With exactly one month to go from its release, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has earned more than just a positive review from Official Nintendo Magazine, but the game has hit it out of the park. Not only has Skyward Sword wowed the critics over at ONM, but they also state that it will be more than gracious to players who want a long fulfilling game.
From just looking at the intro of Skyward Sword, one could tell that this is not just any old Legend of Zelda game. The story behind Skyward Sword promises depth and looking at the latest gameplay video of Link exploring Lake Floria and one of the temples solidifies high expectations.
What should you expect from the game time? Shigeru Miyamoto said that it would take players 50-100 hours to complete Skyward Sword and his prediction is quite accurate. Official Nintendo Magazine clocks the main story at 35 hours - without the side quests. However, if you are looking to get everything out of this game, expect this title to take about 70 hours long to fully complete.
“There are about 35 hours to be spent on Skyward Sword’s main quest along, and at least double that if you plan on dipping into the game’s plentiful side-quests, collecting all of the insects, upgrading all of the items, discovering the locations of the Goddess Cubes and exploring the world.”
With such a great play time, and from what players have come to see thus far, it comes as no surprise to expect a positive review of the game, but Official Nintendo Magazine‘s review may spark even more anticipation with a 98% score. This review is ONM’s highest joint score ever – and can be seen in this December’s issue.
How does this reflect on the rest of the franchise? Skyward Sword is now ONM’s highest scored game for the Wii and is now the best rated game of all the Legend of Zelda series. Surprisingly, Official Nintendo Magazine only rated Ocarina of Time a 95%, while Twilight Princess score a 97%. The other best rated games that Skyward Sword beat out on the Wii to become the best rated game on the console also include Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, which both received 97% scores.
Summing up ONM’s review, “It’s not something we say lightly, but the Zelda series really has never been this good.”
Could this possibly be the best Zelda game ever? Gamers will have to find out November 20 when The Legend of Zelda: Skwyward hits shelves in North America.
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Source: Official Nintendo Magazine Article 1 & Article 2
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It is interesting to note that Ocarina of Time is still considered by many in the industry to be the best video game of all time.
Still think Skyward Sword will be awesome, but OOT will be hard to top.
I agree. OOT set the bar, and it still stands regardless of what ONM says. 97%, 2% higher then OOC is BS. I played both. it’s simply not true.
I wont be buying SS when it comes out. I sold my wii 2 weeks ago. So I might play this game once I purchase a Wii U, depending on if the launch games are decent.
I hope who ever reviews this game here on gamerant gives this a fair and Un-biased review.
I agree that OoT is better than TP and that Nintendo’s magazine might not be the most trustworthy reviewer of Nintendo games, but Edge magazine (an independent gamer magazine known for being very tough in it’s reviews, having only given out fourteen “10 out of 10″ ratings in it’s history) gave Skyward Sword a 10 out of 10.
I think ONM isn’t being hyperbolic for the sake of supporting Nintendo, I think this is just a legitimately awesome game. Maybe the best Zelda, maybe not, I’ll find out when I play it.
That’s interesting.
I’ll be waiting for it.
I honestly hope it is.
Nintendo Magazine actually gives reliable gaming scores, they’re not always positive of Nintendo games. Obviously any AAA Ninty title is gonna score well.
And @Yuuchun did you say that you played SS? It hasn’t even been released yet. Sorry if that’s not what you said. I’m just a little confused on your wording
Nah, i didn’t say SS. I meant Twilight princess shouldn’t have gotten the higher rating.
OOC is simply the best of the best. for now.
I wish I could play it with a classic controller. :\ I hate motion controls.
@kholdestare89, don’t know if you’ve noticed the trend of Nintendo developed Wii games but they don’t “over do” the motion controls. The Mario Galaxy games and Twilight Princess played great because they didn’t try to use motion controls for everything, small stuff such as jerking the wii mote to make Mario punch or holding the wiimote and nunchuk like a bow n arrow to simulate using a bow n arrow in Twilight Princess. Usually they use the Analog stick as the movement and the A button for talking to people or interacting with objects and jerking the controller to do a combo of sword attacks. I thought the Nintendo branded Wii games uses just the right amount of motion control but still could’ve been done just fine with a regular controller. I’m excited for this game and have no worries about the controls, I understand your fear but trust me, Nintendo will do right by you when it comes to control scheme.
I don’t really believe so. While I’m certain that there are those out there who enjoy motion controls, I’ve never enjoyed them and I don’t believe there’s a game out there that can possibly make me enjoy them. To me, it’s almost as big of a gimmick as 3D is for gaming and for the most part, it’s generally tacked on. Take Donkey Kong Returns, for example. You can’t tell me that the game wouldn’t have been better had it stayed with a more classic control scheme. The shaking of the remote never seemed to work right for me and ruined my experience with the game. Aside from the star bits, I don’t think Galaxy really benefited from the control scheme and Twilight Princess was much better to me with a Gamecube controller. Even games like Resident Evil 4, that I admit had a decent control scheme on the Wii, have me going back to the classic style of controls.
I’ll likely just watch a Let’s Play of SS and call it a day.
Guess i’ll finally Go buy a Wii.