The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[zeeroid]

Scores are all positive, but it's evidently a very divisive game. To be honest, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. It's the end of 2011 and we're looking at a 480p game, and one which uses motion control to its fullest extent. It's only natural a lot of people will take issue. I think it'll be tough for people to delve into these reviews and figure out which criticisms relate to them and which don't. Either way, it's definitely a game worth buying so hopefully we'll all be able to reach our own conclusions soon.

9 more days!

[KingBroly]

Oh no they're not.

Go and read the EGM review and prepare your face for an almighty facepalm that is worthy of a retard hat.

[Hamr]

read the EGM review

The most blatant annoyance storywise definitely has to be Zelda’s disempowerment

[Koopzilla]

Oh no they're not.

Go and read the EGM review and prepare your face for an almighty facepalm that is worthy of a retard hat.

I just read it. It starts off talking about how good it is until it tries to compare Zelda with Samus in Other M. Then it goes on to say the motion controls are terrible and remind them of the last 5 years of waggling the controller. Which is completely contradictory to absolutely everything I've heard about the game so far. And especially strange considering he states that the Twilight Princess controls were great. Basically, the controls are so terrible they take off 1.5 points for that. Oh well, that's not really a trusted source for reviews to me anyway.
Sounds like the author was just trying to wiggle the controller and when it didn't do anything he got mad...

[KingBroly]

Nintendo's Sexist Ways Continue to Amaze!

[Koopzilla]

Nintendo's Sexist Ways Continue to Amaze!

What's wrong with being sexy?

[KingBroly]

Nintendo's Sexist Ways Continue to Amaze!

What's wrong with being sexy?

Exploitation, mainly. People trying to stand up for the demographic I suppose. I don't know the context of it, but I imagine it's 'Bad guy took Zelda's magic. EVIL SEXIST NINTENDO!' But that's something that's been done in a lot of Zelda games before. I'm sure there's some thought behind it.

I'm also going to guess that people are really going to complain more about now because of Other M, because that's seemingly a theme in video games journalism now for some odd reason. Samus died for their sins yet they don't realize it.

Spoiler:

I still say I can manage that story and give a big fat middle finger to anyone who complained and said the story had no point.

[Tingle]

"Twilight Princess’ motion controls worked because the game was more forgiving of your movements; simple flicks of your wrist would provide the desired results. Now, due to the enemy design revolving around the motion-control gimmick and being forced to use the MotionPlus—which follows you too well—you’re often pulled out of the immersion, because you’re constantly reminded that you are holding a controller whenever the controller doesn’t do what you want."

Just one example of the vast stupidity of this article. It becomes so obvious that his problems with the game's controls are not because the game is flawed, but because he just sucks at playing it. The majority of the article was devoted to ripping the game on a contrived basis.

[Koopzilla]

Nintendo's Sexist Ways Continue to Amaze!

What's wrong with being sexy?

Exploitation, mainly. People trying to stand up for the demographic I suppose. I don't know the context of it, but I imagine it's 'Bad guy took Zelda's magic. EVIL SEXIST NINTENDO!' But that's something that's been done in a lot of Zelda games before. I'm sure there's some thought behind it.

I'm also going to guess that people are really going to complain more about now because of Other M, because that's seemingly a theme in video games journalism now for some odd reason. Samus died for their sins yet they don't realize it.

Spoiler:

I still say I can manage that story and give a big fat middle finger to anyone who complained and said the story had no point.

I was just joking, it's from Spinal Tap.
But anyway I'm sure he threw that Other M reference in there specifically to send people into a rage. Maybe look past the ridiculousness of the following statements about controls.

Spoiler:

Hey, I liked Other M. His rage card doesn't effect me whatsoever.

[Hamr]

ign out with a ten: half a point higher than that game they wrote an entire article detailing the things that zelda could learn from it

[KingBroly]

Different Reviewers.

[Hamr]

Different Reviewers.

Rich wrote the article, though --if he had also reviewed Elder Scrolls, would he therefore have scored it higher than he scored SS?

[KingBroly]

I'm pretty sure you can't score higher than a 10 on IGN's scale. They gave Arkham City a 10, a game that is nowhere near deserving a 10 due to bugs and many lackluster moments (I'd give it an 8.5). They gave Uncharted 3 10, a game that fails completely at the core fundamentals of what a game is (I'd give it a 6). So without playing Skyrim, I couldn't really tell you what they would do. I do know that they have given out 10's like candy lately.

[bellboy]

They gave Arkham City a 10, a game that is nowhere near deserving a 10 due to bugs and many lackluster moments

Hear hear. Asylum was much better. About halfway through City it got pretty boring. Seeing 400 plus Riddler Challenges at the beginning was heaven but about 100 in I got very depressed. With Asylum being more closed off I think helped the overall game- the more openworld orientated aspect actually did the reverse of what SSword is trying to combat. (Less excess padding)

[zeeroid]

ign out with a ten: half a point higher than that game they wrote an entire article detailing the things that zelda could learn from it

So I guess it's a lesson learned? According to some of Rich's (the guy who wrote that comparison article, as well as the review) tweets, he feels like Nintendo *did* take a few cues from more complex Elder Scrolls-like RPGs and implemented them pretty well.

