"Joe12
Nov 20, 2011
0
I have huge buyer's remorse after buying this game, it doesn't deserve all the 10/10s at all. Nintendo holds the hand of the player until they've learned everything Nintendo thinks they need to know to play the game. Thus the player is refused the opportunity to explore these things themselves. 1-2 hour mandatory tutorials are not good ways to start a game. Nintendo has fallen turd out of Skyloft."


"EnvyEyes
Nov 20, 2011
0
Why was this game made in 2011? Did they know they were late? The controls don't work. The music doesn't work. The graphics don't work. Their voices don't work. Wii Motion Plus? No. Wii Motion Minus an actual game. The Wiimote is just as waggle-rific as it was in Twilight Princess. No strategy, just shake like you got the Parkinson's. This game is a horrific mess. A travesty. The little characters here are as paper thin as their blockfest polygon bodies. Just 3 locations. Melodramatic. You don't care what happens here. No Ganon. No Epona. No Midna. No Overworld. No Evolution. No Modernization. No Innovation. No Fun. Just another Saturday Morning cartoon when all you want to do is eat cereal and grow up. Reggie Fils-Aime will be looking for another job. Miyamoto will be looking for his home land. I will be looking for the time I lost while playing this 2 generation year old game. After Twilight Princess, Nintendo had no other choice but to fall. Like a terd out of Skyloft"



so is SS a turd or a terd? Only time will tell
 
DrForester said:
Nintendo usually really means it when they say "Limited". Sadly, I would not count on a bundle. If no one near you has it, I'd get on Amazon marketplace, or Ebay before it goes up more.
Click to expand...

It's already $99 on Amazon, so I'd probably be better off just buying a separate M+ attachment for my current controller. That is, if I survive Black Friday at Walmart with my bones intact.

Anasui Kishibe said:
so is SS a turd or a terd? Only time will tell
Click to expand...

Whichever it is, I think the consensus is that it's falling from Skyloft at the very least.
 
I chose to buy the game without the gold controller and purchased a white Wii Motion Plus controller even though I have the M+ addon.

I didn't want a gold controller - Wii U will be white so I wanted to keep it in the family!
 
This game is great. The intro wasn't painful at all.

I love how you have to pay attention to visual cues in order to see how an enemy needs to be killed. The art style is gorgeous. This is a game that is going to age beautifully.
 
Alrus said:
Well the only place where there is some kind of shortage seems to be NA, there's plenty of them available in PAL territories as far as I know.
Click to expand...

Well, New Zealand didn't seem to get many, but most places I buy online from the UK still seem to have them. Of course, if you're only after the remote, it doesn't matter what region you are. I'm just going to sell my spare PAL copy anyway.
 
The A.V. Club
No, Skyward Sword isn't better than Ocarina Of Time. But of all the Zeldas to be released over the last 13 years, it comes closest. The game's greatest achievement is that it never stops aspiring to be more than it is. It never stops reaching for emotional moments, going full-tilt for players' hearts.
Click to expand...

A
 
Laughing Banana said:
Just my opinion but I think Skyward Sword >>>> Ocarina of Time. It seems not many are thinking this way.
Click to expand...

Too much influence from the lackluster DS games. The backtracking and location re-use is very disappointing, but probably should have been expected after Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.

They nailed the motion control, though, which is what I think most people were worried about, so overall I'd have to count it as a victory. Good characters and surprisingly well-written in places, too. I can't put it in the same league as Ocarina and ALttP, but it's on par with Wind Waker, which is one of my favorite Zeldas from a pure gameplay standpoint.
 
marc^o^ said:
Of course it is, but you have to put OoT in the context of its release, it was a game bringing game mechanics from the future.
Click to expand...

Yeah. The thing about OOT was it made simple things amazing, just because it hadn't been done before. For example, I remember being in awe as it changed from day to night dynamically.
 
Interesting. Wonder if the outlying reviews are an indication that the game press is maturing a bit. Even the most acclaimed movies or books generally have a few negative reviews, and the other way round.
 
