And Hero Mode conquered. Huzzah. I love this game. I just hope the next console Zelda isn't five years away again!

Well I suppose I can put this here then. Be warned though this might be a bit of a lengthy post.

Anyways, we all remember back not too long after it came out that it was said that in some ways Wii Sports Resort is sorta a prototype for how some control elements of the next Zelda game which became Skyward Sword would work. Well I figured I would do a little side by side comparison of some of the elements to see how the compare and contrast. I should note that I am still pretty early into Skyward Sword so there are some aspects I can't do a comparison of yet.

Swordplay

Lets get the big one out of the way first I guess. To compare the core swordplay mechanics between both games I decided to play the Speed Slice and Showdown mini games from Wii Sports Resort since I figured those would be the best to compare to Skyward Sword. Speed Slice for the extent of the 1 to 1 striking and Showdown for comparing how they handle in a combat like scenario with multiple opponents.

Overall there are a good number of similarity's with the one to one swordplay. In both the sword moves very will with your hand and also requires a more vigorous swing of the Wii Remote to preform any attacks. One little difference is that Skyward Sword add more elements to it since it makes use of Z-targeting and the Nunchuk controller and overall feels more refined. Also in Wii Sports Resort you have a bit more of a Dead Zone to attack in meaning you have a bit wider range of where you can strike and you can block attacks 1 to 1 with the sword.


Flying

Flying around Skyloft early in the game and exploring did remind me of the Island Flyover mini game from Wii Sports Resort where you fly around Wuhu Island. So I figured I would give these a comparison.

Both make use of the Wii Remote with Motion Plus to control the flight and overall they both feel very similar. I could easily make tight turns on the fly and fly pretty well. Although Skyward Sword you can tell refines some of the elements. Boost accelerating and breaking for one, in Wii Sports Resort you had to thrust the Wii Remote forward and backward to do this and that was a bit problematic at times since it would misread the motions on occasion. In Skyward Sword relegating those actions to the A and B button instead makes that much less of a problem.


Skydiving

Another one that was pretty easy to see where they got the idea from in Skyward Sword, playing through the mini game of the same name on Wii Sports Resort and not surprising they are both almost identical. Both have you moving your character by moving the Wii Remote around and both have about the same responsiveness. Wii Sports Resort does allow for a bit more movement, but that does not really change too much the comparison.


Well that is how I feel they compare. Feel free to try comparing the 2 if you can. I found it quite interesting.

SO, this Hyrule Historia book Nintendo's releasing for Zelda's 25th apparently has the timeline in it. And not just the easily pieced together 3D/DS games, the entire thing. I think this book is supposed to be canon, but I don't really know too much about it... I hope it gets released here. It has like over a hundred pages of concept art and stuff. In the meantime I'm waiting for the Internet to get a hold of scans and better translations of the timeline bit. The timeline went pretty crazy, though it did suddenly and completely fix LttP's conflicting opening, which was unexpected.

I don't think I really used my shield much in general with this game.