We are roughly four hours into Skyward Sword HD and we have some quick impressions to share as we navigate this classic 10 years after its original release. If there’s anything to be said about the game, it’s that Nintendo put an enormous amount of effort in crafting this into the ultimate version of Skyward Sword. We’re only four hours in and one dungeon down, but, the improvements in the game are apparent from the get-go. The quality of life changes, along with the enhanced motion controls thanks to the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons, make for a much smoother experience. Flying on your Loftwing is a lot more enjoyable with the gyro controls. The game doesn’t completely hold your hand from the beginning, which is nice. Fi’s advice is optional. You can now reset the center of the screen with the controls with the Y button even out of first-person mode or looking at a menu. If you notice that your sword isn’t correctly aligned, all you have to do is point at the middle of the screen and press Y. It’s so much easier than constantly re-calibrating the controller, which was one of the main complaints of Skyward Sword. We haven’t tried the button controls yet, as we prefer the motion controls, but we will soon and give you our opinion on those. They are irrelevant though in the grand scheme of things; Skyward Sword HD plays as close to perfect as you can with motion controls.
The game holds up rather well after all this time. In fact, we’re willing to say that this version of Skyward Sword is superior to Breath of the Wild; at least in the first few hours. It’s much more enjoyable with better, more memorable characters, excellent dungeons, and a sprawling adventure that actually feels like there is something at stake. This is why Skyward Sword reigns as the best Zelda game, and why Skyward Sword HD is the definitive Zelda experience.
While some may say that the game is too linear and not “open-world”, the first area, Faron Woods, is very dense with an abundance of secrets just waiting to be found. Skyward Sword HD is very much a puzzle game in which the controls act as the puzzle, which has never been done in a Zelda game before or since. The very first dungeon isn’t the longest but has some excellent puzzles and while there are clues, it doesn’t hold your hand. The first boss in the game, Ghirahim, is as creepy as he is fun to play against. While we’ve already played through the entire game countless times, our impressions and our ultimate review will not contain spoilers, so we’ll just have to see if Skyward Sword HD keeps up the pace it started at.
We have now entered Eldin Volcano, which is presumably what becomes known as Death Mountain in later games, and are about to venture to our second dungeon. This feels like a magical journey and while at this point we only know about the quality of life changes Nintendo has made (we forgot to mention the free camera, which is an excellent addition), there could be more changes we don’t know about, which has us incredibly excited.
Stay tuned for more impressions and coverage as we delve deeper into Skyward Sword HD! We will also be live streaming the game shortly along with video guides and more on our YouTube channel.