Another perfect score from Den of Geek - 5/5

Nintendo have taken the core design so loved by fans and have added to it over the years, with a variety of new styles and game play mechanics. Skyward Sword is no different, and, perhaps more so than any other release, the added features have changed the whole experience once again.

As much as I've appreciated the experiment with motion controls we've had with the Wii, few games have really made me want to play a game using them. Skyward Sword, on the other hand, really does make me want to play the game with full motion controls, and it's not a chore to do so either. They're so well integrated, and change the way the game plays so much, that this is a real triumph for the technology. This is made all the better thanks to brilliant design, a long and enjoyable story and the polish that we've come to expect from first-party Nintendo release.

Once again the Zelda series doesn't disappoint and delivers the kind of game play we all know and love from the series, along with arguably the best motion control system yet seen in a game. If this is the Wii's swansong, then the little white box is certainly going out on a high.
Click to expand...
 
About the only genuinely bad thing I've seen so far is the scenes where
Fi
is
singing
. They just look really cheap, no good characterisation/animation to be seen there, contrary to most other cut scenes. It's hardly an issue but the camera does focus on them much.

The pointer I still wish used the sensor bar but meh, whatever, it's a non issue in the end. The combat and the various items are all a joy to use. Even bug catching is fun in this game. It's been fairly easy so far but it's also been a joy to see through.

The intro was excellent imo. Quick, with some purely optional tutorials and enough hints of action at the same time it was setting the mood for what's to come. I'm not really seeing how it could be any more straightforward without just dropping you in a dungeon as soon as the game starts with no explanation whatsoever. it's nothing like TP.

I like all the dungeons and puzzles so far, some are inventive enough to think other developers would just pad them into whole Portal style adventure/puzzle games, yet Nintendo keeps coming up with new stuff around every corner. It also packs a lot more variety than the map suggested (too much brown was my fear).

I even liked the first
Silent Realm
trial, though perhaps later ones might feel like a chore if they're too hard. It's like they've used Super Mario Galaxy style challenges.

Oh, and I love how as you go through an area you keep altering the layout making shortcuts for yourself to make future runs much speedier, you don't have to go through the same environmental challenges every time you visit the area and you make even more shortcuts as you go with tools you get later.

I'm just where I have to start returning to previously visited areas for story purposes and it really doesn't feel like backtracking, with the shortcuts in place and the new abilities and tools you reach the newly accessible areas in no time at all, while there were new enemy types to fight even where I had gone through before. Oh, and an awesome boss. If that's how the rest of the backtracking is, it's like faulting Metroid style games if they make you go 5 rooms back or whatever after defeating a boss to then go through a previously blocked path that leads to yet new areas and bosses.

All in all so far there's been seemingly no boring downtime or even slowdown like in TP. It's very condsensed Zelda. You have side quests that might take some time with the whole day/night switch but it's a choice. And yes, it's obviously a light hearted fairy tale you can have your kids play/watch too, not something like DarkSiders or even Skyrim. That's not a flaw either in my book but I guess your opinion may vary.
 
Alextended said:
About the only bad thing I've seen so far is the scenes where
Fi
is
singing
. They just looked really cheap, no good characterisation/animation to be seen there, contrary to most other cut scenes. Hardly an issue but the camera does focus on them much.]
Click to expand...

Isn't that Monolith's fault? Weren't they responsible for character animations?
 
the more I read reviews and impressions, the less I think this Zelda is a polarizing game. There are obviously people who dislike tutorials/motion controls, as predicted, and it's a BIG minority. Where's the balance between good and bad? It seems 1% thinks game is bad for some reason and that's it
 
Anasui Kishibe said:
the more I read reviews and impressions, the less I think this Zelda is a polarizing game. There are obviously people who dislike tutorials/motion controls, as predicted, and it's a BIG minority. Where's the balance between good and bad? It seems 1% thinks game is bad for some reason and that's it
Click to expand...

i feel in some way that the discussion around the game is highly influenced by the prevailing narrative around the series, and the prevailing narrative around wii; that is, with the former, there has been a promulgation and dissemination over the past five years that the series has no new ideas, and can only be saved by a ground-up restructuring, and with the latter, that motion controls have been--at best--a mixed success and are at the point of either crossing the hump into transcendence or withering off the vine into obscurity.

