Nintendo has been cranking out Legend of Zelda remake after remake for almost five years, and I’m honestly not complaining. I never had the chance to play the N64 titles so having them being on the 3DS is a nice boon to me. My favorite Zelda of all time is Wind Waker and I have no problem replaying that masterpiece, and just recently Twilight Princess was re-released, a title that I enjoyed in the final days of the GameCube. I’m thrilled to have all these titles in my library and I am currently playing several of them as I type this article. There is one Legend of Zelda that I never really got to sink my teeth into though, and that was the Wii’s Skyward Sword.
Now I did not miss this title; in fact I purchased it on day one and attempted to enjoy one of the earliest Zelda tales that Nintendo wanted to tell. Sadly, horrible timing never allowed me to finish past the first dungeon. I was getting the hang of the motion controls, beat the race on my first try and was happily moving along when carpel tunnel hit. No longer could I control Link in a proper fashion without causing severe pain in both of my wrists. It took about 6 months for my wrists to recover and at that time I was playing Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which I took out so that I could put Skyward Sword back in. When I hit the eject button on my Wii I heard a sickening sound and Kirby kind of plopped out of it, I was scared; never in my life has a gaming console failed on me completely. I attempted to insert Skyward Sword over and over, but the disc drive would not accept the disc. Thus this ended my adventure in Hyrule. This is why I would love to see Nintendo remake this for the Wii U, since Zelda U is most likely going to the NX.
I like to tout my support of this remake to my Nintendo-centric friends all the time and they are always such naysayers on this title. They complain that it takes a good five hours to get to the meat of the game, and that it is so slow, it won’t sell. Next they talk about the motion controls and how Nintendo won’t be able to move them over to the Wii U. And finally they say that that the matte painting feel won’t transfer over well to HD. I don’t believe any of these excuses, and I think that if Twilight Princess HD does better than Wind Waker HD, Nintendo will have a good reason to revisit the Wii’s last Zelda title. For the life of me, I thought that Ocarina of Time would be terrible in 3D, yet here I am going through that title on my 3DS over my GameCube release of the game, funny how things work sometimes.
The argument that the graphics won’t look great up-scaled to HD is a myth in my opinion. Nintendo is smart enough to take great pains to make their HD titles look amazing on the Wii U. I mean they wouldn’t want to upset a base that is chomping at the bit for a new Zelda game with a crappy HD port. To all my friends that believe the graphics issue is a huge one I always mention the game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. If that game isn’t one HD painting I don’t know what is; I remember playing that a few years back and loving every minute of it. If Nintendo can get to 50 percent of how amazing El Shaddai looked then we are all in business.
Now I am definitely not a game developer nor do I know how the internal mechanics of certain control schemes work in games, so I could be completely wrong in my assumption here. What I am is filled with common sense and a dash of creativity, so this would be my plan to fix the control scheme and put it onto the Wii U GamePad. I remember flapping my arms like an idiot to win the Loftwing race, and winning handily my first time if I do say so myself. Instead of rampant arm flapping I would use the gyro controls in the GamePad and to keep Link in the air, I would have the gamer tilt the pad left and right and use most of the controls that Platinum Games developed for Star Fox U. I don’t see them rejecting an offer to tightening up the controls on an epic Zelda game.
The other part of the motion controls my friends are adamant cannot be ported over to the Wii U are the swordplay mechanics. I say bully to them; it can totally be done. The Wii U has a very precise touch screen on it. When you have to fight certain enemies that are susceptible to only certain attacks, that screen takes over and you must swipe your finger in the direction that it needs to go. It’s pretty simple; people were okay with moving and fighting link with the stylus in the first two DS Zeldas, so I’m thinking they can stomach swiping diagonally left and right on the GamePad. I think that these minor changes in the control scheme will actually give the game a more lasting appeal, and you won’t look like a moron playing it.
With those few words and ideas I think I’ve successfully plotted a path to Skyward Sword on the Wii U. I’m sure the brains at Nintendo would be able to work out the kinks that my plans may have, and I hope they get their hands on this article. I would love to be playing a copy of this game with a pack in Link on Loftwing Amiibo, it would be amazing. The game would also help bridge the time gap to Zelda U, which Eiji Aonuma recently stated was “progressing well.” I’m sure two years ago the game was progressing just as well, yet I still don’t have my copy, so let’s get some Skyloft on our Wii U GamePads while we continue to wait.
This article reads like a blog post…a really bad blog post. You’re talking about a game you barely spent any time with (through no fault of your own), to the point where any opinions you might have of the story or gameplay are shallow and uninformed; most of your arguments are based purely on personal experience, which only hurts them more because your lens is apparently limited to either your own or your friends’.
