Super Mario Galaxy

Released in North America on November 12, 2007, Super Mario Galaxy launches the titular character in the gravity-challenged expanse of space.

Well, I've got an interesting perspective here. I love Mario--while I started playing games with my dad on his Atari 2600, seeing the red-clad plumber run across a TV screen after being beamed out of an NES hooked me. Super Mario Bros. is one of my favorite games ever. We all know the strange story of not-really-a-Mario-game, Super Mario Bros. 2, but I played it...and sucked at it anyway. Then there was the deservedly incredible hype for all-time great, Super Mario Bros. 3. Then the zesty plumber jumped onto the 16-bit SNES with two games that are arguably better than his 8-bit adventures. Then he made the jump to 3D on the Nintendo 64 in a game I believe is pure magic. Then, some cracks started to show. The once infallible plumber suddenly seemed mortal on the GameCube adventure, Super Mario Sunshine. The once legendary Nintendo quality control seemed to have been in a hurry to get that one out the door. The hose mechanic and camera seemed to need at least another 6-months of refinement. The 128-bit game isn't a total disaster or anything--it just doesn't live up to the usual Mario standard of excellence. Then came Super Mario Galaxy.
Launched on the motion control-centric Nintendo Wii, a year after the console hit stores, Super Mario Galaxy received the ravest of reviews, won major awards, and due to circumstances I've already detailed ad nauseum, I missed it completely, along with the entire seventh generation of home video game consoles (obviously meaning I missed Super Mario Galaxy 2, as well). However, I jumped back into the fray with the eighth, absolutely loving Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U, and being slightly underwhelmed by, but still really enjoying the Switch entry, Super Mario Odyssey. Still, the fact that I've never played the Galaxy games has been bothering me.
GameStop recently had the first game on sale for $9.99, complete and in mint condition, and I bit. I've spent the last couple of months playing. Here, nearly 12 years after Super Mario Galaxy was released, is what I think.

The first hours of Super Mario Galaxy are invigorating. It's like the game launches you out of a cannon into the open, loving arms of its universe. This is technically the third 3D console main entry game in the Mario series. The first, the previously mentioned Super Mario 64, opens similarly, as the thrill of first having the once 2D plumber run around in a three-dimensional field of play is exhilarating. The second, the GameCube's Super Mario Sunshine, contains no such feeling, as it simply upgrades its predecessors graphics, and weighs Mario down with an unwieldy water-based jetpack. Sunshine is a weird, funky game, and I'll get around to reviewing it one day (first, I'll have to finally finish it!). For the third, Super Mario Galaxy, it's back to wonder mode, as 3D Mario, upgraded visually above even Super Mario Sunshine, is now running around planetoids in every possible direction, sometimes while upside down. Yes, spheroid gravity is the big hook here, as many stages, particularly early on, feature gameplay where the mustachioed plumber is launched from one little planet to the next, each full of various challenges. Often, those challenges incorporate the fact that you are no longer bound by 180 degrees of movement in relation to up and down, left and right movement.  Flat surfaces are mostly gone, and round (and other-shaped) gravitational surfaces are now in.

I often felt like I was riding a roller coaster in those first hours, even getting a little sick when I'd have to make Mario run upside down for too long. The mechanic is nicely implemented, though it takes a minute to rewrite your Mario-controlling muscle memory. here, Mario is maneuvered with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo. Once you're used to it, getting Mario from here to there in the game's earlier portions is a cinch. There's a catch, though...motion controls.
Motion controls were the Wii's initial hook in 2006. They helped the Wii sell over 100 million units--far more than any other Nintendo home console. They were supposed to level the playing field between gamer and non-gamer. Indeed, relatives of mine who never played games before still have Wii's sitting in their living rooms, 13 years later. Of course, most of them only played some Wii Sports, picked up a few Karaoke, Dancing, or Guitar Hero games, and called it a day.
Super Mario Galaxy sold 10.4 million copies, but that means barely 10% of those who purchased Wii's brought Nintendo's flagship character into their home along with it. In the intervening years, a narrative has been created: the Nintendo Wii was a motion control-relying gimmick. That narrative, along with the fact that few realized that's Wii successor, the Wii U, was a separate console, likely contributed to the Wii U's failure.

