The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - $20 at Kmart from Ma...

[ridleysaria]

Far from my favorite Zelda and not even my favorite game from last year, but overall it's still a very good game. I don't know, maybe Nintendo got too caught up in making the motion controls work that they didn't give proper attention to the rest of the game.

However the last hour of Skyward Sword is probably the best ever. It ended really strong.

[V3N0M]

Well whether if Skyward sword was generally poorly recieved overall or not is something I dont think we'll be able to gauge this gen or not. Nintendo hasn't released official sales numbers, we dont know where the games sales stack up in relation to other zelda games, but most importantly we don't know how well the next gen console zelda will sell. If it fails to reach consumer interest on a decent level, sells very poorly, and is generally overall badly reviewed I think its fair to say that Zelda has lost some of its clout amongst core gamers. Until then we dont really know what the vast majority of peopel who own the game think. It could very well be a windwaker type situation, where alot of people say they hated the game but come next gen you see a lot of people lament for a return to the style. Remember as great as the internet is for information, its never really been a good way to gauge opinion as things can always be made to be bigger then they seem.

[FrenchFryGuy]

For real?.. If the game sucked to you it will continue sucking wether it's on sale or not.

Personally, sucked may be a bit harsh, but yeah, I agree with most people here that feel the game was underwhelming.

Ok then. Let me put it another way. Using a 6 day sale as some kind of confirmation that a game they don't/didn't particularly like must in fact be a failure hence the sale is just silly. Plenty of people liked the game. It's done well enough. Sometimes a sale is just that, a sale. No need to insinuate something more to push your opinion of said game.

Furthermore, if SS is a bad game, then this generation of gamers truly are a spoiled bunch, because I remember the days when a bad game was literally a bad game and not just a game that controlled differently then I would've preferred or had too much tutorials or text etc.

[V3N0M]

For real?.. If the game sucked to you it will continue sucking wether it's on sale or not.

Personally, sucked may be a bit harsh, but yeah, I agree with most people here that feel the game was underwhelming.

Ok then. Let me put it another way. Using a 6 day sale as some kind of confirmation that a game they don't/didn't particularly like must in fact be a failure hence the sale is just silly. Plenty of people liked the game. It's done well enough. Sometimes a sale is just that, a sale. No need to insinuate something more to push your opinion of said game.

Furthermore, if SS is a bad game, then this generation of gamers truly are a spoiled bunch, because I remember the days when a bad game was literally a bad game and not just a game that controlled differently then I would've preferred or had too much tutorials or text etc.

My the times they are a changing. Although in this case I do agree with you 100% completely.

[AtomicBean]

Honestly, I'm kinda torn on SS. It really excelled in some areas, and sadly fell short in others. Dungeons were fantastic, music was great, and I loved the art direction. Motion+ controls were fun, but the shallow selection of enemy types this time really hurt the combat in the long run. Add to that the severe lack of real exploration and so-so sidequests.

But I digress. All things considered, it's still an amazing game that should rightfully be in every Nintendo fan's collection, and it's a shame to think that it maybe hasn't gotten the attention it deserves sales-wise.

[Pineconn]

Motion controls worked about 80% of the time for me.

Stopped reading here.

Your statement is false. I think you meant to say, "I successfully operated the control scheme 80% of the time." You may have even added, "The other 20% of the time, I made it a point to learn about my mistake and to correct my uncoordinated motion swing for the future."

It isn't hard to bring 80% to 100%.

[Nin2000]

Skyward Sword was generally a big disappointment for me, and indeed it did make Twilight Princess look better. The main positives of SS were the beautiful graphics, and the silent realm (which actually provided a bit of a challenge).

For me, the big let downs were: the linearity, the lack of exploration, nintendo's instance on ignoring left handed players which made the controls extremely awkward, and FI!!!!! I hate Fi. As far as I'm concerned, having Fi hold your hand the entire way, interrupting the gameplay with spoilers on how to get through the game, essentially sucking the fun out of the game. I could forgive all of skyward sword's flaws if Fi was just booted out of the game, or took on more of a role like Midna (who annoyed you at first, but after the first 2-3 hours she stayed quiet and let you enjoy the game).

I remember being a bit disappointed with Twilight Princes, yet I still have managed to play through that 3 times (and enjoyed it). Skyward sword is the first game that I just haven't had the motivation to complete. I'm about 80% of the way through and it just seems like such a chore to have to complete the game.

I love Zelda, but SS really threw me back and has forced me to reevalute my Zelda devotion. The positive side is it has given me a greater appreciation for the older games in the series.

