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Nintendo Wii Games

Nintendo Releases The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 138

mayberry42 writes "Finally, the wait is over — for European fans, anyway. After months (well, over a year) of delays, the latest adventure of Link is finally out. Reviews for the game are consistently favorable. Famitsu magazine has given it a perfect score. IGN says it's 'the greatest Zelda game ever created,' and even the best game for the Wii. Of course, some of you may have already known this, given that it has already been hacked to run on an emulator (and yes, it looks even better in HD). I would love to hear the opinions of you Europeans who've played it. Is it as good as they say?" (Skyward Sword doesn't come out in the U.S. until Sunday, and not until next week for Japan and Australia.) While still complimentary, Giant Bomb's review goes into a bit more depth on the game's shortcomings.
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Nintendo Releases The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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  • Meh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18, 2011 @05:49PM (#38104276)

    >I would love to hear the opinions of you Europeans who've played it. Is it as good as they say?

    Nah. It is a silly game. Running around in a silly hat with a sword, packed with all sorts of unrealistic creatures and someone has apparently built all sorts of puzzles into the world. Who would do such a thing? Totally unrealistic and stupid. You'd probably want to give this one a miss.

  • First! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18, 2011 @05:50PM (#38104284)

    It's nice to get the first last for once, but I have to say that I don't understand why developers still release their games at different dates in different regions. Especially with the internet, reviews are going to be coming out as soon as the game is out anyway, which if the game is bad will reduce sales in the regions where the game comes out later (not that this is a concern in this case).

    • Re:First! (Score:5, Informative)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot&worf,net> on Friday November 18, 2011 @06:32PM (#38104580)

      It's nice to get the first last for once, but I have to say that I don't understand why developers still release their games at different dates in different regions. Especially with the internet, reviews are going to be coming out as soon as the game is out anyway, which if the game is bad will reduce sales in the regions where the game comes out later (not that this is a concern in this case).

      i18n, mostly. Translating the story, translating the script, hiring voice actors to say the lines, re-doing UI elements in case stuff doesn't fit (like it often doesn't), doing culture checks etc. (some gestures may be considered obscene, some graphics may be illegal, etc.).

      Doing 20+ languages simultaneously would drive anyone up the wall - a problem in one language then has to be fixed, and the fix tested on all the other languages to make sure they still work correctly, etc.

      At least, you do Japanese first (easy, Nintendo's native). Then you do English(/French) for North America (maybe Spanish as well). Then you pick either Europe and do the other languages, or Asia and its languages.

      Imagine the chaos caused if a worldwide release is held up because someone discovered a bug in some little used language.

      Also, doing this allows the disc pressers time to press discs so they're not having to make millions of copies in a month, but hundreds of thousands as the demand ripples through the world.

      • Re:First! (Score:5, Informative)

        by BinarySolo ( 1951210 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @07:10PM (#38104878)
        According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]: EU November 18, 2011 NA November 20, 2011 JP November 23, 2011 AU November 24, 2011 As you can see, Japan is in fact not first, and the proximity of the release dates doesn't seem to fit in with your theory that working on localizations is the reason for the staggered launches.
        • Oops, formatting fail:
          • EU November 18, 2011
          • NA November 20, 2011
          • JP November 23, 2011
          • AU November 24, 2011
          • Re:First! (Score:5, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18, 2011 @08:12PM (#38105232)

            Oops, formatting fail:

            • EU November 18, 2011
            • NA November 20, 2011
            • JP November 23, 2011
            • AU November 24, 2011
            • TPB November 11, 2011

            fixed

        • This seems to be nearly simultaneous, and gp was talking about the general case, which ggp was asking about. Your data suggests they completed all localization, probably during the year-long delay, and are more likely avoiding other big game launches in the region. For this specific case, which was not even the subject of gp or ggp post.

      • I think that's BS. Not all releases fit the idea that regions with many more languages get theirs last (like this one) and if you do do English, Spanish and French you cover a lot of the world there. Throw in German and that's even more. So why not do those at once? And it's not like they take into consideration local variations of the languages. Spanish people have complained about getting Mexican spanish in their games and the UK frequently gets US english in software so they're not even doing a great job
      • by timftbf ( 48204 )

        At least, you do Japanese first (easy, Nintendo's native). Then you do English(/French) for North America (maybe Spanish as well). Then you pick either Europe and do the other languages, or Asia and its languages.