All of that to say, while the motion controls may have been a gimmick to draw in the non-gamer, there are some great games for the Wii. There are even some great games, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, in particular, that make excellent use of the Wii's motion controls...even utilize them so well, they become a strength. Super Mario Galaxy is a very good game, but the way it utilizes the Wii's motion controls are not a strength.
Do you like violently shaking your wrist? You'll have to do so time and time again to perform Mario's spin-move as an attack, or to use it to launch from a star portal from planet to planet. I don't like violently shaking my wrist, so these portions of the game, which are interspersed into much of its run, did not thrill me.
How about holding your arm out and delicately pointing the hypersensitive Wii remote in what you hope it will interpret as the direction you're trying to head in? You'll have to do so in areas where Mario rides atop a large ball on tiny, twisty platforms over a bottomless pit, or when he surfs through a winding course of razor-thin, cage-less, airborne rivers. These segments are the most frustrating in the game, and perhaps in any Mario game. The entire reason the first Mario games found such success, and received such acclaim, is the purity of the controls. Running and jumping feel absolutely perfect to this day. Even as an eight-year old, I knew that any time I died in Super Mario Bros., it was my fault, and not the game's. I should have jumped earlier. I should have run, then jumped.  I wasn't paying attention to that Goomba's location. The twentieth time I died on the stupid, worthless Gizmos, Gears, and Gadgets level in Super Mario Galaxy was not due to my own negligence. It was due to Nintendo implementing an imperfect, unreliable mechanic into their flagship series.

I may be biased, as the Italian plumber showed me just how great video games could be, but Mario deserves as near perfection as possible. Sticking him with a lousy mechanic, just to utilize the selling point of your new console, is not fair. Any area of the game involving Wii Remote aiming of Mario in locomotion should have been jettisoned for traditional controls. If not, and the motion controls absolutely had to be utilized in this way, the game should have been delayed so that they could be greatly polished. I gave myself a month after I completed the game to review it, so that I could cool off about the things I hate, and reflect more on the things I loved, but I feel the rage already returning. While I am raging, let's talk about another element of Super Mario Galaxy I hate, that works in conjunction with what I've already negatively mentioned, to create several nightmarish moments.
When Mario originally entered the realm of 3D in Super Mario 64, his ability to take damage increased. It had to--moving through a 3D space, gauging 3D jumps, and attempting to take on multiple enemies in a 3D game is more difficult to do than it is in a 2D game. That feels like a subjective statement...but for me, it is most definitely true. Add to that the fact that Mario can be completely surrounded from all directions in a 3D space, as well. Death can come quickly. By nature of the fact that there are obviously far more directions to travel in a 3D space, exploration is more of a factor. Nothing discourages exploration like quick death.

As I alluded to above, Nintendo countered this difficulty by giving Mario an 8-hit meter. In the old 2D games, Mario could take one hit if he was small, two if he was "Super." This addition to the damage Mario can take seemed very fair, and made Super Mario 64 far more enjoyable, while not taking away from its difficulty (which, in later levels like Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride, is considerable). It also made exploring the open worlds of Super Mario 64 a joy. Thankfully, Super Mario Sunshine kept the 8-hit mechanic (the lousy camera would have been even more maddening if it hadn't). Super Mario Galaxy ditches it.
In Super Mario Galaxy, Mario's hit-meter sits at a whopping three. This adds a sense of...danger to the game that I don't exactly love. Now, the impetus is more on staying alive than exploring. I realized early into the game that I wasn't quite finding myself as relaxed as while playing previous Mario games...even World 8 in the original NES game, the last levels in Super Mario Bros. 3, or even during Champion's Road on Super Mario 3D World on the later Wii U.
In Super Mario Galaxy, I was almost always worried about dying, which most definitely sucked out a little of my enjoyment, particularly considering all of the planets the game offers to explore...then again, each world has a bit more of an on-rails feeling than the ones found in previous 3D Mario games. And frankly, despite the galactic vibe and number of planets found in Super Mario Galaxy, there's actually a lot less to explore.

Super Mario 64's worlds each have six power stars to collect (stars open new worlds in Super Mario 64, and new galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy), which are received by performing various tasks (involving exploring, platforming, boss-fighting, etc.), as well as a 100-coin challenge. Super Mario Galaxy's galaxies have three stars each to collect, on average. Galaxy's stars take considerably longer to obtain on average than the ones in Super Mario 64 do...which makes the ease of dying even more frustrating...especially when it involves motion controls.
Of course, in Super Mario 64, Mario's hit-meter can be refilled by finding coins. Each level has more than 100, and one coin replenishes one bar on the meter. It's the same for Super Mario Galaxy, though coins are far harder to come by. This also brings up the one major blessing of Super Mario Galaxy's motion controls, that at select moments doubles as a curse: the star bits.
Super Mario Galaxy adds a shiny, colorful collectible called star bits to the mix. They are collected by pointing a Wii Remote-controlled cursor at them at any given moment that they appear on screen...and they appear onscreen a lot. Collect 100 star bits in any given galaxy, and you receive an extra life. Star bits are also used at selects moments to access special new galaxies.
It's undeniably fun to point the Wii Remote at the screen, and attempt to scoop up as many star bits as possible. Super Mario Galaxy even brings back question mark blocks, which, when Mario jumps up and hits them from below, often give him star bits. That's the thing, though. When you're down to one hit, you don't want star bits...you want coins. In those instances, receiving star bits is frustrating.