The game is only five years old. Nostalgia hasn’t even begun to sink in yet. An HD remake for a system that’s on its last legs makes no sense, especially when Skyward Sword is already Wii U compatible. We wouldn’t even see this game until 2017, and by then, we’re supposedly going to have the NX. If you want to make a real case for this, you need more compelling arguments than “my friends say it can’t be done, but it totally can, because I want it.” You didn’t even provide a screenshot to support your El Shaddai argument; kind of important when talking about a game’s visuals.
Game graphics and mechanics have moved worlds in 5 years. We just did a piece on Dragon’s Dogmas from 2012 and that game needs major work that wasn’t really addressed in Dark Arisen. And other people are mentioning below how bad the game looks on HDTV’s. So clearly there is room for a remaster. And when does a game have to be ancient to warrant a remaster?
Not sure what your point is… Metro Last Light was barely 2 years old and had a remaster/redux version released same with many games out their.
The reason for remastering may not be an idea I care about, even if a remaster didn’t make it on shelves around the world until 2018 then as long as we knew that a Zelda game was coming out and in HD (30-60fps @1080p) that’s fine by me.
Also with NX, you do realise that your statement is purely based on rumors… deciding whether or not a system should have a remaster based on a rumor for a new Nintendo Console… jumping the gun a little aren’t you.
Why would your opinion be invalid, if you feel a connection to something and barely played it or even if you played a little and didn’t go back you still retain a little bit of gameplay information. So what if their not a complete pro at the game?
His arguments are rooted in his personal experiences with the game. By the first dungeon, you’ve only scratched the surface of the game’s inner workings and, more importantly, its glaring flaws. Like I said, his opinions are uninformed, so any arguments based on said opinions would be shaky; you can’t form an objective view of something you haven’t experienced in its entirety.
Regarding the NX, even if it doesn’t come out in 2016, the Wii U is essentially dead, and the time and resources required to not only give the game a fresh coat of paint, but also fundamentally alter the game’s control scheme (though I don’t see why people are so quick to throw out the motion controls) would be better invested in Zelda U, especially when you can already play Skyward Sword on the Wii U. Twilight Princess HD, Hyrule Warriors and, to a lesser extent, Wind Waker HD were made to tide Zelda fans over. Zelda U will most likely be for the Wii U what Skyward Sword was for the Wii, so another remaster would only distract from the console’s last hurrah.
I’m not against the idea of a Skyward Sword remake, but I’m not buying this guy’s case for it either. If they announced SSHD at E3, I’d pre-order it in a heartbeat, but it would be a terrible idea on Nintendo’s part/
I can review a game within the first 2hrs of playing… but I don’t. The simple fact of “not knowing” or “understanding” the game past the intro is BS. There’s a tutorial for a reason which cover base mechanics.
Reapplying textures and changing the control scheme to support an actual controller and the touch pad… or whatever the NX has is fine. Either way, anyone can have an opinion on an idea for a remaster. You don’t have to like it… it’s still an opinion. If you think it’s uninformed then good for you.
“Another remaster would only distract from the console’s last hurrah”, HA tell this to every dev from Bioware to Naughty Dog… that is just an excuse… and a poor one at that. Remasters sell like hotcakes and the requirements that they need to be ported is not much at all. It costs less than a full remake… which is why we are seeing more remasters than a straight up remake.
If you want to argue about someones opinion, that’s fine. Honestly it’s a pointless argument if your agenda is to undermine the author of this article… it’s still an opinion.
Yeah this definitely needs a remaster. There’s evidence of what they were going for and it’s great. The art style is very nice. It’s a shame this didn’t come out on a more powerful system, like the Wii U, because it could have looked so great.
I’m sure Nintendo will remaster this in the coming years and I look forward to it.
Improved graphics, textures, resolution, framerate, and optional motion controls would make this an instant classic.
On a HDMI cable in Wii Mode it looks AWFUL almost unplayable on my 48″ Samsung Tv. Pixel mess etc. A remake is a MUSt but i found it the worst 3D zelda too much recycling
I feel the same way. Skyward Sword never captured me. If it was released again in HD for the NX, I’d probably give it another go.
Being the nearest in time distance from actual launch title, this remake would need a lot more than simply 1080p resolution and slightly sharper textures.
I’d buy it for sure if it had:
– 1080p resolution
– 60 fps improved framerate
– improved textures
– improved lighting/shadows
– improved models
– improved loading
– optional NON-motion controls gameplay setting
I would love that, especially the non motion controls part.
If the console actually supports 1080p @ 60fps natively then there’s no issue 🙂