To the surprise of few fans, Nintendo announced plans for Super Mario's 35th-anniversary celebration that many felt were lackluster, but it still brought goods from the Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation to Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury, and a large a range of merchandise and apparel. The Legend of Zelda's 35th-anniversary hasn't been given the same treatment, with less than a handful of things to look forward to, with by far the biggest announcement being The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. According to series producer Eiji Aonuma, there are no more announcements on the way.
Skyward Sword HD is a remaster of the polarizing Nintendo Wii game, fit with upgraded visuals and a range of quality-of-life improvements over the original. Alongside the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Nintendo also released a limited-time amiibo featuring Zelda and Loftwing, but an exclusive in-game feature tied to the collectible has ended up creating more controversy than excitement. On top of that, scalpers are sitting back and reaping the rewards at the expense of others.
How Fast Travel Works in Skyward Sword HD
In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, players will find themselves frequently travelling back and forth between Skyloft, a series of floating islands high above the clouds that serves as the home of Link and Zelda, and the Surface, a large mass of land at the mercy of monsters. In order to move between worlds, while traversing the surface world, players must locate a Bird Statue hidden somewhere throughout the map (there's plenty around), which offers a range of options including the ability to save the game or travel to the sky. It's a simple enough system, and the map makes finding one of the Bird Statues fairly easy, but there's always the risk of death when searching for a place to escape.
Zelda and Loftwing Amiibo's Exclusive Feature
Most people that are buying amiibo are doing it for the collectible nature of the figures (similar to Funko Pops), given they're one of the only high-quality collectible figurines available for Nintendo-licensed characters. With that said, amiibo generally provide an in-game benefit of some sort as well, such as exclusive outfits including the Super Mario Odyssey Wedding Mario amiibo which gave players access to Mario's Tuxedo and Top Hat; or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Wolf Link amiibo that would unlock Wolf Link as a partner character in Breath of the Wild. In Skyward Sword HD, the Zelda and Loftwing amiibo took things a step further and unlocked the ability for players to fast-travel from the surface to the sky at any time.
The first major point of controversy surrounding the Zelda and Loftwing amiibo for Skyward Sword HD comes from the fact that the exclusive fast-travel feature is a massive quality-of-life improvement over the original, and rather than offer it to all players, Nintendo has locked it behind a paywall. The second point of contention comes down to cost and availability. The Zelda and Loftwing amiibo was already suffering from major shipping constraints, resulting in a delay of most of the stock from July to late August, and what stock is available is being picked up by scalpers and sold at extortionate prices due to the limited-edition nature of the figure and the demand that comes with such a helpful in-game feature.
It's a shame that Nintendo opted to go this route with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD 'Zelda and Loftwing' amiibo, rather than adding the new fast travel mechanic to the base game as a quality- of-life improvement for all players like the ability to skip cutscenes or the ability to play without using motion controls. On top of that, there's no way Nintendo wasn't aware scalpers would be a major problem for a limited-edition item like an amiibo, and that fans were going to be upset about missing out on such a huge feature. With so few new products to be excited about for the Legend of Zelda 35th anniversary, it's disappointing that what is there has been hindered.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is available now, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.