Then again, Super Mario Galaxy does give more opportunities to attain extra lives than in any other Mario game...but I'd much rather stay alive to complete a challenge, than get an extra life that just grants me the opportunity to start the challenge over from the beginning, or from one of the game's galaxies' scattered save points, if I die, over and over again. These extra lives are really just sparing me the indignity of having to start over from the game's title screen, and having to traverse the game's hub area to get back to the galaxy I had challenged again. I'm having a lot of trouble with the verb tenses in this review.
Thankfully, the game offers many opportunities to save: after each power star is attained, when the game is quit, or even when the player experiences a game over. After that game over, it's back to the hub. Galaxy's hub world is a roving space station, full of rooms connected to the game's many galaxies, but once you unlock the rooms high up in the space station, it's quite frustrating to climb there over and over again after a game over...particularly considering you'll be getting more game overs from the galaxies the higher rooms offer...

...Frankly, I only complain this much about stuff I care about...check the five paragraph brevity of my review of the awful Armorines. Super Mario Galaxy truthfully offers many hours of fun--in the long run, far more hours of fun than frustration. The majority of its galaxies are not motion-control-centered, quick death hell. A significant enough portion are to rankle me, but the lion's share of Super Mario Galaxy has that Mario magic. When motion controls are not, or are minimally involved, the titular plumber controls just as great as expected. Jumping, flying through the stars, bouncing on a Goomba's head--all a joy. The music, the first symphonic Mario score, is beautiful, featuring some truly gorgeous string pieces, evocative of the stellar settings. The game isn't a huge graphical leap over its GameCube predecessor, but it still looks great, a primary color visual bath. Some of the stages, like the both super chill and challenging Gold Leaf Galaxy, are among my favorites of the series. The general star-going vibe the game achieves is primal video game escapism at its best. And the feeling of soaring through space is so very, very blissful.

Super Mario Galaxy may not have aged as gracefully as its brethren due to its strange controls. It may not tick off all my "ideal Mario game" boxes due to several of its mechanics. However, it is distinctly a Mario game, with that Nintendo seal of greatness, even it isn't as shiny as usual. For that reason, despite my own reservations, I can't help but recommend it.

9.0

Graphics

Nothing absolutely mind-blowing, but what on the Wii is? It looks great.

9.0

Music and Sound

Excellent symphonic score, along with the classic, Charles Martinet-voiced Mario exclamations.

8.5

Gameplay

Mario 3D platforming magic, slightly flummoxed by some lousy motion controls, and an emphasis on frequent death over exploration.

8.5

Lasting Value

So many collectible stars, and once you beat the game, you can play through the whole thing again as Luigi...but by that point, will you really want to?  

8.6  FINAL SCORE

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U Review)

Xenoblade Chronicles X
Released on the Wii U, December 4, 2015, by Nintendo, and developed by Monolith Soft
Retail: $59.99
Wii U Game Reviews Score: 8.5/10



Uh...so...it's 2019. I've had a Switch for nearly two years, and outside of last month, I haven't touched the Wii U in that span of time. I share the Wii U with my son, and for some reason, the Switch didn't strike his fancy. He's been content to stick with the Wii U...until last month, when Smash Brothers Ultimate was released. Now he cares...and thanks to Christmas, he's got Super Mario Party, and Mario Tennis Aces, too. Thankfully, someone gifted us a second Switch, and as of now, I'm back in the Switch business. However, something happened to me in December of 2018. I fell in love with the Wii U again. My first thought upon booting it up again was, "What Wii U games did I begin and never finish?" The first to come to mind was Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I first purchased Xenoblade Chronicles X several years ago, after hearing and enjoying some of its music on Youtube. Almost immediately, I found the game to be completely overwhelming. Unfathomably huge world, complex systems, and a seemingly unlimited time commitment? I blinked out before I was even a third of the way through.
However, over the last three years, the better parts of Xenoblade Chronicles X's soundtrack kept popping up in my Youtube feed. If I was going to complete an unfinished Wii U game (I've got a few to choose from), it had to be this one. 
Even better: I get to resurrect this review site!

Wait...have you guys been standing around waiting for a new review since April of 2017? Er...my bad.

Nice! Are you going to keep up the thing where a theoretical person asks you questions about the game?
Yeah, that was always pretty fun. Let's do that again. Especially since it seems like so many people are playing the new Xenoblade game for the Switch, without having any experience with this one. There are probably a lot of misconceptions.
Cool, because the thing I hear the most about this game is that it has the worst story of any RPG game ever, to the point that playing the game will literally kill you. Is this true?
Despite the reputation, Xenoblade Chronicles X's story is not that bad. It's simply that it does more to create the game's unique setting and vibe than it does to allow for unique, character-driven drama. The story here is that the Earth has been destroyed by a hostile alien race, and that the few remaining humans have landed on the remote planet, Mira, and are struggling for survival in a makeshift city made of the remains of their enormous escape ship. To make matters more dire, the planet is populated by aggressive, sometimes enormous indigenous animals. Also, it turns out that the humans...aren't even human--they're in synthesized bodies, being controlled from a remote location called the Lifehold. However, it seems the Lifehold has crashed in an unknown location in Mira...and its power is running out. Once the power is gone, the humans inside will die. It's now a race against the clock to save the human...race.

