Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword ~ The Path To Riches

Hard to believe it's been almost 25 years since the original Legend of Zelda was released on Nintendo back in 1987. I was a teenager at the time and vividly remember rushing home to play the game for hours and hours at a time and I believe I finished the game, a few months later. It was a great game.

The next release of the game was The Adventure of Link in 1988 and while I do remember playing the game all the way through, I don't remember it as fondly as the Original. I guess that's generally the way it is, the original is generally the best since it's unique and new. This one was more a side scrolling game similar to Super Mario Brothers for the most part.

It wasn't until Twilight Princess and the Wii came out in 2006 that I tried out Zelda again. It had real nice graphics and was quite different from the original of course. A lot changes in almost 20 years of gaming. It was a free form action adventure game with lots of different goals/missions and lots of different scenic backdrops. I think I played it for maybe a few weeks here and there, but lost interest after a while. For the most part, I don't have the desire and dedication to spend the time required to play a lengthy game like that from beginning to end these days.

I haven't turned on the Wii in almost a year for more than maybe a few minutes, but a guy at work pointed out that there is a new Legend of Zelda coming out (yesterday) and that it got a 10 out of 10 perfect rating on IGN. I thought that was pretty impressive, so I figured I would dust er off and see if she turns on and then might give this one a try.

Much to my surprise, she did fire up on the first try and I started up Skyward Sword. It starts out with several movie like scenes, which you can skip through and then you start the main game. I spend several hours playing and I can say it definitely is quite impressive so far. Like the review mentioned, there is a lot of cimematography and it is far more than just going from mission to mission. You do of course have little missions to complete, however those are part of a much bigger picture where you meet lots of characters along the way and have a connection to the storyline.

You start out in Skyloft, a world in the clouds where the main character, Link, grew up alongside Zelda. There is a flying competition that you will be competing in and you will be riding on your trusty flying bird to win the competition and earn a specific item from Zelda. That's as far as I got so far. The flying portion was fun, very smooth and the game definitely takes full advantage of the Wii Motion Plus, which is required for this game.

All in all it was a good reason to fire up the Wii. Looking at the screen shots of what will be coming up later in the game, I'm looking forward to playing the game some more. I probably will not end up finishing the game fully, but it still has potential. I think it will be a hit for the holiday season and may be one of the last great games released for the Wii.

Any plays to try it out or have any other must have games for the Wii that were released recently? If you try it out, let me know what you think.