The Lanayru Sand Sea and Sandship not only feature a pair of stupendously cool gimmicks, but also have an arc that alludes to the enticing history of the region and closes with a harrowing boss. You get the Silent Realms stealth sequences that lose their novelty after the first run. It had become too mired in its own traditions of creating bigger dungeons, delivering more elaborate setpiece moments, and getting too caught up in its storytelling to leave players to their own devices.
These are concepts meant for a game with more freedom. Skyward Sword wanted to keep Zelda fresh and exciting, but it did this by making the things you already did as part of its formula feel good instead of finding new ways to do them. The focus on action, on pulling off simple-but-cool things, only works on a platform built around how fun its controller is to use, and it only works once. After this game, Nintendo had to do something different. Revisiting it in , with its more rigid traditions now broken, it can breathe a little easier.
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It completely changed my view on the experience, allowing you to enjoy the good stuff while keeping these constant annoyances completely in the background.
The next question concerns how the original motion controls have mapped to the Switch. If you use the joy-con in a two handed configuration, the original Wii control scheme is mostly replicated, only you get access to a right stick camera.
There have been tweaks made to the button layout as well and I feel it works better overall, though the gyro mechanisms which lack augmentation from the Wii sensor bar now feel less precise, necessitating more use of the re-centre function. Gamepad controls are also available - and they're essential for Switch Lite users. The idea here is that many functions previously relying on motion control are now mapped to analogue sticks.
For instance, flying around on your bird is analogue stick driven now. Many gestures are now completely free of the need to move your controller around - the shield, for instance, is tied to clicking the left stick in. It almost works but there's an issue and it ties directly to the sword.
At any point, the right stick basically serves as your sword - move the stick and the sword swings. This by itself works, though it's slightly fiddly to use, but it makes camera control difficult. You see, to use the camera you have to hold the L button and, at least in my case, this means holding the L button all the time except during combat. I feel you're more likely to want to use the camera versus the sword so reversing this would have helped a lot - but no such option is available.
Fundamentally, that's my biggest issue with this remaster. I don't find the gamepad controls comfortable to use as a result and I can't recommend them. It's probably the only major thing I don't like in this new conversion - and it makes mobile play problematic for Lite users, while owners of the standard Switch may prefer to play in table top mode, in order to use the superior motion control option. Thankfully, the motion controls work better than expected and have grown on me and, ultimately, I've really enjoyed my time with the game now.
The quality of life improvements, updated visuals and smoother frame-rate all help smooth over complaints I had with the initial release. I can still see where some folks might struggle - the tear drop challenges, for instance - but all in all, I'm hooked. I should also mention the sound. Despite its roots on Wii, Skyward HD includes full surround sound audio support with actual rear channel usage Beyond that, the music still holds up extremely well.
The music adds a lot to the mood in a way that I feel is a step above both Twilight Princess and Wind Waker before it. In summary, this remaster works - not just in dramatically improving the quality of the graphics, but in streamlining the game, stripping out the vast majority of the annoyances and basically allowing the design of the actual game to shine through.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is a game with excellent dungeon designs and features a beautiful world and fun mechanics that somehow feels fresher 10 years after its initial release than it did at the time.
It is not without its flaws but I can solidly recommend it. Digital Foundry specialises in technical analysis of gaming hardware and software, using state-of-the-art capture systems and bespoke software to show you how well games and hardware run, visualising precisely what they're capable of. In order to show you what 4K gaming actually looks like we needed to build our own platform to supply high quality 4K video for offline viewing.
Video opens in a dialogue window. News and updates. Something went wrong. Please try again later. But a remaster also has to rely on what was there before. The greatest argument against a remake, aside from development resources, is that we might lose some of what makes incredible dungeons like Sandship and Sky Keep iconic. A good remake can open an older game to a completely new audience while also holding onto what made the original special. These games felt new, re-envisioned for a modern generation while evoking what came before.
It holds on to just enough of its past that it feels dated, rather than new. Hell, I replayed it last winter and hated it.
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