        Where this really, really tends to suck is in the UK. We have to wait for the European release to be ready, due to localisation issues, but when we do finally get it, the game is still in American rather than English :(

    • Re:First! (Score:5, Informative)

      by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @08:14PM (#38105244) Homepage Journal
      It has to do with retailers really. For whatever reason, in most areas of the world new games(and movies, and music etc.) are only released on a certain day of the week. Not sure why they continue that tradition, but there it is.
      • It's for the regulars. I know comic shops always have a TON of sales on Wednesdays, as it's new release day every single week. Many people only go that day, and aren't seen in the shop otherwise. They just know that Wednesday is the day. And many people like routines and it's hard to forget this.
      • by porges ( 58715 )

        Indeed, but that doesn't explain why Nintendo puts out its big games on Sunday in North America, since Tuesday is "the day of the week" in general as far as I know.

        • Maybe they have some sort of deal with some of the big box retailers. By releasing on Sunday you pretty much guarantee that the only people who can get it on launch day are ones that bought it(or more likely pre-ordered it) from a physical store as most delivery companies don't do Sunday delivery.
      • by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

        It's due to shipping schedules. In Europe games arrive in stores on Thursdays (this also applies to re-stocking if something sells out). Hence release dates are put on Fridays so the stores have enough time to unpack the goods and put them on shelves. Some stores just put stuff on the shelves as it arrives, others wait for the official date. When games get released on unconventional dates (e.g. a Tuesday) that confuses retailers because it means their usual handling schedule doesn't apply. E.g. Space Marine

    • by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

      In the US Nintendo has a policy of releasing games on Sundays. I think it has to do with not wanting children to skip school for the games or something. That's not possible in Europe since at least Germany doesn't allow stores to open on Sundays outside of special occasions and I'm sure plenty of other countries also shut down stores on Sundays. Can't release a game when stores are closed.

  • Time to put this one to rest.

    • by drb226 ( 1938360 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @06:20PM (#38104480)
      Insert scathing comment against old-schooler here, cleverly including "off your lawn".
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Insert scathing comment about pot-addled teenager who only grew up with casual gaming and has a limited view about gaming in general, but feels he's an expert because he played Pokemon and WoW a lot.

  • It's a very good game, the best Zelda made. I would say between 9/10 and 10/10. The controls are very accurate and it feels amazing to control the sword in 1:1 movement with the Wiimote. This game shows the power of Motion Plus and It's too bad games of these caliber have not released before. Imagine a Star Wars game like this where you swing a light sabel...
  • motion plus (Score:5, Interesting)

    by slyrat ( 1143997 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @06:08PM (#38104394)
    I'm really interested in this game since it seems to be one of the first to use the motion plus support very effectively. Any comments on how it feels or plays in this regards would be good to hear. Everything I've looked at online seems to indicate a good quality title. Will be good to play the wii again.
    • Re:motion plus (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18, 2011 @09:23PM (#38105570)

      It works decent enough. It is sometimes a little off (for example, a spider enemy needs a thrust to kill, but the Wii Motion generally picks up a thrust as an overarm swing), though for the most part it gets better as you get used to avoiding certain gestures.

      One partciular annoying factor is having to recalibrate the controler every now and again. When your character starts swinging the sword in the opposite direction from you, you know its time.

      Also, you may have a lot of headaches if you use a third party controller with this game.

      • To me using a third party controller is asking for trouble. The feel is never right, and I worry about the analog components being poorly calibrated. The only good one I owned was the AsciiPad for SNES, but that was pure digital.

    • Thus far, the only decent Motion Plus game (as opposed to collection of mini games like Wii Sports Resort) is Red Steel 2 which is a lot of fun, but too short, w/ only Challenge Mode after beating the game).

      That said, IR pointing games are fun and I've enjoyed:

      Red Steel 2
      Marvel Ultimate Alliance (doing attacks by moving the Wii Remote is engaging)
      The Conduit
      Link's Crossbow Training
      Metroid Prime Trilogy

      Typical button-mashing games don't interest me --- I spend too much time at work sitting.