Hurry up, dude!

The player gets to create their own silent protagonist (the customization options are insanely detailed...my resemblance to my character is uncanny!), and the supporting characters, with the exception of the tragic Lao, are pretty much ciphers. They all just want to make sure the human race survives, and that's about it. The story itself, driven by the Lifehold search and defense against attacks by mankind's enemies, takes so many twists and turns that it seems to completely negate itself by the end. There are certainly great science fiction ideas held within, they just never come together to form a satisfying story. However, there are some extremely satisfying moments, including a surprise rescue I won't spoil, and an absolutely epic "protect the city!" battle involving seemingly thousands of combatants and mechs--it's like a mech'd out Two Towers.
Did you say mechs?

Yep...and you can customize them!

Yes, in case you didn't catch it in the caption, I said mechs. But I'll get to that in a second. While I'm bagging on the story, let me get all of the game's flaws out of the way, so I can end the review with an avalanche of praise.
First of all, Xenoblade Chronicles X basically takes the casual gamer, bashes their head against the rocks, and tells them not to come back, and it commits this shockingly violent metaphorical act within its first hour. Mira's five continents make for one of the largest overworlds ever put to disc, the game's battle system is complex, there are a million things to factor into ever moment of gameplay, a million items to collect, and seemingly a million side missions to undertake. As the game is open world, the player can immediately encounter beasts that can kill them in under a second...and that they won't even have a shot against until they've played the game longer than the amount of time it takes to watch every season of Friends. Xenoblade Chronicles X demands commitment. A hundred-plus hour game that requires my full attention is pretty much my gaming nightmare, when there are so many more awesome games to play. It says something that Xenoblade Chronicles X held my attention through to the end, even if I took a two-year break from it. But that's a compliment. Let me get back to the negatives.

For instance, this lake environment is too beautiful.

If a consistent tone is important to you, X is infuriating. The game's stakes are as high as possible: you must prevent the extinction of the human race. Xenoblade Chronicles X, a game where you must prevent the death of every human in existence, includes hours of cutscenes involving a goofy, talking potato and a 13-year old child prodigy who continuously jokingly threatens to eat that goofy, talking potato. The game includes some of the most epic overworld music ever heard in a videogame (check out "Sylvalum Night!"), along with cheesy rap tracks with lines like "this world sucks" and techno love songs with broken English including lines like "over the rainbow" and "you said you loved me many days ago"...played while you are flying your badass mech through the sky.

Er...maybe I'll just keep it on the ground.

The game might feature an enormous, beautiful world, but it also includes a lot of enemies and characters who don't pop-up on your screen until you're five feet away from them. You can also run through them as if they aren't even there. There's a certain unfinished feeling to the game every time that happens, especially in the middle of fights.
Okay, have you gotten all the negativity out of the way?
You bet I have! I just played this game for 100+ hours, so I'd hope I have some positive things to say about it. The first might be cliche, but it's true: the true character, story, and plot of this game is Mira itself. X rewards exploration, not only with hidden treasure that benefits the player, but with one graphical marvel after another. Monolith Soft has designed a beauty here, visual material to fuel the imagination for a lifetime. Mira's beasts are not only organic to their environments, but look both marvelous in design and execution, with some of them staggering in size. As for the environments themselves: Giant rocky outcrops dart miles into the sky over grassy plains. Unfathomably large stone discs rise above the desert floor. An icy continent, centered around a manufactured, towering dome, full of jutting stone monoliths, comes alive at night with phosphorescence. Perhaps the story is left vague, and so much of Mira is left unexplained, so that the player can fill in the history and true nature of the massive, mysterious world, with their own imagination. I'm honestly not sure if a more beautiful and imaginative world has ever been presented in a video game. All that, and there's a high framerate and no overworld loading as the player either high-tails it across Mira by foot, or soars above it by mech.

Hey, I can see my wrecked spacecraft house from here!

Considering you have not mentioned combat yet, I'll assume it's a positive?
Combat is extremely fun, though it takes a while to master. The player has eight move slots that can be filled with a mix of special melee and ranged attacks, as well as buffs like shields and health restorers. It's up to the player to strategize which moves they will bring into battle, and they get to pick the moves for their party members (parties max-out at four members (there are eight to choose from outside of the player's character), as well. Each move has a cool-down period before it can be used again, and fights essentially occur in realtime, with the player having full control of their movements...you can even run far, far away. The three other party members can be given numerous commands, like whether to focus on melee (up-close) or ranged attacks, or to concentrate their fire on a particular enemy when numerous enemies are being fought. The player will also swing or shoot their weapon automatically when a special attack isn't being used. This builds up TP, which can then be used to pull off even more powerful moves. Once this is all grasped, you'll not only fight better, but know which enemies would be better to pick a fight with (enemies' levels are listed over their heads).
As the player wins fights, levels up, gains more money, and funds the game's multiple arms companies to do more research, better weapons and armor can be equipped. Like most RPG's, defeating enemies allows the player to level up, earning more hitpoints and stronger attack power, among other things.

