SPOILER WARNING: This review contains minor gameplay spoilers related to items and dungeons. If you want to go in completley fresh, skip to the score.
There is a piece of cleverness at the heart of Skyward Sword's desert region that is pure Nintendo. Link discovers shards of timeshift stones; crystals that, once struck, create a temporary window to the past.
Within a five-metre radius the sand sprouts grass, rusted mine carts' wheels are greased and a race of automaton miners whir back to life. If enemies from the past accidentally leave the area they age to a pile of bones, and if enemies from the future accidentally enter, they revert to harmless infancy. Even the soundtrack rediscovers its oomph, as if what was heard in the present was some distant echo carried on the winds.
Detractors say Nintendo rely on these building blocks to a fault; nostalgia verging on recycling. Skyward Sword aims to quiet dissent for good by telling the tale of how some of these icons came to be, and by telling it in the most radical Zelda to date.
How radical? Try this on for size: 'light the torch' puzzles have been extinguished for good. A brutal ideas cull sees Nintendo HQ's skip piled high with pressure pads, boomerangs, crate conundrums, timed switches and coloured tunics. In their stead, Nintendo visit Puzzle Ikea and return with their car groaning under the weight of new level furniture.
Timeshift stones are joined by eyeball locks, wind-blown swings, Tarzan vines and thirsty doors. Yes, doors demanding a tasty beverage to unlock. It's the Samuel L Jackson of Zelda puzzles. Innovations continue late into the game, where impromptu spelunking and a misbehaved musical score wait to bamboozle puzzle-fatigued minds.
More importantly, ideas get the space to breathe. Rather than wither in dungeon crannies they underpin entire buildings. A disused mining facility becomes a showcase for timeshifts as Link clears present day debris while unwittingly rebooting the deadly production lines of the past. And a later fire temple revitalises the most hackneyed of settings by focusing on cooling magma canals with succulent berries.
TALES FROM THE CRYPT
Skyward Sword mines such a rich ideas vein that many dungeon elements overflow, spilling into the field. Before descending into puzzling crypts (each entrance gets a cutscene where our hero steels himself for the horrors to come) Link has already raided volcanic strongholds, hunted camouflaged birds and cranked up ancient power generators.
One second-act highlight sees Link master rickety mine carts, climb a rocky peninsula and infiltrate a pirate hideout all in pursuit of a single dungeon entrance. That's enough adventure to fill an entire game; here it's just another peak in a game with little time for troughs.
Comments
35 comments so far...
Stryker89 on 11 Nov '11 said:
Wow, this is getting some seriously high scores across the board. Well deserved!
RustySpoon80 on 11 Nov '11 said:
Twilight Princess was the 1st game I bought for Wii & this will probably be the last game I buy. How fitting.
FlimFlam on 11 Nov '11 said:
Wow.
Man, what a vintage year this is for games. All consoles have had a stellar exclusive, and the multiplatform offerings have been top drawer.
What a great time to be a gamer.
socheeky on 11 Nov '11 said:
Not just a review of an excellent game, but an excellent piece of writing worthy of a reward. Have a heart segment, Mr Castle.
tswnhs on 11 Nov '11 said:
"the tomboyish Zelda is the first of her lineage we've genuinely wanted to save"
What of Tetra, you monsters?
Your writing is as impeccable as always, NGamer. I'm sick of all these reviews giving vague inarticulate descriptions of the general "feel" of a game.
"we found ourselves flapping to the invisible ceiling just to hear the wind whooshing past our ears as we fell back down again"
"Our favourite is the item check girl who may or may not be slapping on more makeup every time Link visits."
That's the type of content that makes me continue read, and even pick up a game.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 11 Nov '11 said:
Well i have all of a week to finish Skyrim before it get discarded like a red headed step child for This. Can i complete it in time. will i start seeing trolls again due to sleep deprevation, find out next week when my post become even more erratic and full of typos.
StonecoldMC on 11 Nov '11 said:
Looks like a tremendous send off for the Wii!
Pity I dont have mine anymore
.
clayf1ghter on 11 Nov '11 said:
Is this the same game that they'll launch the wii u with?
cult on 11 Nov '11 said:
No you are thinking of Ocarina of Time
NEO_SUPERMAN on 11 Nov '11 said:
Great. Thanks a lot.
Now I have to go back to selling crack to kids just so I can afford this game and the thousand other ones released this month.
Nintendo made me sell crack to kids!
El Mag on 11 Nov '11 said:
Please say you mean the drug, otherwise Gary Glitter will smash your knees in for trying to muscle in on his turf!
pinkie 2 on 11 Nov '11 said:
Here here
charliecheswick on 11 Nov '11 said:
Sorry for being ignorant C&VG,but had to skip the review to avoid spoilers,i only looked at the score,uppers and downer.
Glad it's great,can't wait to get my paws on it.
Knight on 11 Nov '11 said:
Ditto!
I reckon I've spoilt every Zelda game since OoT by knowing too much before my first play through. Not done so this time. The review scores and responses in the forums has really got me hyped though! I put off getting Skyrim until after I've completed SS and Friday 18th November is booked off of work too (hopefully it arrives Thursday and I can play through the night like my good ol' days of gaming)! What's the betting that I get the game and my launch day Wii won't play it?! I know those original consoles had troubles with the Super Smash Bros. high-capasity game disks. That'd make me cry.
