The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

When I booted The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD up for the first time on my Switch 2, I had not expressly intended it to be a part of my Daddy-Daughter Game Night series. My eldest was playing more Tomodachi Life at the time, so I figured she was focused on that, yet I hadn't even cleared the introduction before she saw giant birds on my screen and was locked in. About a third of my time with the game from then on was spent with her as my cheerleader, pointing out interesting things on the screen and listening with rapt attention as I read the game's dialogue with storybook voices.

I have heard many times over the years about how frustrated people were with both the controls and the structure of Skyward Sword. As a kid, I was able to play my brother's copy of the Wii original a few times, and I only ever loved it, so I thought I was just immune to such frustrations. Now, playing the HD version as an adult with a lot more experience (and, arguably, less patience) with video games, I began to understand. Never has it taken me so long to get comfortable with the controls of a game. I think I had exceeded ten hours of play before it finally clicked. It didn't help that I was constantly switching between handheld and TV mode for the benefit of my kiddo, which would switch me between button and motion controls (the latter of which I eventually disabled entirely). However, none of that stopped me from still thoroughly enjoying this colorful entry in one of my favorite franchises, especially with my daughter by my side.

Designed to be a sort of origin story for the Zelda series, Skyward Sword begins by introducing you to a Link and Zelda from a time before the kingdom of Hyrule was established. Zelda technically isn't even a princess in this game. Instead, her father is the headmaster of a boarding school, which acts as a sort of pseudo-government for their small village. Link is simply Zelda's best friend and a knight-in-training at said school. As their village is isolated on an island floating in the sky, knights need some method of flight so they can rescue anyone who might fall off the edge. Your adventure begins with what is essentially Link's driving test at the DMV, if driving tests were cutthroat competitions on giant birds, rather than individual exams in grounded vehicles. Victory in said trial sparks the rest of the story, and the familiar series formula begins to take hold. 

While flying on their loftwings to celebrate Link's promotion, Zelda is dragged below the cloud barrier by a vicious storm. Seeking help back on their home island, Link is granted an ancient sword left there by the goddess Hylia. The sword is bound to a spirit that instructs him to dive down to the uncharted surface world to pursue Zelda. Journeying through three different biomes, a forest, a volcano, and a desert, you'll guide Link as he gathers useful trinkets and gets ever-closer to saving Zelda. 

The leash is a lot tighter in this game than in its predecessors, with most locations having a clear linear path to follow. Your next objective almost always obviously telegraphed, but the care that went into the design of the world and its puzzles generally made up for the lack of freedom, in my experience. While Skyward Sword currently stands as one of the last Zelda games to railroad you on a specific journey, the variety of experiences and challenges packed into this game is simply indisputable.

In one moment you may be exploring a series-traditional dungeon, but in the next you may be riding unstable mine carts like a roller coaster, swimming through a flooded forest to find singing fish, or carrying a wobbly stack of pumpkins to a storage shed to help pay off your colossal debt. Not everything in the game will land the same with you, but there's so much variety to the game that you'll likely have already moved on to something new before you have a chance to complain. I personally dreaded the spirit trials every time they came up, but it wasn't fifteen minutes after starting any of them that I was back to doing something that I really enjoyed.

Each major event in the game is also mandatorily punctuated by a return to the sky, where you are subtly encouraged to discover new secrets, treasure, and side quests without the usual hand-holding. While there isn't a lot to do on the sky islands relative to the rest of the game, I generally enjoyed my interactions with the residents of Skyloft while I resolved their problems and shopped at their stores. I wouldn't say any of the mini-games or side quests were particularly exciting, but they did add a nice depth of character to the world, and the rewards for completing these optional challenges were always nice to receive.
 
The controls notwithstanding, I think you'll only enjoy Skyward Sword if you go in with a mindset to accept it for what it is. I personally believe that most of the controversy around the game was caused purely by people's disappointment that it wasn't the Zelda game they wanted it to be. Maybe I'm giving it too much slack, but when I went in with assumption that I'll probably like it no matter what, I found that my attitude helped me to get around the early frustrations I had with the game so I could fully appreciate everything it was actually doing well.
The game is available for Switch and Switch 2 here (as of 8/4/26): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-hd-switch/

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