Hope you like my sword in your ear.

Wait, did you just say "fund arms companies?"
That's right. As the game goes on, numerous arms companies are started by newly found characters. Give them enough dough, or use enough of a particular weapon or armor set in battle, and they'll make technological breakthroughs, which allow new weapons to be purchased in the game's armory. This is where the amount of detail in the game hits insane levels, can overwhelm the casual gamer, or can overjoy the meticulous one. As the player traverses Mira, and opens up more of the game's map, they'll come across mining sites. Place a probe there, and that section of the world fills in on your map. But there's more strategy involved here. Are there precious metals in the region? Better plant a mining probe (probes are earned in missions). Is the area ripe for scientific research? Better put a research probe down. You're going to want to make as much money as possible. Mechs don't come cheap.

But they do look sweet.

Sweet, are you finally going to talk about the mechs now?
Oh, yeah. This game has mechs, and they are awesome. There's a reason there's one on the box cover. Mech's are one of Xenoblade Chronicles X's main selling points. True to the game, the player can't get one until about 50-hours in, but X does an excellent job of making this feel like an incredible accomplishment. I almost felt as good as I did the day I got my first car in real life.
Mechs here are called Skells. You start (again, 50-hours in) with a comparatively weak one, though it nevertheless makes the world much more easily traversable. I should also note, when you've been to particular regions, you can generally fast-travel there with a click on the Wii U gamepad's map (the Wii U additional gamepad screen is missed on the Switch!). However, nothing beats mech travel. Suddenly, the player can bound across hills like they're pebbles, and glide across the ocean's surface. A little further in, the mechs are upgraded to fly. Then, nothing in Mira is off-limits. This gives the player an even greater sense of accomplishment, and encourages yet even more exploration. It's awesome.
Skells can still be smashed in battle (and are expensive to repair!), but they beat going at it on foot, and can be equipped with up to eight different purchasable weapons (and there are a billion to choose from and purchase), much like the on-foot move-set. Nothing beats saving up for an ultra-powerful arm-cannon, then blowing a heretofore insurmountable foe away with one shot. It's even better when you get enough cash to dole out Skells to the rest of your party members, who can be commanded while they are in their Skells, as well.

Hey, guys, I command that we all go to Denny's. 

In the interest of keeping this review from becoming a novel, I won't go into all of the game's minutae, including all the different skill points (needed to buy new moves), and classes (which determine which moves can be used, and which weapons can be equipped), and groups the player has to earn and join, or even attempt to describe X's character affinity-system, the latter of which, frankly, I ignored. They're just a part of the game. I will, however, mention that virtually every musical track in Xenoblade Chronicles X that doesn't feature lyrics is an epic all-timer, particularly the themes for each individual continent, which change out night, as each second of gameplay essentially corresponds to a minute of Mira time passed. Sure, I mentioned earlier before that there are some musical stinkers, but the standouts are so incredibly strong, the weaker songs' stench is nearly negated. I will also mention that the player's headquarters, the Barracks, can be upgraded and more customized the deeper into the game the player gets. You can even gets pets. It's all very comforting to the point that I actually started to enjoy the silly in-between-mission cooking cutscenes involving the 13-year-old wunderkind and the potato thing.

That's cool, potato thing.

Mira is also populated with some skyscraper-sized creatures that don't have to be defeated...and can only be defeated when the player has reached an incredibly high level. These are a fun challenge, but also a challenge that will occupy considerable amounts of time...including hundreds of hours spent grinding Not as much time as it will take to complete the game's myriad optional side-quests, though. There's content here for a waking month.

Who needs to sleep?

If you want to spend more time with your Wii U, I highly recommend Xenoblade Chronicles X. Sure, it has some very deep flaws, but its strengths are as gargantuan as the mysterious landforms and wreckage rising over Mira's surface. The sense of scale in this game is simply incredible, the battle system and sense of exploration is a blast. The graphics, excepting some pop-up, and the soundtrack, excepting some stinkers, are excellent. If you don't mind the major time investment, Xenoblade Chronicles X, indigenous zits and all, is a game for the ages.

9.5

Graphics

There's some pop-up, and some overlay...but holy wow, this game looks beautiful, with a high frame-rate to boot. The world looks like incredible sci-fi paintings come to life. Monster and alien designs are great, as well.

8.0

Music and Sound

Some rap and techno duds are thankfully overcome by some incredible orchestral triumphs.

8.5

Gameplay

Realtime RPG-gameplay, whose initially overwhelming nature rewards patience and dedication.

9.0

Lasting Value

If you stick with it, you'll spend 100+ hours playing through the main quest. If you love it, you'll spend another 200 hours finishing all the side missions, leveling up to the max, and taking on the game's most powerful enemies.

