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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Wii
A Couple Problems Away from Being Great
4/5 stars
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had a few too many problems to keep this good game from being great.
The story is different but still the same. You need to defeat evil in order to save the world and Zelda. The boss you encounter through most of the game is mysterious and not that scary, and the rest of the story was ok, not great.
The world is a bit lacking. There's a forest, desert, and volcano you journey through and you have to go through it multiple times. To me it may be the smallest Zelda environment out of all the games which was disappointing.
Great Elements to the Game
1. WiiMotion Plus - While they may have used it a bit too much, overall it was great. I didn't have the problems a lot of people have written about, or at least I wasn't annoyed by it. Fighting enemies required actual thought and timing which for the most part was new for the series. Interactive sword fighting is definitely worth doing.
2. The Puzzles - with the new unique items came new and unique puzzles. You didn't really drag blocks around and hit switches, which was refreshing.
3. Goddess Cubes - looking around the planet for these things and solving the puzzles to get to them and then finding the corresponding treasure chest in the sky is a new way to get your treasure and I thought it worked well.
4. Silent Realm - There are a few times in the game where you have to sneak around the forest, desert, and volcano to get an item. It added a small amount of horror to a game which usually completely lacks it.
Problems with the Game
1. The world is too small (as noted above).
2. The game starts too slow. It took me several hours to finally get to the first dungeon. Going around trying to save your bird and get your sword and introducing the plot took way too long. They could have eliminated a lot of it.
3. Fi (Stop telling me I'm about to die!). Like a lot of the other Zelda games, you have a companion accompanying you to tell you useful tips to the game (Description of an enemy, clues, etc.) First, Fi is quite annoying. Her speech, which I can only describe as mumblings, drives you nuts by the end of the game. Second, every time you get low on health....and I mean EVERY time, she shouts at you telling you to replenish your hearts. That is so dumb I can't even tell you. Not only does Link blink red, and little beeps accompany it, now Fi screams at you until you recognize the fact you're low on health.
4. Slow text. Give me the opportunity to go through it faster. There isn't voice acting, let me speed through the text if I want!
5. Swimming. I'm done with swimming in Zelda games. It's slow, boring, and a waste of time. They didn't need to add it because they could show off their fancy controller, give me another LAND to traverse.
6. Flying. At first it's fun but by the end you just want to get to your destination. You have no idea how many times I cursed the tornado that appeared right in front of me making me go around to get to my destination. However, skydiving from your bird to ledges below is quite fun and didn't get old.
Finally, I feel Nintendo broke a few golden rules of Zelda and I want to share them.
1. Gathering all heart containers and beating all dungeons does NOT fill both rows of hearts. In order to do this, you have to wear a couple "life medals" to increase your health. What the heck?...I'm glad I didn't go roaming around for another 8 pieces of heart for no apparent reason.
2. You CAN'T carry all your items. Now you have a pouch you have to spend time upgrading and you can't even hold all your upgrades. You either have to choose between a bottle or a bomb bag, or maybe a life medal. We've never had to make these decisions before. Link apparently has the room to hold several dungeon items but can't hold onto another bottle or two? Come on....
3. You're told you will get a "Special Prize" in a couple mini-games and all it gives you is "rare" treasure. Guess what?, that's not that rare. If it's not a piece of heart or an upgrade to an item don't tell me that.
Overall, I thought this was a game with several great elements but a few too many problems keep it from being one of the great Zelda games. I had a lot of fun playing it for the 50+ hours, but when I think of playing a Zelda game again, it will probably be a different one.
4/5
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