The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Part of Eurogamer Expo 2010

I’m an unashamed Zelda fanboy. When I saw this blacked out booth I immediately joined the queue, there was just no question that I was going to play this game. It’s like it’s written into my DNA. I was genetically incapable of walking away.

Turns out I would have been better off not knowing it was there at all. Allow me to explain.

The expo entrance queue took less than 15 minutes from this point.

The queue in this photo on the other hand took more than 30 minutes to get through.

Nintendo only had two machines and though I was glad for my ten minute demo, I was not for everyone else’s.

The demo was the same one we saw at Nintendo’s E3 keynote, in which Miyamoto-San experienced great Wiimote difficulty. From about 2:20

Heads fucking rolled.

That was obviously a low battery or more likely some kind of interference. The controls are fluid. At first it was strange to use the Wiimote in an involved way consistently, not just to waggle or to perform strikes. It was a gas to have precision movement of the sword at all times and to be able to instantly whip out a bow and take a perfect aim in a second.

It was also great not to have shitty Wiimote directions flashed intrusively in my screen. The day those are gone, we will all be richer for it.

I would have preferred 10 minutes in a more active setting. The area I got was fairly empty with basic enemies, but perhaps it was perfect for acclimatizing to the freshened controls. The director Eiji Aonuma has said he’d like to do something a little different with the format this time around so it doesn’t surprise me that there was nothing extra on show, they guard their titles quite jealously and this is a flagship name.

I’m guessing they will at least downsize the massive Wiimote plan on the right side of the screen, I hope there is the option to remove it entirely because it is ugly has hell and uses a lot of space. All in all, it felt so good to play.

I know, shocker, I enjoyed Zelda. Whoda thunk it?