8.5FINAL SCORE

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Review)

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
North American Release Date: November 20, 2011

I'll be honest (always am here). The Legend of Zelda is my favorite long-running video game series, and it is time for me to tell a certain story for the last time:
For my fifth wedding anniversary, my wife and I did dinner and a movie. In between, we hung out in Barnes and Noble and read magazines. The cover of a video game magazine I grabbed sunk my spirits. Nintendo was releasing yet another Zelda game. Five years before that moment, when my wedding coincided with the launch of the Nintendo Wii, and Twilight Princess, a corresponding Zelda game, I had decided that video games, my key hobby, were childish things that I should leave behind. In 2011, as I sat in that Barnes and Noble cafe, I felt a huge pang of regret. This new Zelda game, Skyward Sword, not only looked awesome, but would now put me TWO Zelda games behind. Would I ever play video games again? Truthfully, I had recently pulled out my old Sega Dreamcast and dabbled, but would I ever play new games that had come out post-2006? Thankfully, the answer was "yes." Shortly after that anniversary night, as my son gained interest in video games, my love for them was rekindled. I discovered something I think many gen-X'ers eventually come upon--just because you enjoyed something when you were a kid does not make it childish. While Millennials might never grow up, many of us Gen X'ers, dismayed by our hippie me-generation forebears, can get over-cynical about the worthwhile nature of our childhood favorites. It would be easier to say all that Atari 2600 I played with my dad was frivolous, if I hadn't recently experienced such fulfilling times playing video games with my own child. There's a difference between "childish" and "fun." (All you damn millennials still need to grow the hell up, though, and get off my lawn!)
Thus, five years after its release, I finally played through The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. My Skyward Sword play-through comes as the last of three console Zelda's I've completed over this past year, in release order, finishing The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess directly before it. I must confess, Skyward Sword suffers slightly, by comparison.



Skyward Sword is posited as a prequel to all previously released Zelda games. It begins in a small town on an island in the sky, creatively titled, Skyloft. Here we meet the very first incarnations of Zelda and Link, looking very teenager-ly, and not so epic hero-ly.  Skyloft looks like a cheery medieval town, patrolled by townsfolk soaring through the skies on large, furry birds. As you would expect, Zelda gets kidnapped, and Link, with the aid of a robotic, yet chatty blue spirit sent by The Goddess, has to dive through the clouds to find her. You might not expect the dive through the clouds part, I guess.
It seems that a land beneath the clouds is rumored, even though no living person has seen it. However, young, wet-behind the ears Link discovers there is indeed a land beneath the clouds, from which a clear, blue and strangely not blocked by clouds-sky is visible. He also discovers that this more modern, though ancient and prototypical Zelda is in little need of saving. Seems she has gone off on her own mysterious adventure with a strange woman named Impa. This leaves Link with the afore-mentioned blue spirit, who looks like an attractive, blue-skinned woman in a mini-skirt. Considering this spirit had previously greeted and introduced herself to Link in his bed in the middle of the night like a Succubus after Zelda vanishes, making him chase after her in the darkness before she inhabits his sword, the game has some interesting sexual subtext I'd rather not explore here. Actually, I'd rather like to, but my reviews run long enough as it is, so I'll just leave it at that.



The blue spirit's name is "Fi," and she becomes Link's companion for the entirety of Skyward Sword. Much has been meme'd about how annoying a companion Navi the fairy was in the seminal The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. She actually didn't bother me that much, but Fi drives me crazy. She is constantly popping up in your face (from your sword), telling you stuff you already know, or could figure out with simple deduction. If you do need help, her verbal assistance generally adds up to, "You need help." Curious about how to fight a certain monster? "To defeat this monster, you must fight it," is about par for the course. She also does this C-3PO-esque thing were she tells you odds of things all the time for seemingly no reason.  Unfortunately, there's no switch on the back of her neck to turn her off.
Anyway, you, as Link, are stuck on the surface doing seemingly random tasks, fighting monsters, and being sent on quests Link can't really comprehend, other than they will help him catch up to Zelda. Along the way, Link runs into a strange enemy named Ghirahim, a prancing, flamboyant foe who looks and acts like a tall, thin, androgynous screamo-revival band golem of re-animated rotten fruit thrown by the groundlings at The Globe Theatre. As in all other Zelda games, Link also has to duck down into complex dungeons, full of traps, puzzles, and enemies, usually finding useful items therein, like a bow, or a jar full of eternal wind, fighting a mini-boss halfway through, and a not-so mini boss at the end.
As not in all other Zelda games, Skyward Sword is the guinea pig for Wii Motion Plus controls. This means, when you play this game, you've got to get physical. Link's walking direction and geographic movement is handled with a Wii Nunchuk joystick, but his sword-fighting (the primary way enemies are battled), is controlled by waving the Wii Remote around like a sword. Swing to the left, and Link swings to the left...in theory. Many other items in the game are wielded with these motion controls. The immediate feeling for most players used to traditional controls will be confusion and frustration. You know what you want Link to do, but getting Link to do it is another matter.



