Author: Rich Meister
I love Zelda games. Ever since A Link to the Past, I’ve been entirely on board. Whether it’s 2D, 3D, or some weird Tingle-centric spin-off, I was always itching to get back to Hyrule. That’s why the original release of The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword for the Wii always felt like such a strange disappointment.
All the pieces were there, and it even adds a bit of continuity to the story of Zelda and Link’s cycle of reincarnation, but the tact on motion controls made getting through the original a bit of a slog. It had its high points, but I beat the game once and then mostly forgot about it. While this HD remaster doesn’t help it stand as the best of the Zelda games, it certainly makes it more approachable and makes all the parts that worked well, to begin with, shine much brighter.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (Switch)
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: July 16, 2021
MSRP: $59.99
Let’s start simple; some of the best parts of Skyward Sword HD are the lack of problems that existed in the original. Nintendo had the good sense to tell Fi to shut the fuck up. Fi, the spirit inhabiting Link’s sword, is a big part of this game. She serves as the stand-in for Navi, the fairy that guided Link in Ocarina of Time and is typically regarded as pretty fucking annoying. The difference between Skyward Sword HD and the original is that Fi isn’t constantly interrupting you. She still has helpful messages if you find yourself stuck, but she mostly stays inside your blade apart from exposition dumps.
Another change that results in less annoying dialogue boxes is the absence of repeated item descriptions. If you’ve played any Zelda title, you know that the first time Link collects something, he holds it proudly towards the sky, and a text box pops up telling you all about what it is. That’s all well and good, but in Skyward Sword’s original release, these boxes would pop up every time you started a new play session. This time around, Nintendo realized the odds that I forgot what a Red Rupee was worth since last week were pretty low.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the main gimmicks of Skyward Sword in its original release was the use of motion controls. The game came bundled with the Wii Motion Plus, which made the console’s motion tracking more accurate. While the original Wii release had serviceable if slightly frustrating motion controls, the Switch release improves on this immensely.
You can still play with motion controls using two Joy-con controllers one acting as Link’s sword and the other his shield, but you can also play in handheld mode or with a standard controller by using the right thumbstick to track the movements of Link’s blade. I played the bulk of the game in this manner, and while it does feel like a struggle to make everything work, It’s the best experience you can have with Skyward Sword. The one significant trade-off is the loss of direct camera control. You have to hold down the left shoulder button to use the right stick to move the camera. It’s far from perfect, and switching it to a toggle option rather than a hold could go a long way in improving it, but I won’t hold my breath with Nintendo.
Overall, combat design leans pretty hard on the motion control gimmicks. Most fights rely on slow, precise movements to get around where enemies are blocking by striking from a certain direction. In boss encounters with characters like Ghiriahim, end up feeling like the most engaging bits of combat requiring you to watch not only the enemies’ body language but your own to strike before they can guard.
The dungeons are possibly some of the best the series has to offer. It was easy not to notice with how frustrating I found the motion controls back in the day. Still, items like the whip and beetle add a fun and unique layer to puzzle design, and dungeons like the sand ship stand out amongst some of my favorite Zelda dungeons ever.
The narrative takes a larger role than usual. Link vanquishes Gannon and saves Zelda’s story as this game was presented as the first in the series timeline. You follow the presumably first Link, a resident of an airborne city called Skyloft, as he travels to the surface searching for Zelda, his missing childhood friend. With the Goddess sword at your side, you learn all about the ancient goddess and a long slumbering evil; it’s fun set dressing, but for the most part, it is still a run-of-the-mill Link vanquishes evil story.
Though this game does introduce Groose, the pompadour sporting bully who might just be one of the best side characters in the Zelda franchise.
Unfortunately the “open-world” of Skyloft, the large sky ocean littered with sky islands where Link can explore on his trusty Loftwing still feels pretty empty and dull when compared to previous entries worlds like the vast ocean of Windwaker. The islands that exist are mostly just hunks of rock to collect chests from with a few exceptions.
From a technical standpoint Skyward Sword still looks and runs excellent. It never had the unforgettable look of Wind Waker, but the backgrounds are still bright and colorful, and the HD character models look pretty good even by today’s standards.
Verdict: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is not only the best way to play this particular entry in the series. It now feels like the only way it makes sense to. Skyward Sword was never my favorite Zelda, and it never will be, but this remaster makes the best parts of it shine all the brighter and cuts away most of what makes it so frustrating in the first place. Having played this version, the game will now live a bit more fondly in my memories.
Buy it
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]