Review
Played on: SwitchReleased: 2021
Originally released: 2011 (Wii)
Being fairly unfamiliar to the Zelda franchise, I was pleased to see an older title making its way to the Switch. Upgraded from its low 480p@30fps visuals of 2011 on the Wii, Skyward Sword sees a healthy update to 1080p@60fps in the form of a Switch release. With quality-of-life upgrades, like skippable dialogue, a surprisingly helpful hint system and more checkpoints, it was time for a Zelda newbie like me to check out what the older styled, 3D, Zelda was all about.
Although its predecessor, Twilight Princess, added motion controls for its sword fighting when it was co-released alongside the GameCube release for the Wii launch, it wasn't until Skyward Sword that Zelda received true motion controlled sword fighting. For good, or worse, this typically late 2000's to early 2010s gameplay direction, has a unique place for innovative ideas in the industry.
As I’ve understood, Zelda games are usually standalone and Skyward Sword’s focus, outside of Link trying to find Zelda, is that it takes place up in the sky. A flying village, where the inhabitants need to learn to control giant, multi coloured, birds to go out on adventures away from the floating island. There’s a charming free-roam feel to exploring the village and surrounding area by bird. There are also locked areas, that require Link to find new weapons or items to further explore. The floating village is the main hub of the game and, as the story progresses, Link finds worlds below the clouds to explore.
Down on the ground we’re treated to three distinct worlds to roam in our quest to find Zelda. A green woodland themed world, an orange volcanic world and a third, yellow desert, world. In turn, each world will open up even further as the story progresses and Link gains more items, abilities and weapons. They aren’t massively sized worlds, clearly in the vein of typically sized sixth or seventh gen title, with a fair bit of linearity to them. Yet, they contain many secrets and constantly challenge the player to either solve puzzles to continue or find paths to explore further.
In your path, in addition to figuring out how to progress through obstacles, are many types of enemies. Zelda titles require a patient approach to attack, learning the enemy’s vulnerabilities and attack patterns. I found out that approaching aggressively, swinging your sword as fast as you can, isn’t really what this is about. It’s about parrying attacks and angling your sword slashes towards an enemy's vulnerable spot. As such, the gyro controls make perfect sense.
We need to talk about the control options, though. You can either play it with an ordinary controller; where the left analogue stick moves Link, while the right controls directional sword slashes. My reason for not choosing this option, initially, was that the new camera controls, allowing free camera rotation around Link, are removed because the sword must occupy the right stick.
Second choice is utilising the gyro controls. After all, this is what Skyward Sword was designed for back on the Wii. According to Nintendo these have been improved on, although I don't really see how. I had to constantly re-calibrate my Joy-Con, quickly done by pausing and pressing Y. Be prepared to do this, a lot.
So, on one hand I'm having this pleasant, nostalgic, Wii throwback with gyro controls. While on the other hand, I'm having bad flashbacks as to why I was sceptical to motion controls back then. When they work, it's fun; slashing away the sword at the angle you're holding the Joy-Con and aiming freely. However, when they’re off-centre and wrongly calibrated, they're a confusing nightmare.
At the end of the day, I played through the entire game with motion controls, constantly re-calibrating, but enjoying an alternative way of playing than most titles these days. Especially, considering how far off the Wii era is already. For the very last and, for me, brutally hard end boss, I just had to use a Pro Controller. I just couldn’t centre the sword fast enough vertically to power it up between attacks.
The nostalgia factor of a seventh console generation experience isn’t just in the controls, though. It's a pleasant reminder visually of a begone era. Basically, the Wii was a GameCube technically, and as such, Skyward Sword takes me even further back to the sixth-generation consoles, visually. Simpler, colourful and artistically strong titles from this era, have this minimalist approach to their worlds that is charming so many years later.
Nintendo are great at depicting fantasy worlds, regardless of graphical power, and Skyward Sword is a pleasingly colourful world, with a simple, yet charmingly alive, organic vibe. There's a heavy emphasise on soft visuals, both in textures and colour palette.
It's nice to see that the transition from what basically ran on old CRT TVs, although a lot of people playing such a late Wii title would’ve done so on a HDTV, holds its transition to large, super high-resolution TVs quite well. The 60fps upgrade brings a sharpness to the visuals, with a healthy 1080p clarity boost in resolution. The responsiveness is evidently much better thanks to the framerate being doubled.
It's nice to see that the transition from what basically ran on old CRT TVs, although a lot of people playing such a late Wii title would’ve done so on a HDTV, holds its transition to large, super high-resolution TVs quite well. The 60fps upgrade brings a sharpness to the visuals, with a healthy 1080p clarity boost in resolution. The responsiveness is evidently much better thanks to the framerate being doubled.
What really shines visually, is the artistic design. They've worked with so little, yet achieved so much. There's otherwise no visual enhancements outside of resolution and framerate, so one could say this HD release is somewhat sparse in it's remastering work. I'm guessing replacing textures or adding more polygons to 3D models often results in a mixed bag visually, the recent GTA3 remasters come to mind, rather than keeping the cohesive visual expression it originally had.
I found some negatives I’d like to address, apart from the gyro calibration frustration. While the story and the character design is charming, the lack of voice overs and constant vocal noises from characters when you’re reading the text can be a flashback of nostalgia in some ways, in others, it’s super annoying. Some of the bosses have nasty difficulty spikes too, be prepared to retry often, usually requiring you to find one, specific, way of damaging them.
As with a lot of games from this time, it can be a little tricky to understand what to do next, I was glad to see that they’ve added a comprehensive hint system to aid players that are stuck.
It’s been nice experiencing what 3D Zelda is all about, I’ve prior to this only completed Link’s Awakening, review here. As such, I can very much relate to why people love this series, with its great combination of charming aesthetics, varied gameplay and strong adventure feeling as you progress through fantasy worlds.
I never found a dull moment or was bored, it constantly challenged me or set me out on new tasks, which kept me going. The number of physical puzzles you need to solve is a fun diversion from just fighting enemies.
A much recommended release for newcomers and veterans, what better way to play it than on Switch with 60fps?!
I found some negatives I’d like to address, apart from the gyro calibration frustration. While the story and the character design is charming, the lack of voice overs and constant vocal noises from characters when you’re reading the text can be a flashback of nostalgia in some ways, in others, it’s super annoying. Some of the bosses have nasty difficulty spikes too, be prepared to retry often, usually requiring you to find one, specific, way of damaging them.
As with a lot of games from this time, it can be a little tricky to understand what to do next, I was glad to see that they’ve added a comprehensive hint system to aid players that are stuck.
It’s been nice experiencing what 3D Zelda is all about, I’ve prior to this only completed Link’s Awakening, review here. As such, I can very much relate to why people love this series, with its great combination of charming aesthetics, varied gameplay and strong adventure feeling as you progress through fantasy worlds.
I never found a dull moment or was bored, it constantly challenged me or set me out on new tasks, which kept me going. The number of physical puzzles you need to solve is a fun diversion from just fighting enemies.
A much recommended release for newcomers and veterans, what better way to play it than on Switch with 60fps?!