Meanwhile, the surface world you've landed in, a bland forest, is graphically unimpressive, and anything more than ten feet from you blurs with some strange impressionistic painting effect in order to keep the graphics engine running smoothly.  While you are running around in this world, the background music, an area in which Zelda games are generally an industry standard-bearer, is childish and simplistic.*^(1) 
When you finally make it to another area, a volcano, things don't get any better. You also find that, after four consecutive Zelda 3-D games where the interconnected overworld got bigger and bigger, you are in a smaller world where each respective region isn't even connected to each other!  I'd say "by this point, you'd be thinking," but I don't know what you'd be thinking, so I will say, by this point, I be thinking, How is a Zelda game this mediocre? This is supposed to be the greatest franchise known to video games, which has given me some of the all-time great highlights in my four decades of video-gaming life. Why. Is. This. So. Boriiiiiiiiiingggg???!!!
Then, suddenly, 10-15 hours into the game, something happens.
When Link arrives in Lanayru, the last of three provinces found under the clouds, the game suddenly opens up. I don't mean that you can now travel between the provinces freely--you still have to go back up to Skyloft, then dive back down to which ever respective region you want to visit. What I mean is that, all at once, the control learning curve, game design, graphics, and music all come together.
Lanayru is non-Alanis Morissette ironic*(^2), in that deserts are generally known for their vast emptiness, and Lanayru Desert Province is the best, most interactive region in any Zelda game ever, pre-HD-era. Tumbleweeds roll over shadows of windblown clouds racing across the desert floor, a beautiful ambient/percussive theme breezes out of the speakers, and the player, as Link, gets to explore to their hearts content. Lanayru's unusual hook, which I won't spoil here, is one of the most innovative in any Zelda game up to 2016. At the same moment in the game, the controls suddenly begin to seem intuitive, and the given tasks, fun. The next 30 or so hours of Skyward Sword are pure Zelda bliss, as the previous two areas, and then Lanayru, are expanded in creative ways, also making them more graphically satisfying, and somehow causing them to feature better music than what came before. Even the dungeons become more interesting, particularly one called The Cistern, which is a personal favorite.
This portion of Skyward Sword, which is truthfully, the majority of gameplay time, gives me everything I want from a Zelda game: the thrill of exploration, the joy of solving inventive puzzles, and the general feeling of being a hero while I fight huge, menacing bosses, and armies of wicked foes. Once I had the motion controls down, I often found myself standing to fight the trickier bosses, or when I came across mobs of lesser enemies. The fights involve quite a bit of strategy due to advanced enemy AI, and the direction you swing your sword, and the way you time defense maneuvers with your nunchuk-controlled shield, really matter. The experience is absolutely immersive. More than ever, the player truly feels like they are Link!



And then, for its last five hours, Skyward Sword comes back down to Earth, in a third back-tracking quest that just seems like filler, an insult to the player after the second time through felt so fulfilling.  Skyward Sword took me far more time to beat than any other Zelda game, neither because I was floundering (I don't think I remember ever dying), or because of wide-ranging exploration. It took me forever to finish because of filler quests. After all, in the time it takes just to make this game interesting, I would have been halfway through my perfect-all-the-way-through initial experiences with say, Ocarina of Time, or A Link to the Past.
And while I'm complaining again, I haven't even mentioned the sparse, barely there excuse for a connecting overworld. Anytime Link wants to head to another region, he has to take to the skies on his loftwing bird, fly over a whole in the clouds (one for each of the three regions), and sky dive down. The skies themselves feature a few small islands to explore, but for the most part, seem incredibly empty. The learning curve on flying the loftwing is high, as well, and even when you feel like you are pointing your controller in the right direction, you can suddenly veer in the opposite.
So with all that said (and in my generally long-winded manner, more said than needed...sorry Ernest), what do we make of this game? Certainly it is the black sheep of 3D home console Zelda games, especially as gamers seem to be adding a little more rose to the tint of the glasses with which they view The Wind Waker, with every passing year. Should Zelda fans who haven't yet give Skyward Sword a chance? Should anyone play it at all?!
YES!
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a great game! That 30 hours or so stretch between the first ten and last five hours is unbelievably good. Unfortunately for Skyward Sword. most Zelda games are near perfect in their entirety, and any criticisms leveled against them are generally nitpicks. Skyward Sword, while a great game, has some major flaws that are certainly not nitpicks.
I've already mentioned how long it takes to really get the game going, and also the annoying back-tracking it employs near the end. I've also hinted at the problem with the controls. When they work, they really work: the only thing more life-like would be giving the player a Wii Motion Plus controller shaped like a real sword. Unfortunately, when the controls don't work, they are maddeningly frustrating, and as the game developers went all-in with the motion controls for every aspect of the game, there are plenty of opportunities for frustration. For instance, the entrance to every dungeon's final boss can only be unlocked with a special, 3-dimensional key. You don't just need to find the key, though. You have to use motion controls to shift it around and around until it fits right. There are also times when you need to draw on walls with your sword that make you feel like a toddler attempting calligraphy. And finally, any time you need to steer something for an extended period of time, the controls will inevitably and unexplainably switch axis. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, another Nintendo franchise member that deeply explored motion controls, did so far more intuitively, and never seemed to use them just for the sake of using them. I wish the developers of Skyward Sword had taken notes from that game. Especially when it seems like every boss near the end is following the same "slash sideways at me to hit me...okay, now slash vertically," pattern.