Cogglesz on 11 Nov '11 said:
Epic, never read the review for fear of spoilers but an upgrade system sounds fun, can't wait to play this, this will be a good last wii game purchase.
NEO_SUPERMAN on 11 Nov '11 said:
I'm sorry El Mag but I can't promise you that.
I'll do anything to pay for my Zelda fix. ANYTHING!!!
I would (Content removed by CVG).
I'd let you (Content removed by CVG).
Hell, I'd probably even (Content removed by CVG).
Hers my mobile phone number incase anybody needs any "ahem" odd jobs doing, it's -(CONTENT REMOVED BY CVG)
Imaduck on 11 Nov '11 said:
Looks like Nintendo have done well with this despite it's bumpy reveal. I'll apply the usual pinch of salt to the review, but it's nicely written. Why are people complaining about possible spoilers? I thought the basic premise of Zelda was always the same? I thought the attraction was what came in between, the adventure and gameplay and puzzles?
Knight on 11 Nov '11 said:
Don't want to see the bosses, strategies, characters, weapons/items, etc.
Imaduck on 11 Nov '11 said:
Ahhhhhh ok, thanks Knight
Got to hand it to you, when I was small games were so much more mysterious because trailers were harder to come by, and showed very little. Now companies seem to want you to know the entire game before you play it. I've started a vigil of avoiding all released content prior to release.
charliecheswick on 11 Nov '11 said:
Not complaining imaduck,just in the same frame of mind as KNIGHT in that i want to discover everything for myself rather than be shown. All i've seen of it is last years E3 footage which was minimal and i don't think you get a genuine WOW factor when playing if you kinda know what's coming.
Imaduck on 11 Nov '11 said:
I agree entirely Charlie, and take the same stance myself these days. Meant nothing negative so I'm sorry if I came across that way.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 11 Nov '11 said:
I still have Wind Waker for the gamecube and just played it last week after a few years I haven't used my gamecube.
The game has great art style and such charming music. Only complaint is the camera controls are inverted.
Shame I won't get this version as I don't have a Wii.
razors edge on 11 Nov '11 said:
Preordered it weeks ago getting the golden wiimote bundle. I will be a happy man next week. It's a shame we have had to wait this long for another Zelda but I suppose it's better that we wait and get a through the roof scorer as opposed to a few substandard Zeldas.
It will be my first foray into motion plus and, as someone has already stated, more than likely my last game for the Wii.
Knight on 11 Nov '11 said:
It will be my first time too.
Once I've got Skyrim out of the way I might buy myself Xenoblade and a few other gems that I have missed out on for the system. As I mentioned earlier, I'm expecting to be devastated next Friday if/when the disc doesn't play on my launch day Wii.
me4pd on 12 Nov '11 said:
Did you sell it? Why would you do that? You knew this was coming. It's been in development for years.
ricflair on 12 Nov '11 said:
Can you try a copy of Brawl? Borrow one from someone? I sent my Wii to Nintendo on Tuesday and just got it delivered this morning. So if you try it this weekend you could phone them up, get the label and have it back by next weekend!
Knight on 12 Nov '11 said:
Wow, as quick as that? That's better than I'd have expected. I don't know of anyone with a copy, buy I suppose I can go buy myself a copy.
Felly117 on 13 Nov '11 said:
Is this seriously better than Skyrim?
I doubt it somehow
razors edge on 13 Nov '11 said:
In exactly the same way that Fallout 3 is better than Angry Birds.
billysastard on 13 Nov '11 said:
mine arrived yesterday morning and other than breaks to recharge the battery i'm absolutely loving it although i think my 360 must be feeling like my ps3 always does (unloved and unused).
i'm about 15 hours in and all i can say is its quite simply the best game of this generation across all 3 current gen consoles, it just draws you in and you have to keep playing it like no other game, the difficulty and learning curve seem dynamic in that things that you can quickly get used to get harder to perform but things you are hopeless at seem to become more forgiving, load times can occasionally be a tiny bit frustrating taking longer than any previous zelda game when transitioning from one area to another.
its not perfect but its as close as any game has come this generation and far superior to any game that has picked up a perfect 10 score.
oh, and to those worrying if it will run on their wii's, dont, its on a single layer disc because one of our wiis has the dual layer problem but this plays just fine on it.
billysastard on 13 Nov '11 said:
yes, i havent even considered skyrim since i thought "i'll just have a quick go and see what i think of this" after the postman arrived yesterday morning.
so dont have doubts just put skyrim away and play what is the best game of this generation.
Balladeer on 13 Nov '11 said:
How about you get both and don't worry about a reviewer's opinion?
Although I'm guessing that you've already made up your mind and nothing will change it. In which case kindly don't post in these articles as your opinion means nothing.
ricflair on 14 Nov '11 said:
When I phoned up on Monday, the guy at Nintendo said it's a dual layered disc but I've seen a few reports say the game itself is about 4GB, so single layer. I guess without the need for loads of FMV, dialogue and high res graphics you can fit a lot into 4GB.
Either way, mine will at least now work with Brawl and apparently the Metroid Trilogy!
WHERESMYMONKEY on 14 Nov '11 said:
Its a single layer dvd. Game clocks in at just under 4gb. Then again skyrim on the 360 is the same size. weird.
Anathros0 on 22 Nov '11 said:
well deserved, i'm 22 hours in and can't seem to get enough of it =D