[ridleysaria]

I hate Fi. As far as I'm concerned, having Fi hold your hand the entire way, interrupting the gameplay with spoilers on how to get through the game, essentially sucking the fun out of the game. I could forgive all of skyward sword's flaws if Fi was just booted out of the game, or took on more of a role like Midna (who annoyed you at first, but after the first 2-3 hours she stayed quiet and let you enjoy the game).

Know what would have made Fi more interesting? Voice acting. Perhaps some of the humor of her character could have shone through and it would have eliminated the annoying interruptions if she simply spoke during gameplay. GLaDOS was half of the reason I loved Portal 1 & 2 and Fi could have been a similar companion (aside from the whole trying to kill you part).

[Frank]

I don't have the energy to really pick it apart, but I'm definitely in the camp that was underwhelmed by SS and would put it as my lowest rated 3D Zelda.

It's sad but I do hope it doesn't sell as well as they'd have liked if it means they'll look harder at people's criticisms.

[bimmatic]

im in the "didnt think SS was great" group as well. someone i know said ill probably like it when the next zelda comes out the way people keep doing, but i know that wont be true. ill admit i like wind waker better the second time through, but its only because the annoying part (sailing) was fixed by already knowing where everything was (meaning, no random wind direction changes every 5 minutes).

i got to within 6 hours of the end and stopped playing for 5 months. i had to psych myself to get it over with. definitely my least favorite console zelda game.

also, i wonder sometimes if the game would've been better if there was simply just no Fi. I cringed every time she said something and came to expect that around every fucking corner she would pause the game and pop out to say "MASTER THERES AN 80% CHANCE WE'RE GOING THE RIGHT WAY"

NO FUCKING shovel

[bushidogamer]

For real?.. If the game sucked to you it will continue sucking wether it's on sale or not.

Personally, sucked may be a bit harsh, but yeah, I agree with most people here that feel the game was underwhelming.

Ok then. Let me put it another way. Using a 6 day sale as some kind of confirmation that a game they don't/didn't particularly like must in fact be a failure hence the sale is just silly. Plenty of people liked the game. It's done well enough. Sometimes a sale is just that, a sale. No need to insinuate something more to push your opinion of said game.

Furthermore, if SS is a bad game, then this generation of gamers truly are a spoiled bunch, because I remember the days when a bad game was literally a bad game and not just a game that controlled differently then I would've preferred or had too much tutorials or text etc.

Skyward Sword is not a bad game. Compared to Nintendo's high standards though, I would say this game is. Yeah, we are a spoiled bunch, only because Nintendo holds such a high standard for us.

With Skyward Sword, it's almost like they forgot everything they've learned. Twilight Princess suffered from essentially the same exact problems Ocarina of Time did. What did Nintendo do? They made games to combat the empty hub of Hyrule Field.

In Majora's Mask, you start off in the middle of a sprawling map much like a traditional Zelda game. Wind Waker tried to solve the problem of people complaining that there wasn't a whole lot to do on the overworld so the Zelda team crafted a living, breathing world. Twilight Princess was a safe, boring response to people not liking Wind Waker's prioritized art direction and a disappointment for me because this completely contradicts Wind Waker's moral of letting go of the past and embracing the future.

Now we’re back with Skyward Sword. People didn’t like returning to the same Temple of the Ocean King dungeon in Phantom Hourglass. Yet, Nintendo did the same thing again in Skyward Sword except there are three of them. This is a divide by zero scenario. It’s very odd. Nintendo should not be doing this yet here we are again.

Ever wonder why Super Mario Bros. 3 sold 18 million copies? The game contains all these new and fresh ideas. When the level is over, Nintendo never revisits them again.

Wind Waker took three years to make, Nintendo spent a whole year on the emotionally involving look of the game alone. Five years... five years they spent working on Skyward Sword and it’s not as good as Wind Waker. Gone is the bold art direction, sense of wonder, and world that feels alive.

The reason why everyone’s so frustrated is because Nintendo could clearly be reaching for their unusually high standards when they are not. Holding anyone up to a higher standard is not a bad thing. Nintendo used to release near perfect masterpiece after classic masterpiece. I don't know what their problem is now, the new influx of employees from Data East/Irem, Nintendo trying to let the younger generation shine. With the Wii era, it just seems like they’re no longer making great games that people will remember fondly years down the line.

This might seem like I’m complaining a bit much. I'm not. This is valuable, meaningful information that Nintendo can use to improve their games. If we could care less, we would stay quiet. I know Nintendo employees read these because my comments have shown up in some form or another in Iwata Asks and other interviews. Nintendo may be hardworking and experienced yet I don’t want them to have to work harder. I don't want all of their efforts to go to waste. I want them to work smarter and churn out games in less time, so that even more people can play more of their high quality games.

