The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Koopzilla]

And from GameSpot... a 7.5. Yeah.

Hoo-boy.

GameFAQs has already exploded... I swear, after the 8 for Mario 3D after 9s and 9.5s from other sites, the whole 8.8 fiasco with Twilight Princess years back, and all the perfect scores this game is otherwise getting, I think they're doing this on purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if they pull the same thing with MK7.

What the hell? It really sounds to me like they had something obscuring their sensor bar or something was wrong with it. I have never once had the IR not working for me and if it was really an issue with the game I'm sure somebody else probably would have said something about it. That or they are just saying that to lower the score?

[Gummbah]

As far as i know the game doesnt use ir pointer

that gamespot review is broken, this guy doesnt have a clue how to use the motion controls. Id love to see him waggling his way through the game and trying to aim his crosbow using the wiimote pointer whahahahaha. But seriously, its a disgrace for any gaming site

Completely failed

[bellboy]

I watched the Gamespot video review in hope to better understand the complaints.
My advice would be don't bother. Not unless you want the dungeon count (blatantly) spoiled and a big bunch of notices explaining that he can't show the following footage untill the embargo is lifted on the 20th. Why the hell he felt the need to have spoiler-footage is beyond me. Plenty of other websites seemed perfectly fine with the stuff they had/or are allowed to show.
Sorry but there's nothing there that really convinces that he's right in anyway. I can't wait till I have it in my hands. That way I can finally disregard these morons bringing me down.

[KingBroly]

I'll reiterate what I said in the Blog Topic:

Criticize the Review and the person who wrote it, not the Company.

[motherbra1n]

I'm not convinced by the gamespot review at all. Firstly having played the demo myself about a month ago I completely disagree with him about the controls and he was more than likely just trying to waggle his way through the whole game and got annoyed when that didn't work. Trust me guys, the game controls like a dream. There are some things though which I don't like about the controls or at least most likely won't like. I really don't see why we have to use the wii remote to control the bird and control link whilst swimming, I mean really what's wrong with using the analog stick there? I can completely understand using motion controls for sword play and items but using motion controls to control flying and swimming adds absolutely nothing to the game and would most likely feel completely tacked on.

I'm getting really sick of this whole "the zelda formula is growing old and tired" because from the way most reviews seem to describe the game, the formula seems to have changed a lot, it's like metroid merged with zelda (my 2 favourite franchises merged together, I'm in heaven ) and with the exception of twilight princess (which I still loved) zelda games are always changing the formula around and just feel so different from one another and from what I've seen and heard this one seems to have changed the formula the most and I'm still quite confused as to why no reviewer ever comments on the "run from A to B killing everything in your way, watch a cutscene, repeat" formula getting old that so many games these days use. Dunno about you guys but that crap got old within 10 minutes for me.

[zeeroid]

I'm getting really sick of this whole "the zelda formula is growing old and tired" ... and I'm still quite confused as to why no reviewer ever comments on the "run from A to B killing everything in your way, watch a cutscene, repeat" formula getting old that so many games these days use. Dunno about you guys but that crap got old within 10 minutes for me.

The thing about this double standard that irks me is how everyone seems to forget just how often Zelda-like games actually appear on shelves. It's not often. Sure, the formula has more or less existed since its inception in LttP (with individual instalments each taking some liberties to varying degrees). So, it's been around for a while, but to give the most egregious example, most FPS games have used the exact same rinse and repeat formula for more than a decade, with a half dozen titles each year.

In contrast, I can probably count the number of Zelda-esque games since Twilight Princess on one hand. Darksiders, 3D Dot Game Heroes, and Okamiden. What else is there? I'm probably missing a few, but the message is clear.

That's not to imply people don't criticize the copy-and-paste attitude of many other games, but to be completely fair, when your primary complaint levied against a Zelda title is its tendency to tread over established tropes, you would think these other games should be utterly lambasted for the same reason. This is simply not what happens.

I don't necessarily take issue with a 7.5 review score. But, I implore you reviewers: be consistent. That may be the single most important thing for any critic.

