The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD improves on the original in every conceivable way. The visual and performance upgrades make it feel like a new game, and the motion controls feel much more responsive, thanks to the Switch’s Joy-Cons. But the new button controls are the biggest improvement; instead of fighting against the motion controls, players can now savor the satisfying combat and genius level design. What was once the outcast of the 3D Zelda games now stands tall as one of the best in the series.

If you did not play the original version on Wii we would say that the purchase is practically mandatory. The story of the game and its development of levels are at the highest possible standard and will delight players during the 25-30 hours that the main campaign lasts.

What Skyward Sword HD does best is make a 3D Zelda once thought limited to a unique console playable in perpetuity (hopefully). Along the way, enough changes and tweaks are made to improve the adventure, whether it’s streamlined tutorials or satisfactory button controls. It wasn’t known at the time, but this represents the final chapter of Nintendo’s 3D Zelda design that started with Ocarina of Time. With hindsight, Skyward Sword HD serves an interesting coda that paved the way for Breath of the Wild. The linear ebb and flow of Link’s earliest chronological story might be rooted in the past, but it’s still an engaging and cozy adventure in the present that’s well worth playing or revisiting.

While not every design choice has aged as gracefully as its gorgeous art style and incredible dungeons, the implementation of a wide range of improvements ensures The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD remains a memorable adventure worth experiencing on the Nintendo Switch.

While Skyward Sword HD’s visuals breathe new life into the decade-old title, the quality of life improvements aren’t quite enough to make this instalment in the Zelda franchise soar to new heights. However, its strong cast of characters, hallmark dungeon designs and excellent storytelling keeps it afloat comfortably above the clouds, offering an experience that’s hard to forget.

Though it may be one of the weaker Zelda games, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is a good adventure in its own right.

No reviewer on earth enjoys scathing a Zelda-game. More often than not they are grand cru-games players are willing to wait years for. Ever since BOTW we’ve been given crumbs while waiting for the much awaited sequel through remasters and remakes. ‘Link’s Awakening’ scratched that itch. Skyward Sword HD does not. Spoler alert: in the year 2021 motion controls are still horrible.

Awesome story, controls are good when You get use to them, the store girl is better than Zelda and thats a FACT

Game is good in general, vibe, music, some of the environments. It's nice, but after about 40% in it starts to get very frustrating, a lot of backtracking, 2-3 hour long dungeons ( if you go reasonably fast ), later on extreme backtracking and game is on purpose punishing in a very annoying way. Later stages of the game are not built around having fun or having good experience, but mostly about annoying player as much as possible. The difficulty spike on last boss is ridiculous compared to the rest of the entire game. Motion controls **** and I say it as someone who enjoys motion controls and it was one of the reasons I wanted to play this. It's fine for about 80% of the game, but the rest when it does whatever it wants, mostly when it matters is extremely frustrating. The game is on one hand very pretty and has a lot of good things going for it, but on the other is extremely very frustrating. On my first playthrough with doing reasonable amount of side quests and not getting stuck anywhere too long, it's still 35 hours of gameplay and solid 15-20 out of that I didn't enjoy much. I'd say it's worth it, if you're willing to put up with and brace yourself for a lot frustration in multiple areas. I'm glad I played the game, but it's clearly very old game design and the developers don't care about annoying player, creating frustration and sometimes cheesing player to extreme levels. This is not a type of game anyone could release today and get a pass on. It's very much typical old "get good and deserver it" game. If you're up for it, then it's worth the time. Also the story and general pay off at the end was not worth it, I expected a little bit more from the story as I got hooked early on, but without any spoilers the conclusion was quite weak. While some writing was amazing, some was atrocious and handing of some characters was extremely weak as well. But some of it was so good that it was worth pushing for. One redeeming thing for the game is the creativity. I guess it's more typical for Zelda games, but the sheer amount of unique ideas, creativity and gameplay mechancis in one game is outstanding.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is an underrated gem that provides a satisfying adventure and story that more recent titles in the series have failed to deliver.

A Bland world, mixed dungeons and laughable at best button controls. This Game was hard to play through.

the game is a lot of fun, and it's an improvement on the original in many ways. however, for a game that's selling point is a controls overhaul, the new controls are disappointingly dysfunctional. also, quite a lot of the late game content, especially our third or fourth repetition of any given area, is simply obnoxious and unfinished, a way of padding the game out without adding more content. many segments are glaringly just an upscaled reskin of the original game, which is not really acceptable. this said, SSHD is fully playable with some frustration, dysfunction, imbalance, and unresponsiveness. the game has some of the best dungeons in 3d zelda, and the motion controls make for a great arcade feeling to the gameplay. still, you will find yourself forced to use the button controls in far too many situations, as the motion controls seem to have a mind of their own. the buttons are practically obligatory for any boss fight besides moldarach, as it's basically impossible to get the joycons to register the directional hits you want, and any melee combat is reduced to waving the controller around randomly in the hopes that a hit lands. this is especially problematic if the enemy punishes you for missing or parries your attacks. it's also a problem throughout the most narratively climactic battles of the game, so there's a definite sour note here. combine this with an often questionably designed overworld that you have to trudge through over and over again with a stamina meter that can't be upgraded, and i'm left hard pressed to give this one a great rating. yes, it's good. yes, it's fun. however, the further into the game you get, the more you will lose faith in nintendo's willingness to deliver a finished product on their remasters. if you are a zelda fan and you want to play skyward sword in it's optimal state, this is the one to get. just think about buying it used or at a discount.