The Legend of Zelda

Skyward Sword boasts a 1:1 control ratio with the Wii Motion Plus attachment. (or the Wii Motion Plus Wiimote since they started including them inside the default Wiimote) I'd be lying if I said it works well %100 of the time, but overall I can't see playing a console Zelda any other way now. It feels like it's been a natural part of the Zelda universe since day one. The story for Skyward Sword was awesome. The version of Zelda in that game is my favorite so far. (Since she's not a princess she has the freedom to do things she couldn't do in the other games, like harass Link and jump off of cliffs, lol!) My only gripe with Skyward Sword was the linear progression. There was far less freedom in exploration and discovery than in previous Zelda games. This is something I REALLY enjoy and I think is a huge part of the core of Zelda games. So, for this to come up short was a bit of a letdown. I still loved the game, though. How about favorite characters? Hands down, mine is Midna. I think she was the most dimensional character in the whole series. I tend to like characters that go through significant changes and come to a deeper understanding of things. I won't say too much for the people who haven't yet played Twilight Princess. But they should! The story was awesome in that game too!

I can't help but fall in love with the magic that Ocarina of Time presented. I did try Majora's Mask but I just couldn't get into it as much. Oh yeah, has anyone played the gameboy color games The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages? I loved those for some reason. Maybe it's just because I have fond memories of them as a kid. I also wouldn't mind if they made another Four Swords title; the technology Nintendo has now can easily support it; via the Wii U and it's touch pad or the 3Ds! I apologize for the semi-long message. I like vidya gamz.

Link to the Past has always been my favorite game period, next to Super Metroid. After that, overrated or not I still love Ocarina of Time too. Played that one to death and grew up with it, at the time it was creepy as hell and just really awesome. Still love going back to it. From there, it's probably impossible to rate them since they're some of my favorites across the board. But my interest has dwindled with the handhelds ones since Minish Cap, just wasn't into that one and Phantom Hourglass is the only Zelda I've played that I didn't WANT to finish, lol. So I never got around to Spirit Tracks. Wind Waker is my least favorite of the 3D games, mostly because it was so so easy and didn't love the sailing. But still a great game. Skyward Sword gets a little repetitive and I wish it had another island or a bit more variety with the backtracking. Twilight Princess was slow early on, but got really strong halfway in (didn't mind the wolf segments going away either). So I like to say these two even out for me, but it's safe to say SS's orchestrated OST blows TP's music away for sure. SS's credit roll theme is the best thing ever. I love Majora's Mask too. My only nitpick here is it didn't have many dungeons and was a bit heavier on the fetch quests. But it's so different, the overworld was complex as heck, and yeah. Great stuff. I loved how it was tougher than OoT, I always figure people that complain about the Water Temple never made it to the 4th dungeon in MM... that thing was insane. Link's Awakening and the Oracle games are fantastic. I'm a big fan of Zelda II, really. It's different but I love it and it's got amazing music. Pretty pumped for Wind Waker HD. Overall, I like to say I like how the Zelda games played most from LTTP to OoT. These were less on the item quests and more about dungeons, exploring, being on your own. The later games started mixing things up more, I still love them, but love the simplicity in the earlier stuff.

So much to comment on. First off, let me just say that Majora's Mask is my favorite. It had so many side-quests, which is what I live for. They give you the option to progress the story when you want or take a break and spend some time learning about the world you're in. Plus, I really loved all the masks that you got for doing the quests. I normally like collecting stuff in games, and that fact that many of them had practical purposes was just icing on the cake. When I finally got the Bunny Hood, that thing stayed on my head for most of the remainder of the game. Even the ones that didn't do too much for you still left you with a sense of accomplishment after you obtained them. Really, who here didn't get invested in the Couples Mask quest? As for it being too short, if you think about all the stuff you had to do before even getting into a dungeon, each of the four main areas could actually be considered 1.5 to 2 stages in one. One simply did not walk into a temple! When you take that and all the optional stuff into consideration, it really doesn't come up as short as most people seem to think. As for Skyward Sword... Really? People other than reviewers that get paid to run ads by Nintendo liked it? Before this the most positive thing I had heard was, 'it's not a bad game if you don't think of it as a Zelda'. Anything in particular you enjoyed, that maybe I could rethink so that I could learn to like it too? I only beat this game through stubbornness.

The redeeming qualities for Skyward Sword, for me, were the characters, the story and the control scheme. While the controls weren't perfect, they showed a lot of potential for what a great motion controlled game could be. The characters were fun and interesting both friend and foe alike. I like how Zelda wasn't just a damsel in distress and how she was far less formal than the other Zelda's. Plus, it's the only game so far where you can tell that both Zelda and Link were actually in love. The parts of it that were a "game" on the other hand were very sub-par. Progression was too linear and the dungeons were cookie cutter and forgettable. There were some fun boss fights, though. The problems with the game weren't enough for me to "hate" the game, though. It's friggen Zelda we're talking about. The worst Zelda game is still better than most games.

I've been playing sice the SNES days (because I wasn't even born on the NES days) and Skyward Sword is my favorite Zelda game