--
edit: ALSO, apparently Morgan Webb *does* write reviews too! Who'da thunk?

[Devil_Rising]

Yeah. The FSP/GTA/jRPG "formulas" never get old, right? But Zelda? Old as the hills. lol


@KingBroly

Like I said. Differences of opinion.

[KingBroly]

5 years ago: Zelda is too formulaic

Now: NOT ENOUGH CHANGE EVEN THOUGH THE GAME SHARES NO RESEMBLENCE TO PAST ZELDA GAMES!

[motherbra1n]

5 years ago: Zelda is too formulaic

Now: NOT ENOUGH CHANGE EVEN THOUGH THE GAME SHARES NO RESEMBLENCE TO PAST ZELDA GAMES!

This site needs a like button for comments

[KingBroly]

We decided against it because we figured my posts would be too popular.

[Blue_Falcon]

Some people seem to have a huge problem differentiating between the concepts of "good or bad taste", and "difference of opinions/tastes". But hey, that's their problem.

But people who once loved TP but now join the popular meme to look back on it as if it "wasn't that great", are just dumb.

Cough!

You also forget about the Triforce Hunt and the 2 cut dungeons in regards to Wind Waker.

Never said Wind Waker was perfect. It certainly has it's fair share of glaring flaws. With that in mind, it's undeniably the greater of the two.

[KingBroly]

I think Wind Waker is paced a lot better and has a much better opening. Majora's Mask still trumps it though.

[motherbra1n]

yeah I think either wind waker or majoras mask had the best opening. Twilight princess undoubtedly had the worst opening in the whole series.

[People_Things]

Waiting for it to arrive! So excited, been a while since we had a new Zelda on a home console!

[motherbra1n]

email from amazon telling me it's been sent

[zeeroid]

Dammit guys, mine won't ship till Monday! BLAAAARRRRRRRGH. I should have just done an in-store pre-order but noooo, I had to save those $7. Sigh.

[Blue_Falcon]

Majora's Mask still trumps it though.

Agreed. I'd say it's Majora's Mask followed by Link's Awakening, Wind Waker and eventually 4 Swords. Though Majora's Mask wins by leaps and bounds.

[Tingle]

These next two days will be the hardest in the wait for this game. It really irritates me knowing that other people will be playing it tomorrow (damn you Europe). I might have to completely avoid the internet because I know there is a s***-storm of spoilers coming.

[People_Things]

I received this last night (think I was the couriers last drop off) and what can I say? It's magical and adorable..exactly what Zelda should be! Wonderful beginning which is better then Twilight Princess (even though I liked that too)...and even though it's just starting off I'm already hooked! The characters are some of the best so far..just so creative and I'm loving the art style. Wow!

[Penguin_Factory]

I have it! I've played it! I love it!

You know that feeling You got when you first played all those classic Nintendo games? The exact titles might vary, but for me it was Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy. Maybe the first two Mario Karts as well.

Skyward Sword makes me feel like that. It feels like something novel and fresh, like a new beginning for the series.

I guess I'll break it down by section (spoiler free of course):

Spoiler:

- First, the controls. No, the Gamespot review was not accurate. I only had to re-center the controller a few times, all of them when I was looking around in first person mode (hint: at the beginning while calibrating the controller, make sure you actually point it at the center of the screen). The sword fighting works as advertised. All of the controls are incredibly responsive, even the nunchuck stuff. There's a great weightiness to the combat as well- large movements are required, making it seem as if you're swinging a heavy sword around, and enemies will stagger and flail in the direction you swing.

There are two exceptions to this: while I am happy to report that the shield bash is far easier to pull off than in Twilight Princess, raising the shield with the nunchuck is a little bit too sensitive. This isn't a big issue since it doesn't hinder you from attacking or anything, I just thought I'd point it out.

The other issue is that the controller seems to get a little confused when I lift it very far over my head. Not a problem normally because you don't need to do big lunges for overhead attacks, but it does mean that a certain attack (which may be a spoiler so I won't describe it) is difficult to pull off.

