The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD: A Small Celebration for 35 Years of Zelda

Platform – Nintendo Switch

Developed By – Tantalus Media

Published By – Nintendo

Released – July 16, 2021

Genre – Action-Adventure

In July 2021, Nintendo celebrated its 35th anniversary of the
of The Legend of Zelda franchise by releasing an HD remaster of “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” for the Nintendo Switch. Skyward Sword was initially released for the Nintendo Wii in 2011, making 2021 its 10th anniversary. However, this title became one of the most divisive titles in the franchise’s history.

The Legend of Skyward Sword

In terms of the game’s plot, Skyward Sword takes place at the very beginning of the Zelda timeline. This story takes players through the origins of many aspects of The Legend of Zelda franchise, such as the Master Sword and how the franchise’s main antagonist, Ganon/Ganondorf, came to be.

The game starts with our protagonist, Link, living in Skyloft. While celebrating his victory of passing his final exam for knight training, his friend Zelda is taken away by a dark tornado and drops to the ground below Skyloft. Link is taken back to Skyloft and after he recovers, a strange entity named Fi leads him to the Goddess Sword. Once Link obtains the sword, Fi guides him to help find Zelda and rescue her.

Link visits three significant areas multiple times throughout the game: the Faron Woods, Eldin Volcano and Lanayru Desert. As Link attempts to save Zelda, he encounters a self-proclaimed Demon Lord named Ghirahim. Link also faces a beast named The Imprisoned, a sealed form of Demise. Link must strengthen the Goddess Sword to defeat Demise in his final form while also looking for the iconic Triforce, the artifact of power that is split between three people. Link is the user of Courage, Zelda is the user of Wisdom and Ganon is the user of Power.

A Motion-Based Adventure

To complete the story, Link must face many trials using his items, weapons, agility and intelligence. In the Wii version of Skyward Sword, players used a Wii Remote and Nunchuck to control Link. The nunchuck was primarily used for movement and navigation, but the main gimmick of Skyward Sword lies with the Wii Remote. Skyward Sword is heavily motion-based. For Link to use his sword, the player must swing it in a particular direction. Almost every aspect of Skyward Sword is motion-based, including playing the Goddess Harp, using most items and even drawing pictures for puzzles. On paper, this seems like a fun way to enjoy a new Zelda game as it gives the player a sense of immersion. Unfortunately, on the Wii version, the game was a little unresponsive with the motion controls. Many gamers felt the Wii Remote was not optimized for Skyward Sword, even though Nintendo created the Wii MotionPlus specifically for the game.

The Nintendo Switch remaster gave a new control scheme to accommodate users who may not want to use the motion controls, although the motion controls were also altered to be more accurate. The Joy-Cons have better motion tracking and make playing the game less of a hassle. 

However, many gamers’ preferred way to play is the button scheme. Instead of using a controller to swing the sword, players can use the right analog stick to swing the weapon. This can be considered better for players as they now have more control. The only major issue with this new control scheme is turning the camera, which requires players to hold the rear left trigger and use the right analog stick to turn. It is a hard habit to master, but it is easy to get past after a while.

Graphically, the game looks gorgeous on both the Wii and Nintendo Switch. The Switch version polishes the shine and makes the models a little darker while keeping the original cartoonish style. The Switch version also ups the framerate to 60 frames per second while upscaling the graphics and giving many quality of life updates such as autosave. 

Unfortunately, the game’s soundtrack felt forgettable. Only three songs stick out: the Skyloft theme, Groose’s theme and the game’s main theme. The soundtrack is decent, just not as memorable as many other Zelda titles.

Overall, the Nintendo Switch version takes what Skyward Sword did and improved on it significantly. Initially, the game was more challenging to complete due to its motion controls, but it’s much easier to play this game with the new control scheme. However, it is disappointing that this is the only remaster for Zelda’s 35th anniversary, as players hoped for ports of other major 3D Zelda titles.  Skyward Sword HD currently runs at $59.99, a demanding price for a remaster. Even with the new control scheme, it is recommended that you wait for the price to drop unless you are a fan of The Legend of Zelda series and already like Skyward Sword.