[Hamr]

Skyward Sword was not terrible, but the idea that it was some sort of amazing, untouchable experience is downright ludicrous.

I like that part in the fifth dungeon where you come upon a puzzle, the camera suggestively pans to imply a solution, and then Fi starts spazzing out and straight up tells you exactly what to do. Why even go to the trouble of having someone design that puzzle in the first place if it is just going to be directed busy work?

[TOPolk]

I just wanted to chime in with two quick thoughts...

1) The reason for the sale? I'd guess overproduction. Maybe I'm alone here, but after Christmas you could walk into ANY Best Buy / Walmart / Target / Toys 'R Us and find tons on top of tons of copies of Skyward Sword's CD only edition. Everyone who really wanted the game most likely grabbed the Wii Remote + CD bundle. Nintendo, in overestimating "walk-up" demand probably produced too many of the normal copies and now retailers are stuck with them. I can't blame KMart (or any other retailer) for dropping the price in an effort to reduce stock. Remember when Nintendo was all "The CD will only be included with the first production run"? Well, I haven't seen a non-CD version of Skyward Sword for sale in the US yet, unlike Japan and Europe. Nintendo hedged their bets on NA demand for Zelda and it backfired on them a bit. I say a bit, because 3million+ units isn't anything to be mad about.

2) Regarding Skyward Sword's quality, I'm a bit torn. Someone earlier mentioned that the game finished strong. That it did. The last 7 hours or so were some of the best in the series, both narrative and gameplay wise. The first 40 hours or so, not so much. As time passes, I'm interested to see how this game fares. Wind Waker's stock rose after seeing how much Twilight Princess towed the line. Twilight Princess got a rub from Skyward Sword's shortcomings. IMO, Skyward Sword is a better package than both of them, even though WW and TP both do lots of things better. Wind Waker's lack of difficulty works against it and Twilight Princess's "paint by numbers" approach doesn't do it any favors either. Like everyone else though, I'm hoping Nintendo is able to pull it all together for Zelda on the Wii U.

[Zug Zug]

The gamespot review for this game was spot on. It deserves even less, like a 6.
It is evident that Nintendo has lost their way when it comes to the Zelda franchise.
Aonuma and Fujibayashi should work on other, lesser franchises like Warioware.
Zelda should be in more competant hands.

[LegendofSantiago]

I cannot disagree more with everyone hating on a good game. I could understand people saying it's not great, but to say it's bad is a bit exaggerated. For some people "padding" (or at least what i understand you guys are saying is padding) is only more gameplay for me and it's purely padding story-wise. Revisiting areas allowed the team to do something special without having to do a ton of extra work. For example: when you go to the silent realms in the game you need to know how to get around the place. Without having been to that area before the silent realm wouldn't have been as good. As for the 3rd time you revisit the same area it does seem drastically different. Aside from revisiting the first dungeon (which i agree is not a good choice) i loved returning to the
*spoilers* flooded forest and having to be stealthy in the volcano region *end spoilers*

As for the complaints about the sky, yeah, it was pretty baron, just like the ocean in windwaker, but i did enjoy looking for the treasure that was hidden in the islands and just flying around. I also really liked skyloft and the day/night premise. There was actually a lot to do there and i enjoyed the town's folk.

What i most enjoyed from the game was the amazing controls, the characters (it having the best Zelda in the series, the best impa, the best villain, and the best rival/groose), and the dungeons along side the "outside dungeons" where IMHO the best in the entire series. It also has the best story in a zelda game (aside from MM) and the characters show a lot of emotion with great animation. The game had some of the best weapons which where used throughout the game instead of only in one dungeon. I also kind of liked Fi, the same way i liked navi in OoT. I was genuinely sad when *spoilers* she was sealed in the sword *end spoilers*.
I loved the game, as i said before it's in my top 3 games of all time. After playing it and going back to ocarina of time i felt like ocarina of time had aged a lot more than i thought when compared to Skyward Sword. Link felt less agile in the n64 installments and the sword combat wasnt' as satisfying. There may be flaws, but i overlooked them to find an amazing experience and i'm sad you people couldn't do the same but i know lots of people enjoyed the game and it did sell decently (sales don't have anything to do with how it's selling, I saw games like Skyrim for half the price on a sale a month after it came out, it doesn't mean it's selling badly (in fact it probably sold more than it deserved to) i also saw games like UC3, and Assassin's creed get sales, i'm pretty sure those game didn't sell badly.

[Autosaver]

Maybe Super Mario Bros 3 sold 18 million BECAUSE Mario was pretty much the Mickey Mouse during that era?

Probably.

