In the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of Zelda games get the remake or remaster treatment. There were Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, which got remakes for the 3DS in 2011 and 2015 respectively. There were remasters of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, which came to Wii U in 2013 and 2016.

And there was of the course the Link’s Awakening remake, which made its way onto the Nintendo Switch two years ago in 2019.

So as you may have guessed, now it’s Skyward Sword’s turn, with Nintendo announcing a remaster for the title for Switch in tonight’s Direct! Check out the reveal trailer for the title below:

As you can see, the most interesting change seems to be how the controls work.

That’s because in this version of the game, there are two possible control schemes you can switch between. There’s a motion controlled one, which uses the Joy-Cons to mimic the Wii remote and nunchuck from the Wii game.

And there’s a traditional one, which uses buttons and the right analogue stick for said things instead.

It’s an interesting setup, and it’s one we’ll definitely need to test ourselves at some point in the future.

That’s because both control schemes seem like they could be equally amazing or terrible depending on how they’re implemented. On the one hand, the Joy-Cons can indeed mimic the Wii remote, since games like Super Mario 3D All-Stars use it for just that…

Yet at the same time it also feels rather clunky in said game too. So the jury is certainly out as to how well a pair of Joy-Cons can replicate the feel of a Wii MotionPlus addon here.

Similarly while the button controls are a huge positive on the accessibility front, we’re also unsure how well those might work here either. Cause again, the original game was built for motion controls first and foremost, and a fair bit of the design was likely done with that in mind.

So we’re curious if they’ll translate well to the second stick here, or feel too slow and clunky in the heat of battle.

We’re also rather curious whether certain motion controlled aspects of the game will still try to mimic said controls in the traditional button focused control scheme too.

Since many of these parts (like swimming underwater and flying the Loftwing) felt like they used them out of an obligation to show off the tech rather than because they actually worked well for that part of the game.

Hence it might be better for the game if the traditional controls just mapped those parts to the first analogue stick (like standard movement is) instead of trying to replicate the motion control aspects with the second.

Controls aside, we’re also interested to know what else the game adds in this port too.

Because let’s face it, a straight up port of Skyward Sword with an alternate control scheme and a few updated visuals… is not the most exciting thing in the world in 2021.

It’s neat and all, but it’s probably not something fans of the original would have much needed to splash out money on.

Cause of this, the last few Zelda games to get remastered all added a few new features to justify the price. Wind Waker HD added Miiverse support with the Tingle Bottle, expanded Pictobox features and the handy Swift Sail item. Twilight Princess HD added the Cave of Shadows, plus amiibo support and extras like Hero Mode.

And the two Zelda ports for the 3DS all added a few extra features too, like boss rushes, fishing mini games, etc.

So what’s Skyward Sword HD going to do? Do Nintendo have any other neat extras in the pipeline here? What other tweaks and changes could Skyward Sword have to make it better?

We’re very interested to find out, and we’re hopeful Nintendo will surprise us on that sometime before it’s launch on July 16th.

Either way, that’s Skyward Sword HD for you, a remastered version of the chronologically first Zelda game that’s soon coming to the Nintendo Switch. So what do you think about it?

Are you excited to return to Skyloft once again? What extras could the game get to make it a better experience?

Leave your thoughts on the matter in the comments below, on the Gaming Latest forums, or on our Discord server today!

Source:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch (YouTube)