- On a related note, this game is hard. Not like Dark Souls hard, but much more challenging than any other Zelda I've played. Enemies are far more numerous and aggressive than before, and you need to seriously be on your toes. The first sword wielding foes I fought nearly killed me because they block so effectively. In fact I'm still not sure what the perfect strategy to beating them is. You really need to think about what you're doing in this game.

- The characters! Oh man, the characters. I absolutely love this game's version of Zelda, and all the newcomers so far have been great too. Skyloft is populated with the usual cadre of demented goofballs. They seem to have matched up the characters body language to the on-screen text with a near-perfect sense of timing.

- Okay, here's where I stop gushing and get a bit more serious. There's one element to this game that is probably going to be contentious, and that's the overworld. Or rather the fact that there isn't really one. Or at least, nothing on the scale of what we're used to seeing in a Zelda game.

Skyward Sword seems to be going more for the Metroidvania route, with a bit of a Mario 64/ Banjo Kazooie style hub area. And you know what? I'm fine with that. Having played through a few hours of Zelda without a big open world to explore, I've found I don't miss it. Now to be fair that might be because I know I can load up Skyrim any time and get all that out the wazoo, but some of it is definitely due to how fun Skyward Sword's basic gameplay is.

- I love the paint effect. Seriously, it's not very noticeable in Skyloft but wait until you get to the denser areas of the game. I'm a big fan of the sorts of depth of field effects we've been seeing on the HD consoles for years, but I honestly think this has it beat.

..... So yeah. The game is pretty good, is what I'm saying. It's probably not going to unseat Skyrim as my GOTY choice, but on the other hand I've temporarily put Skyrim on the backburner to play this. So I guess we'll see.

[OmicronTurtle]

I've literally played the game all day and I'm estimating I'm over half way through the main story (about 14 hours)
My thoughts which I'll put in spoiler tags. There are some spoilers.

Spoiler:

- Love the art-style and would really love for Nintendo to keep this art-style for Wii U over the Twilight Princess style.
- I find Fi highly annoying. She bugs you 100 times more than Navi ever did, I wish she could be turned off.
- Granny = Impa. First thing I thought when we met Granny.
- Girahim is interesting, I hope they flesh out his character more and not just have him as the usual generic "I wanna resurrect an evil monster" character
- Doesn't seem to be any of the races we're used to from the last few Zelda. Apart from the one or two Goron.
- As far as I can tell, the world hasn't been referred to as Hyrule yet so I'm guess it'll get named at some point.
- I like how concise the dungeons are. They don't feel drawn out.
- Are there two "Hyrules"? One with Kakariko, Death Mountain, Lake Hylia, Lost Woods, Zora's Domain and another with Faron Woods and Province, Eldin Volcano and Province and Lanayru Desert and Province?

Controls are fine, I never need to recalibrate mid-game. Just do the calibration at the start and thats its, or if I've stepped away to pee and the Wiimote has shut-off it forces a re-calibration but I've never needed to pause the game and re-calibrate.

PS. A Link the Past is still my favorite and best Zelda

[OmicronTurtle]

I'll reiterate what I said in the Blog Topic:

Criticize the Review and the person who wrote it, not the Company.

Coming from a guy who posts things like IGNoRANT

Criticize the article/review and the person who wrote it, not the Company.

[zeeroid]

So I got to demo the game for about 10 minutes and was surprised by just how different the feel of it is from other Zeldas. In terms of control and gameplay, it really seemed like an entirely different game from what I'm used to. It took me a while to get the hang of the sword slashes and by the time I thought I had a handle on it, my time was basically up. Oh well! Can't wait till Sunday... or Monday rather, since that's when the game is likely to arrive in my mailbox.

[The Jack Of Hearts]

Hopefully I'll be able to buy Skyward Sword on Tuesday at the earliest, if not I won't be able to play it for a while due to lack of funds.

[KingBroly]

I'll reiterate what I said in the Blog Topic:

Criticize the Review and the person who wrote it, not the Company.

Coming from a guy who posts things like IGNoRANT

Criticize the article/review and the person who wrote it, not the Company.

Obviously you have no idea how depth and complex my spelling of that word is. And obviously, it was a joke that had to be done in the first post.