This is a bit unusual as I run a book review blog and not a video game review blog, but I'm a huge fan of Nintendo and I wanted to post a filler review real quick. I watch a guy named Chuggaaconroy do Let's Plays on Youtube, and he did his own review of SS. I decided to post a review with my own thoughts as a sort of response to his. Before I get to my review though, this is the link to his review, and this is a link to his Youtube channel if you want to check him out. He just finished an LP so you can check out his past work or wait for his new piece. Chugga's review is more detailed than mine I think, so if you are interested in fuller game reviews then by all means check his out. (Yes I'm promoting him big-time)Now to my review. I should note that I haven't finished the game quite yet so I'm not going to put any big spoilers in here. I will talk about some stuff that happens early in the game, but that's it.
I like the controls for Skyward Sword. I didn't play Twilight Princess on the Wii so I never had to deal with those controls, but my friend played it and he didn't like it. I think the Wii Motion Plus made it easier to work with the controls which was nice. Though I did find myself having to center the camera a LOT when using items like the Bow and the Beetle. I thought the run button was a nice touch. It was annoying having to watch your stamina, but if you've played a Zelda game before then you know how annoying it can be to walk/roll everywhere.
I liked the characters in this game. I thought the relationship between Zelda and Link was a nice touch. Except for when she tries to push you off buildings and things. I didn't know Zelda could be so harsh. It was good how the whole "save Zelda" mechanic is still in SS, but it's slightly different than most other Zelda games. My first thought when you see Zelda's dad..."THAT DAMN OWL!" I'm not going to say anymore than that. Hopefully that got a chuckle or two out of someone. Let's talk about Fi now. She's your little "sidekick" I guess you could say. I have found a character more annoying than Navi. I'm not a Navi hater, but she can be annoying at times. Fi is worse. A person will tell you where you need to go and she'll pop in with required dialogue, "There's a 90% probability you need to go to *insert area*" Umm yeah thanks Fi. She was nice though. Midna was verbally abusive to Link in Twilight Princess so Fi was a good change of pace.
Downfalls? The way to change day/night. That can be a pain when you have other stuff to do. I was content with the time automatically changing when you are in fields. Another thing I wasn't big on was playing the harp. I like that it incorporated motion-control, but sometimes I was annoyed with it. Maybe I'm just an idiot. I don't know. There were a couple times that I struggled with the timing so it took forever to play songs. I'm not sure how I feel about the Silent Realm areas either. That's one of those things that could be spoilery so I'll just leave it there.
Overall? Ocarina of Time is still my favorite, but SS comes really close. The story was fresh, but it still had some classic additions to it. I think the story is better than that of Twilight Princess by far, but if you prefer darker games then TP might be more up your alley. I think Miyamoto might have been dealing with some depression when he worked on TP because it's very dark. Whereas, SS is far lighter. If you haven't picked up a Zelda game yet and you want to check one out then I definitely recommend Skyward Sword.
This is another little area for promotion. Another reason why I wanted to post a review up now is because I wanted to talk a little about this weekend. The Speed Gamers are doing another marathon, and it's Zelda. I think I've put a post or two on here about them. I like these guys a lot and as I just reviewed the new Zelda game I thought it was appropriate to talk about their marathon. If you want to check out some Zelda gameplay then you can watch them play. It starts this Friday at 6, and it runs for 72 hours. At the end, Brit (founder) said if they reach their goal of $15,000 then they'll add Skyward Sword to their list of games to play. This is a great opportunity to look at Zelda as a franchise and see if it's something you would be interested in.
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