      Looking forward to

      • by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

        There's Zangeki no Reginleiv but not even NoE is bringing that one to the West. It doesn't use the M+ all that much (mostly relies on IR but the M+ keeps it more accurate when the cursor goes off-screen) but it's clearly a game that wouldn't work as well with any other input device. You pretty much draw lines on the screen that your attack goes along but those lines only draw when you're moving the controller quickly. Also it goes pretty silly with its weapon ranges (a sword can cut stuff at 20 meters range

  • Die by the Sword (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @06:23PM (#38104510)
    How does this game compare to Die by the Sword?
    • To answer myself now that I've played a few hours of Skyward Sword: Skyward Sword is much easier to control. I remember playing Die by the Sword with a Microsoft Sidewinder, and even that controller had my weapon flailing about in random directions. While the Wii motion plus isn't perfect, it does a good enough job that I get immersed fairly well, and I'm impressed with the training areas. Flight is annoying because the Motion Plus seems to forget that it's pointing up, so the bird starts lazily flappin
  • Skyward Sword doesn't come out in the U.S. until Sunday, and not until next week for Japan and Australia.)

    What is this madness? Perhaps I started gaming in the 90s, but I always thought that games were released in the country they were made first, then either America or Japan (whichever one didn't make it), then Europe a month or three later (and then Australia gets a new game whenever there's a chilly breeze in hell). Has Nintendo moved their HQ and developers to Europe without me noticing?

    • Hardcore Nintendo games tend to go to Japan first, then Europe, then not to America at all. It's a trend that I IGN wrote an article on not too long back. My how times have changed, eh?

      • Makes a bit of sense from a profit perspective though.

        New games in Australia cost about $110 AUD (112USD) whereas games in the US tend to be about $50... I know which I'd sell to for more profit per item.

        sure discs might be cheap as chips to manufacture, but storage/distribution etc still cost.

    • by inglorion_on_the_net ( 1965514 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @09:10PM (#38105510) Homepage

      Maybe they just wanted to get the money from the Europeans while it's still worth something. ;-)

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • True, but there's almost never more than a few days between the various regions' release these days, so I don't think Europe being 'first' really matters. It's only first by a couple of days, not like in the 90s when there could be months apart. Plus with things like Steam/XBLA/other digital distribution, it makes no sense to stagger releases by too much.

      It was like that in Australia in the 90s, but these days we get releases of games and movies on the same date as everywhere else usually. A day or two late

  • it would have to be REALLY good to beat Link to the Past. or even Ocarina of Time for that matter. I have my doubts. But will need to see this for myself
    • For my part, I contend it would have to be really good to beat Twilight Princess (which is the true best Zelda ever, not those imposter games). Of course, it does look like it'll be incredible, so that might well be the case.
    • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @09:49PM (#38105708) Journal
      You didn't think Twilight Princess was better than Link to the Past? Really? I mean, I liked Link to the Past, but was there anything in there as impressive as riding in a wild, free motion horseback chase, with ogres chasing you with flaming arrows, then pulling out your sword to whack them? That was one of the best things I've ever seen in video games.
      • You didn't think Twilight Princess was better than Link to the Past?

        Back in the Wii Menu 3.x days, Twilight Princess let you install the Homebrew Channel and start Snes9x GX to run the copy of A Link to the Past that you dumped with your Retrode adapter. (In 4.x, the go-to games are the Lego series and Super Smash Bros. Brawl if for some reason you can't use Bannerbomb 4.0, Bannerbomb 4.2, or LetterBomb 4.3.)

      • by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

        Sure you can ride around a huge field but in LttP the world was big without resorting to huge empty spaces. The tile graphics let them put interesting stuff on every screen.

  • ... yes. It IS as good as we say. Can't be bothered with emulators, it looks great on the Wii. Even better on my old CRT TV. :)
  • by rjejr ( 921275 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @06:55PM (#38104756)
    I played the demo at Target today and to misquote Dr. Zira "It's just so damned ugly". I love cell shading, and the cartoony graphics ,and the great color scheme, but it is in my eyes a pixelated mess. I know the Wii can't due HD, but I really thought Nintendo could pull some magic out of a hat on this one and have it look good. I have a hard time looking at most Wii games except the Nintendo ones, both the Galaxy game and SSBB look great. Monster Hunter Tri even looks better than this. I'm really looking forward to playing this come Sunday, but I'm not sure how happy I'll be looking at it (52" 1080p LCD tv).
    • With a few bucks and a decent PC and you can play in HD.
      I don't have a compatible Bluetooth chipset (at least, it's not on the compatibility list), and I don't want to rig up my own LEDs or candles or what not, but for about $25 (price of a wireless sensor bar and compatible bluetooth kajigger), I might give Dolphin a shot for Skyward Sword.