There's also the matter of the game's dash meter. It was intended to give the player the opportunity to run fast for short periods of time with no item required...but, unfortunately, the developers applied the meter to moments Link has to climb, as well. I don't know how many times I reached two adjacent ledges, and attempted to make the "jump to the next ledge" motion with the Wii Remote, only for the controls to fail, and my dash meter to run out--sending me plummeting to my death. Previous games allowed Link to hang from ledges as long as need be, without worry.
Also, the passing of the day, a staple in Zelda games for more than a decade, is left out of Skyward Sword. The sun doesn't move. Link can take a nap to change the time of day in Skyloft, but he can't leave for the larger world until he sets it back to daytime.
Lest this just be one huge bitchfest about a game I actually like, I would be remiss to go back and pick on these flaws without going back to praise some elements I haven't yet mentioned.
Link's home town and island of Skyloft is very well-designed, and feels more lived in and homey then any previous Zelda location. Its citizens' daily routines are interesting, and they are fun to interact with. The town bazaar adds much depth to the game (in addition to buying stuff, you can collect materials to upgrade what you already have), and is fun to frequently visit. The plentiful sub-quests (not required to complete game), many taking place in Skyloft itself, are very engaging. Link's item list is quite exiting. The option to collect bugs is a fun diversion, and adds color. Also, for the first time ever, someone not named Link or Zelda receives a deep character arc. I am typing of Groose, whose development throughout Skyward Sword is surprisingly rich, full, and satisfying. A twist with another character at the end of the game caught me off-guard, but was well earned. The music really does improve as the game goes on--it's the first Zelda game to use a full orchestra throughout, and the soundtrack as a whole almost sounds like that of a Miyzaki film...actually, there's a Miyazaki influence running throughout all of Skyward Sword, from the music, to some of the boss, character, and terrain design, just as Twilight Princess seemed influenced by Peter Jackson's then-recent Lord of the Rings films. With all that said, and going back to music in a final fanboy rant...what does it take for Koji Kondo to compose a Zelda game again? Does he just feel like he is too old for the work? Is Nintendo holding him back? Is his supervisory job more satisfying? These games have been well-scored in his absence, but they're also like a John Williams-less Star Wars. Come back, Kondo! Also, I never want Link to talk in a game, but voice-acting for everyone else would have made the overall story more immersive. Also, make Link left-handed again!!!
Despite debuting to great accolades, critical opinion on Skyward Sword seems to have trended downward only months after it was released. I know I seem to be coming down on the game harshly, but I really am fond of it, despite its numerous flaws. With Breath of the Wild now hitting stores, and the Wii U passing into the night with a Skyward Sword HD update conspicuously lacking, I hope Skyward Sword isn't completely forgotten. The motion controls, while somewhat flawed in practice, are a great idea, and incredible when they work. The dream-like, storybook middle 30 hours deserve to thrive in Zelda legend. Hopefully, at some point, the best qualities of Skyward Sword will find their place in history.*^(3)



*1 I get that, as the Twilight Princess portions of Faron Woods take place far in the Zelda future, it makes sense that their music is darker and more mysterious, while Skyward Sword's less ancient Faron Woods' music should be more playful and fun...It doesn't mean I have to like it, though!
*2 By non-Alanis Morissette irony, I mean that I used the word "irony" correctly.
*3 This really brings things full circle for me. While there are still plenty of Wii, and while we're at it, PS3 games I'd like to play through, I'll consider those more like retro reviews and put them on my "Classic Video Game Reviews" website--I've now played all the games I purposely missed in that generation due to my stupid, self-imposed gaming ban. Glad, with this reveiw now complete, to not have to mention that again.

8.5

Graphics

Blurry art style takes a while to get used to, and is sometimes strangely utilized, but overall, a good looking game for Wii, particularly in its latter portions.

8.8

Music and Sound

Soundtrack is a little uneven by Zelda standards, meaning the majority is awesome, but there are weak tracks--mostly in the beginning. Sounds are great and immersive, but it's time for some voice-acting!

8.8

Gameplay

The majority of the game is classic Zelda, re-contextualized with sometimes brilliant motion controls, tainted by a grindingly slow start, backtrack heavy ending, problems with said motion controls, and some odd gameplay quirks.

9.0

Lasting Value

About a 50-hour adventure, with multiple side-quests to stretch out that number even more...(just push past the beginning!)

8.8FINAL SCORE