[pastasauce]

What a bunch of cry babies. Skyward Sword wasn't a bad game in the slightest. It took Zelda in a slightly different direction but that didn't make it bad. There were great moments in that game and if anything it was not as polished as it should have been but still an enjoyable experience.

[bszelda]

I grew up in the early 90's. In fact, I was born in 1990, so I played all of the classic games.

Skyward Sword is the best Zelda game to date in my opinion. I have played every Zelda game multiple times. I never had a single issue with the controls with Skyward Sword. I bought the bundle that came with the gold wiimotion plus controller. I'm not sure where you guys are coming from who hated or disliked SS. It was a great game and, while not the best looking graphically, it was an amazing game content-wise. I agree with the statement that today's gamers are spoiled. They don't realize how awesome a game is because their minds are flooded with bias and the impression that graphics mean the world for video games. I don't care if a game looks absolutely beautiful. If the gameplay and content sucks, it's a bad game. Period. Not to say that Skyward Sword had bad graphics. The art in the game was great. It felt like a painting in motion.

My point of all this is that I wish gamers today would realize how good they have it in terms of the quality of some games. It's like some gamers have lost touch with what a true AAA title consists of.

[Since1776]

I'd say SS was a good game that could've used more fine tuning.

Absolutely love everything about the desert sections, from the pre-dungeon dungeon, the dungeon, the sand sea and the pirate ship. All incredible, down to the motion controls for the bow and arrows.

However, I still cannot bring myself to finish the game.

If they had spent a few more months toning Fi down, getting rid of the alerts that tell you what you picked up EVERYTIME you start up the game, added some variation in enemies later on and ditched all but one of the silent realms, I think the game would have flowed MUCH better.

Oh, and just completely get rid of the thunderhead. Or make it interesting. That's really when I lost interest in the game. An area in the clouds blocked off for the early game...that's exactly like the rest of skyworld and serves no purpose other than extending total game time. It was an immense pain having to go back there again and again.

[Darth Vader]

I feel like Skyward Sword had the potential to really be amazing but some archaic design decisions held it back (someone please get Retro on this shovel). Aside from that it's still a really well put together game with awesome controls, and at $20 it's a steal

[GoNiners]

Why does a post about a SS sale generate so many comments?



Oh...I see. Well, here's my 2 cents.

I found the game to be incredibly fun. I spent tons of hours doing nothing but fighting to improve my use of the sword and to experiment with the different weapons. I guess people define fun differently, but the focus on minor details seems to be a sign of the times.

On topic: Was the original listing $29.99!?

[bushidogamer]

Maybe Super Mario Bros 3 sold 18 million BECAUSE Mario was pretty much the Mickey Mouse during that era?

Probably.

Dr. Sparkle can explain the success of Super Mario Bros. 3 in a calm, quiet and scholarly manner better than I ever could.[1] It's not a coincidence that this game sold that many copies.

Read up on the wisdom of crowds.[2][3] It details the science behind why people make better decisions together than they ever could by themselves. Over nine times out of ten, the vast majority of people are right. You can see the distribution of people in action at restaurants, supermarkets and where ever there's anything going on. People consistently flock to what's new, exciting and interesting.

1. Chrontendo Episode 36 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96S11P3uvqg&t=52m34s
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
3. NOVA scienceNOW | Wisdom of the Crowds | PBS
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FonWBEb0o

[Vash the Stampede]

Starting to think the users of this site use 4chan's standards of what a good game is.

[Frank]

What a bunch of cry babies.

Starting to think the users of this site use 4chan's standards of what a good game is.

Is there really any need for these petty insults? Some people didn't like it, get over it. You're more than welcome to tell us why you liked the game or rebut specific points people have made, but to come here just belittle those who didn't is childish.

[Gakdudes]

I have been gaming since the nes days, and beat most of the zeldas with the exception of the n64 ones. I was very excited for this game and bought it right away. After reading all the "10" reviews I was expecting something quite special. I made it until the part near the end where the big fish thing makes you go back to all the areas to collect some song or whatever it was. Then i quit and traded the game on Goozex. It was simply the laziest franchise game nintendo has ever made. It angered me so much i can't believe I made it as far as I did. I can't believe they worked on it for 5 years and it still reminds you every time you pick up a amber relic. There are flash games with better design and play-testing. It was an embarrassment to me; I have never disliked anything nintendo has made in the last 30 years as much as this, and I have only owned nintendo and pc consoles.

Edit: After playing Xenoblade it only re-enforces my thoughts. That is a well made game that has been designed by professionals and feels like massive effort was put into all aspects of it, it blows nintendo's "effort" out of the water. Now i realize why they were dragging their heels in releasing it stateside.