the question about zelda as a series is highly influenced by the existence of twilight princess, of course, which leaned heavily on quality dungeons which would have been at home in almost any previous game in the series, and outside dungeons lacked a glaring, distinguishing, outstanding mechanic to set it apart (you could set forth the wolf segments as this, but i would argue their inclusion was inconsequential to judgment of the game's ultimate quality). that doesn't make twilight princess a bad game. in fact, it's an exceedingly great game. it DOES inform and feed this narrative that the series is "stale," or needs radical revision, despite the fact that the changes between ocarina --> majora --> wind waker were significant, and only twilight princess presented any sort of "sameyness," and even that is arguable.

with motion controls, because it is one of the most hugely popular and renowned series in video games, and because nintendo & even early previews have praised it as the ultimate proof of the value of motion controls, skyward sword has the unfortunate place of serving as a referendum.

that's not to say anyone is consciously addressing the game from this perspective. i think the narrative around the series and motion controls has a tendency to polarize reviews one way or the other. it certainly helps in understanding how someone could look at it and be completely put off by elements that are either innocuous or positive, but are approached with a negative perspective because they fit into the criteria set forth in that narrative. approaching the game, people either want it to be something besides what it is, or want it to support or forcefully disprove their feelings on motion in gaming, and that inevitably mucks up the basic question about the quality of the game itself.
 
Well said beelzebozo.

I particularly agree that Twilight Princess has influenced people into thinking that the series is samey. Not many people made that complaint before Twilight Princess was released.
It's strange how one game could make so many people think that the whole series is samey.
 
krYlon said:
Well said beelzebozo.

I particularly agree that Twilight Princess has influenced people into thinking that the series is samey. Not many people made that complaint before Twilight Princess was released.
It's strange how one game could make so many people think that the whole series is samey.
Click to expand...

For me it was phantom hourglass that got me to that point. Through handhelds and consoles it felt like they were releasing way more Zelda's in a shorter amount of time with little variation (at least to me).
 
I haven't fel this way about a Zelda game since Minish Cap.
It's good, just not good enough for a Zelda.

I hope Fujibayashi never gets to direct another game in the series.

Edit: and I know it's him, because the control and game mechanics are great, as is the design of the individual elements. It's the game as a whole that lacks something I've found in all Zelda games since the first one (except in MC, of course).

And it's not me getting older and tired of the formula either, I finished Majora's Mask last month and loved the hell out of it.
 
Three dungeons completed. Controls are great, people who can't grasp them or having difficulty with them need to learn how to play. Bird riding is fun too.
 
krYlon said:
I particularly agree that Twilight Princess has influenced people into thinking that the series is samey. Not many people made that complaint before Twilight Princess was released.
It's strange how one game could make so many people think that the whole series is samey.
Click to expand...

To be fair, a lot of critics and Zelda fans were calling Ocarina of Time "A Link to the Past with polygons" shortly after it came out. Yes, it was as dumb then as it is now, but people said it anyway. I think the monster Twilight Princess unleashed was the dreaded word "formula". It popped up all over the place in TP previews, and it has since become the go-to criticism of the franchise. Twilight Princess is a big, complex game, and it's easy to boil down serious criticisms of its various elements as problems with "the formula".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Infinity Nikki Review - IGN (9/10) > Stellar blade: IGN 7/10
NSFW  2 3
123
9K
tTHANOSs replied
Secret Level IGN Review: 5/10
Review  2 3
137
13K
Luc2010 replied
Splatoon 10 year anniversary.
News 
23
82
Starhowl replied
Doom: The Dark Ages Review Embargo Lifts May 9, at 7 am/10 am PDT/EDT, 3 pm/4 pm BST/CEST
12
156
Efren is G.O.A.T. replied
  • Locked
Edge scores Clair Obscur : E33 a 10/10, raising its Metacritic score to 93
News 
2
110
Orpheus replied
Top Bottom