You know, I never really understood why everyone continues to get all fussed over the notion of Zelda possibly being able to learn a few things from other games. In my opinion, most games could stand to learn a thing or two from other ones, because no single title does everything it tries to better than every other title. Well, except perhaps Mario Galaxy 2. For what it tries to do, that game is practically flawless.

[geozeldadude]

AARGH! all these great review scores are really making me go nutty waiting for this game! i'm barely able to wait until sunday for mario 3d as it is.

[Hylianhero777]

Ah, Damn. I don't really care about review scores unless they are overwhelmingly positive or negative, but my friend keeps on annoying me about how much better skyrim is going to be, so he made a bet with me over which game gets the higher gamerankings average. C'mon, Skyward Sword!

Either way, I still know I will enjoy SS more, and he still will enjoy Skyrim more, so it doesn't matter which one of us wins.

[KingBroly]

Just tell him to enjoy his blurry textures, pop-in and game breaking bugs.

[motherbra1n]

Just tell him to enjoy his blurry textures, pop-in and game breaking bugs.

LOL glad to see someone here sees elder scrolls for its true colours.

I'm no nintendo fanboy, there are loads of PS3 titles that I love and loads of nintendo (first party) titles that I really don't like but in my eyes, nothing can justify a game being released with so many glitches. Oblivion is a bloody joke in terms of glitches, the framerate is also dreadful. Fallout 3 was good but the glitches almost completely ruined it and I've seen more than enough of New Vegas to make a judgement on it. I haven't played skyrim but don't attack me for assuming it's infested with glitches after looking at Bethesda's track record.

[Koopzilla]

I can't really say since I have never played a game made by Bethesda. But I always hear that they make the best games, but then later on I always hear that they are chock full of glitches. I enjoy watching game glitches on youtube and have seen many in Bethesda developed games. Some of the most hilarious ones I have seen for any game are from Fallout. With the exception of Rocky for PS2 no matter how many times I see that I laugh my ass off (if you haven't seen the AVGN episode on glitches I highly recommend it). As hilarious as they may be to watch I don't enjoy actually playing games full of glitches.

[zeeroid]

Oddly I have copies of Morrowind and Oblivion but have played neither. I think built a character in Morrowind, years ago, but that was the extent of my time with it. I have to say though, from what I've seen and read Skyrim looks pretty damn good. I guess that's why you should wait to play TES games; let them get a few patches in first before diving in.

--

edit: Switching gears, I was just listening to the recent episode of the GameTrailers podcast "Invisible Walls" and they were generally taking a piss all over Skyward Sword. The GT review isn't out yet, but it's starting to look more and more like it'll be really low. Like, we might be talking 5/10 here, possibly. I couldn't care less about what they score the game, but the podcast itself is rather sobering. If anyone feels like having their expectations tempered for whatever reason, here's the 16 minute clip during which they were discussing Zelda. To be honest, I think a lot of their points stand right up there with the best horse manure, but it might be worth a listen anyway, just to get a different take. If you want to, that is.

http://www.mediafire.com/?e4jc4w3npzz4m7x

[KingBroly]

Gametrailers once again submitted to Nintendo's whim by giving it a 9.1. Idiots. Don't look at the review though, too many spoilers.

[zeeroid]

I didn't watch the review myself for the sake of spoiler avoidance, but based on a summary provided by a friend who did, it didn't sound like a particularly honest one. Spent the large majority of its duration pointing out the game's alleged flaws, while making one or two positive statements. Supposedly the only justification was "gameplay is king"? Except, from the sound of it, they didn't in fact believe the gameplay was too regal at all.

I probably wouldn't agree with most of their complaints regardless, but they should've at least had the balls to give a genuinely reflective score. 9.1? Really?

[Devil_Rising]

Gametrailers once again submitted to Nintendo's whim by giving it a 9.1. Idiots. Don't look at the review though, too many spoilers.

How is that submitting to Nintendo's whim? Should it get an even lower score?

I honestly thought, based on the fact that it surpassed OoT in every possible respect, that TP should have been rated higher than it was. Then again though, ratings hardly mean anything of real worth.

It's funny though. I clearly remember, for example, G4 giving Twilight Princess a perfect score. Called it the "best Zelda ever made". Fast forward a couple years, and they retroactively act like they gave it a 7.0 or something. I (again) clearly remember them talking about SS after it was first announced, saying "hopefully this next Zelda makes up for Twilight Princess". MAKES UP FOR. As in makes up for a game that they gave a perfect score to, and called "the best Zelda ever made".

So much for meaning or consistency, eh?

[KingBroly]

The pointer controls for Bow and Arrows in TP = AMAZING. You can never convince me otherwise. Sword slashing...it was alright, but limiting the Spin Attack compared to the Cube version was a BS move. Also, Sword Bash was just broken.