Today at the Nintendo press conference during E3 2010, Nintendo showed us the future of the Zelda franchise. Shigeru Miyamoto stood on stage and poorly swung a Wii Remote, as the audienced watched Link move and attack on screen in synchronization with his movements. For me, this is the most exciting release in Nintendo’s announced line-up. Ever since Twilight Princess gave us a taste of swordplay with the Wii Remote, I’ve been looking forward excitedly to the day when the process is refined to the point that the actual motions of the player are reflected in Link’s actions.
At last year’s E3 we were introduced to the Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort—which included, among other things, accurate swordplay and archery events. At that point, I knew a Wii Motion Plus-enabled Zelda game could not be far behind.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is that game that I have been waiting for. The visual style and graphics are reminiscent of Twilight Princess, but the controls are, of course, heavily revamped. The sword and shield traces the player’s actual movements, and other items behave in unique ways beyond my expectations: A new whip item behaves differently depending on the real flicks and sweeps of the Wii Remote, and the bombs can be thrown or “bowled” by Link, depending on an underhand or overhand throw. Spin can even be put on the bombs to help get them where they need to go.
All-in-all I’m very excited about this annoncement, as Nintendo’s plans for the Zelda franchise has far exceeded the expectations I created for it in my head. I can only imagine what Nintendo might do in the further future, with yet better and more interesting technology.
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