The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD and The Missing Anniversary Games
In the recent February 2021 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword (Wii U) was going to be re-released in a remastered HD version for the Nintendo Switch.
Released towards the end of the Wii’s life cycle, Skyward Sword made excellent use of the Wii Motion Plus controller. The Wii-remote would control the sword, and the Nunchuk analog stick accessory to ready the shield. It also introduced features like the stamina metre, limited climbing and crafting that would later be expanded upon in Breath of the Wild. Besides that, it was a traditional Zelda game with dungeons, exploration and an assortment of items.
Given Skyward Sword’s reliance on motion controls, I was a bit concerned. I did not know how they would handle that. I was thinking they might have us swiping the screen. The Switch has decent motion controls but it also has to support other control methods since this is not the only mode of play. It turns out they are mapping the motion controls to the analog stick for the sword. I am a little concerned about this but I am inclined to trust Nintendo. I’m also concerned about how certain aspects of the motion controls will work with the Switch given the lack of sensor bar. It allowed use of motion controls without the need to re-centre for things like the bow and arrow. We’ll see how this goes!
There remains three major games (IMO) that Nintendo has not ported from the Wii U to the Switch and two of those are in the Zelda series. We have all been expecting that Nintendo would port Twilight Princess and Wind Waker to the Switch in due course. It could still happen - the Mario Anniversary is still in progress, and they just had a big Pokemon direct celebrating the anniversary of that. It’s understandable if they want to space things out.
A number of places (such as GameOver Jesse and Nintendo Prime) are also reporting rumours that we might get a Ocarina of Time / Majora’s Mask collection, and/or a Oracles collection. For Ocarina and Majora’s Mask collection, I would like for them to port and adjust the 3DS versions, not the Nintendo 64 games as they did with the Mario Anniversary. The Oracle collection also makes sense given a lot of the work has already been done with Link’s Awakening. That’s a solid foundation to bring the Oracle games into the modern age.
Whatever happens, I am looking forward to replaying whatever Zelda games Nintendo re-releases, and most of all Breath of the Wild 2.