Up Next: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Santa got my letter! Skyward Sword was under our tree Christmas morning along with a 3DS and Super Mario 3D land. I also picked up Rayman Origins with a gift card from my parents. Yes, I'm adding to the backlog...but I'm promising myself to be more responsible and finish every game I start. Plus, I probably won't get any new games until next Christmas.

Anyway - Skyward Sword.

I've been a fan of the Zelda games ever since the NES days. Cutting my teeth on the strangely beautiful Zelda II (review), I have been enchanted by the world of Hyrule for the majority of my life. A new Zelda release is a call for celebration. It's a call for jubilant excitement at the new possibilities of puzzle solving and story telling; for unparalleled gameplay and mechanics...the core Zelda games never disappoint. But so far, I'm kinda disappointed.

Bird flying...kinda boring.

The game starts with about a two hour setup. Basically, you're introduced to the characters and the world of Skyloft. You get a feel for everyone's place in the society and how you as a young knight cadet fit into the big picture. And while I will consent that this is a hugely important aspect which has been slightly overlooked in previous Zelda games, it drags on for what feels like an eternity. You are sent on no less than three fetch quests before you can even begin the game proper.

Once I finally made it under the clouds and to the "surface" - Skyward Sword's name for the underworld - I began to see what makes this is a game of the year contender. The WiiMotionPlus aspects of the swordplay are really neat - making every fight a puzzle in itself. I made it through the first dungeon with relative difficulty, actually. I died quite a few times and found myself scratching my head at a few puzzles. Gotta give Nintendo respect for providing a decent challenge right from the outset. The boss in the first dungeon was a beast, too! You fight who I'm assuming is the main villain/final boss character and it took me a good five tries to finally beat him - giving it a real feeling of completion and satisfaction once I did finally take him down.

This guy.

The music is fantastic - Nintendo finally came into the 21st Century and scored this game with a full orchestra, rather than using Midi music. It gives the game a much more epic feel, however the increase in audio fidelity is not matched with a bump in the visuals. They obviously did the best they were able to do with the hardware, but a major console release in 2011 (now 2012) that's not in HD is really starting to look dated.

I'm about six hours in to what I've heard is about a fifty hour experience. Wish me luck!