      • With a few bucks and a decent PC and you can play in HD.

        So I have a PC and a Wii, and I've letterbombed it to install Homebrew Channel. What software would I need to run on the Wii to copy a game disc to a PC to run it in Dolphin?

        • A few PC DVD drives are capable of reading the Wii discs, but odds are you don't have one that is.

          You need a USB loader channel and either an external hard drive, or a SD card with enough free space to hold the image. Dump the image and physically move it to your PC.

          Or you could just download it from someone else who's done the same.

          A tutorial that covers all you need (and much more):
          http://gwht.wikidot.com/ [wikidot.com]

    • I worked at target for a while and Target's setup for the Wii tends to look exceptionally fugly. (I'm not sure if that is the effect of component cables.) Though you would think that modern HDTVs would be able to cheaply include some kind of filter to emulate the look of old SDTVs. You can blame SD equipment, but shouldn't you be partially blaming the equipment made to display the SD signal?

    • by jaigg ( 2516278 )
      Remember when we were amazed by the original Mortal Combat graphics or the PC game Blackthorn of course there weren't a lot of giant TV's back then either.
  • "The Legend of Zelda: The Rise of Tim Tebow"
    Probably have to be an NFL fan to get it.

  • by virb67 ( 1771270 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @08:53PM (#38105442)
    Give it up. A new Zelda game will never recreate that experience of firing up The Legend of Zelda on your NES for the first time when you were 10 years-old.
    • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      Lttp did, and Ocarina did, and Twilight Princess almost did. Just from the demo, I can tell you this game is going to rule all sorts of awesome.

    • Wind Waker definitely brought that feeling back for me. Especially given the cartoony graphics. Despite its flaws, that game felt amazing.

      LttP or OoT probably would have, except I didn't play them until a long time after they came out (OoT on Gamecube and LttP on Wii Virtual Console).

    • Give it up. A new Zelda game will never recreate that experience of firing up The Legend of Zelda on your NES for the first time when you were 10 years-old.

      Perhaps not, but then again no new games can reproduce the nostalgic effects of a 25 year old game, however good they may be. Having said that, classics do have to start somewhere. Give it time and it just may become the next A Link To The Past...or Twilight Princess.

    • That's definitely true. But maybe that's not what the adults who are interested in this game are looking for. Perhaps, they're hoping a feeling similar to jumping on the horse and riding through the plains the first time in Ocarina of Time at age 17. Or, maybe they just like to play any game that's good, and this game is likely to be good.

      It's sad we live in a world where people feel the need to drag others down. In a world teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession, where most 1st world households are

  • Shameless plug... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by braindrainbahrain ( 874202 ) on Friday November 18, 2011 @10:59PM (#38106138)
    ...but if you liked this game, and want to see more good games on the Wii, then...

    http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/320/3/0/if_you_like_zelda_2_by_dungeonboss-d4gdo3k.png [deviantart.net]

    Operation Rainfall [blogspot.com]

    • by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

      Xenoblade is great but isn't the jury still out on Last Story and especially Pandora's Tower?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    In my pants.

  • by RogueyWon ( 735973 ) * on Saturday November 19, 2011 @04:43AM (#38107310) Journal

    I picked up a copy yesterday and started it last night. Verdict so far? It's ok - pretty good. Heading for a 7/10 or 8/10 kind of score.

    It's difficult stepping back to Wii level graphics these days. I didn't notice the difference so much early in the console cycle, but Wii games really do look very grim indeed next to anything else around. The artwork goes some way to compensating - it's very good in places. That said, it doesn't have the really strong visual style we've seen from other games over the last few years; Ratchet & Clank, Gears of War, Dark Souls, Mirror's Edge etc have all carved out really distinctive art styles - and have done so on better hardware. Even on the Wii, Xenoblade Chronicles has had more visual impact. There's just a bit too much "generic fantasy" around Skyward Sword (which is a criticism that can be levelled at a lot of the recent Final Fantasy spin-offs from Square-Enix).

