Gameplay
As I mentioned in my previous post, the gameplay is just awesome. The only time I've needed to recalibrate the Wii Motion Plus is when I'm away from the Wii for such a long time that the remote turns off. The game actually cleverly constantly finds opportunities for the remote to recalibrate, whether it's in combat, or making dialogue selections. All it takes to recalibrate the remote is to make a cross motion, which usually ends up happening in combat, or looking around in 1st person, or selecting items in the - or B menus.
Every item serves an important function, although the Slingshot has very few uses unless it is upgraded to the Scattershot, causing it to be ridiculously useful against wall-crawlers and groups of enemies. Unlike previous Zelda games where Link obtained literally shitloads of items that might serve a use only once, every item in Link's bag gets constantly used to the point that you might memorize the position of each item on the B menu.
Skyward Sword also happens to be the hardest Zelda game I've played since Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This is not a knock on the play control, or game design that is hard for the sake of being hard. The game is extremely challenging and features a smorgasbord of opportunities to die. Don't feel bad if you ever die, because it is going to happen.
Presentation
Although the Wii is clearly showing its age with Skyward Sword, the game mostly gets around the Wii's graphical limitations by presenting the game to look like an impressionist painting. Far away objects are made up of a few large dots, but up close objects are presented in great detail. The effect works fantastically, creating impressive draw-distance effects in every area, but most notably the Sky, where you can accurately judge distance solely on when objects appear to no longer be made of a few dots.
The soundtrack is orchestrated. What else can I say about that? Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel were both excellently scored, containing memorable song after memorable song. Although Skyward Sword doesn't contain any immediately catchy tunes, the ambiance serves a far greater purpose, making sure that every song fits the mood and area, sometimes causing the same area to have two different songs. There are also cute references to old Zelda songs here and there, but it isn't as blatantly obvious as Twilight Princess was.
The old formula of dungeon crawling has not significantly changed, but it has been tweaked for the better. Skyward Sword follows a series of threes: Three dungeons to get the three stone tablets to reveal Zelda's location, three intense trials (Silent Realm) and three dungeons to power up the Goddess Sword, and three more trials (including one final trip to the Silent Realm) to learn the location of the final dungeon. The idea of constantly revisiting previously visited areas worried some, but in actuality it's the same amount of retreading seen in previous Zelda games, discovering additional areas to regions previously visited.
Each dungeon is carefully crafted to make a unique experience, with only the first, the Skyview Temple, intentionally constructed like a "standard" Zelda dungeon to ease the player into the way dungeons are handled in Skyward Sword. Each boss fight is also memorable, even though Ghirahim and The Imprisoned are each fought three times. Some fights are reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus, although they stop short of climbing bosses to stab them in their weak points.
Story
In typical Nintendo fashion, Skyward Sword does not over-emphasize anything and presents a deep story without needless amounts of dialogue and cutscenes, a lesson that Japanese video game companies should take note of. Thankfully, Ganondorf is finally absent from the story, making way for a new villain in Ghirahim, who seeks to revive his master, Demon King, responsible for the goddess sending the humans to the sky in an ancient war. After some interesting plot twists and clever usage of old lore and names that have had no prior origin, Link discovers that the events of Skyward Sword have been destined to happen for thousands of years and that it is finally time to defeat the Demon King for good and send the humans back down to the land that will become Hyrule.
In somewhat of a side-story, Skyward Sword also serves as an origin story for the Master Sword, detailing how it came to be and why it exists in the first place. The results are a story that never needed telling in the first place, but it's pretty cool once told. Spirit guide Fi also serves constant comic relief, generally by constantly acting like a computer and never giving 100% probability on anything, even if it's painfully obvious.
Replay Value
It's a classic in the making, which I can't wait to play for a 2nd time on Hero Mode. Hero Mode is a significantly harder 2nd Quest, carrying over all treasures and upgrades, but causing hearts to be far more scarce and enemies to deal double damage. The extent of hearts being scarce is that they cannot be found in grass or off of monsters. Of course, Skyward Sword is difficult enough already, so a 2nd Quest can only be more infuriating! Yes, it's hard for the sake of being hard, but Nintendo games have had a lot of complaints over the years for being too easy.
Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Average Score: 10/10
Whereas I needed a lot of justification to give Uncharted 3 a perfect 10 and found minor flaws in Batman: Arkham City to give it a 9.5, giving Skyward Sword a perfect 10 was incredibly easy. The game simply has no flaws. I really don't know what more I can say than that. It is easily the greatest Zelda game ever made, a feat that some thought impossible. By simply saying it is better than Ocarina of Time, suggests that it is by proxy, the greatest game of all time. I won't be the one to make that claim, but I'm sure others will, while some others will claim that the bug-riddled and poorly-textured The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is somehow a better game simply because it literally has infinite quests and very good facial animation.
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