    The controls are undoubtedly better than Twilight Princess. There are occasional issues with the motion sensing refusing to register an attack at all, but they're the exception rather than the norm now. That said, I know this is a point about the Wii in general, rather than this game in particular, but I remain unconvinced that motion controls really add as much immersion as they were supposed to. There's that same "lack of connection" feeling that has always undermined motion gaming, be it on the Wii, PS Move or Kinect.

    To be honest, if Zelda has one really, overwhelmingly huge problem, it's called "Dark Souls". I know that stylistically, the games are worlds apart (Zelda being a bright, colourful fantasy, while Dark Souls shares its palette with the original Quake) - but they are very similar in gameplay style - the same mix of exploration, combat, back-tracking and problem solving. And in every respect, Dark Souls is infinitely superior; not just to Skyward Sword, but to pretty much everything else in the genre. It's a pity that the reviews focussed so much on the difficulty (insanely hard though it is), because there is a supremely awesome game in there as well - and one that took me 79 hours to beat. The game's melee combat sets the new standard for this genre, with a real and distinctive sense of weight and mass to every weapon. After that, a bit of Wii-mote waggling, even with the Plus enhancements, just feels a bit limp.

    Sorry, the text above is more negative than intended. This is a fun game. It's not kept up with the competition, but if you haven't played the competition yet, that might not matter to you.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Amen to that...Dark Souls is my personal Game of The Year, put close to 65 hours into this game and it never got boring!

      Uncharted 3 und Skyrim were okay, but Dark Souls really delivered this year!

    • It has however leap-frogged the competition in the one area which matters to me, gameplay / controls.

      I've had my fill of sitting and mashing buttons.

      I'm hoping to enjoy Skyward Sword until someone creates an open-ended RPG w/ full character creation / customization (a wider variety of weapons would be a nice bonus) and a persistent on-line environment that has motion controls as good as or better than Skyward Sword.

      William

      • Erm... really, no. My whole point was that in terms of gameplay and control, Skyward Sword has fallen behind the competition.

        The biggest competition this year in this genre is Dark Souls. Not the only competition, but certainly the one that needs to be reflected upon. In terms of fish in the pond, Dark Souls is the huge, great genre-redefining megalodon.

        And believe me, Dark Souls is not about button-mashing. Button mash and die. In fact, die anyway, whether you button mash or not. But if you don't button ma

        • I find the Wii Motion Plus controls to have precise controls, and I _don't_ want control reduced to just pushing buttons and I _do_ like standing and swinging the Wii Remote, or manipulating it to pretend to use a bow (when I can't get to the range to shoot).

          The Dark Souls controls seem to not be universally praised, ``Dark Souls wants you to deal with its awkward controls.'' and reduce to just button-mashing, ``Lock on is handled with R3, you have two main attacks (light and heavy) mapped to R1 and R2 (or

          • Dark Souls controls are awkward in two areas - the button combos needed for kick attacks/forward leap attacks and the lock-on controls. The latter have, allegedly, been fixed in a patch that released today.

            And no, honestly, no, it is not button mashing. Seriously. Watch some basic gameplay videos. Each attack takes a long time - even with a fairly fast 1 handed weapon. If you launch even 1 attack more than you ought to against most of the game's enemies, they will punish you for it brutally (instant death i

            • I think we mean different things by ``button-mashing'' --- to me it's any activity which happens when one presses a button, to you, I believe that it's wildly pressing a button, and Dark Souls isn't button-mashing since it requires strategizing and planning of which button to press when. I want motion controls. I want to stand and pretend to use weapons (and practice using weapons which I do use --- Wii Sports Resort's archery has actually helped me improve my focus when using my recurve and horse bows) ---

  • It's a good game, but was over-hyped. A lot like most games in a series, I supposed. But, hey, my save file hasn't yet corrupted itself and there aren't weird glitches making people spin for no reason, so I'm happy. It's harder than previous Zelda games, which I am starting to appreciate, and I'm getting the hang of having to actually fight the monsters instead of just hitting a button over and over again. I agree, though, that it's not as pretty as I had hoped, and I say that compared to just other Wii

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