The Legend of Zelda celebrates it's quarter-century anniversary this year, with the release of the long-awaited sword swinging, epic adventuring, role playing phenomenon The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - and Link's looking just as good as he ever has.
Launching on the 18th November, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is notable for being one of the most recent games to require the Motion+, Nintendo's enhanced motion sensing add-on for the Wii Remote which enables games to track your moves even more accurately than before, as seen in Wii Play Motion, FlingSmash, and Wii Sports Resort (it really is impressive stuff). Used heavily throughout the game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will also require the accessory - or a Wii Remote Plus, which has the Motion+ capabilities built in - but don't worry if you don't have one yet, as you're simply a pre-order away from securing yourself a limited edition copy of the game, which comes with a swanky new gold one...
Gold overload...
… as well as a soundtrack CD and a copy of the game. As you can see, the controller comes in a sparkly gold colour, complete with a little Hylian Crest on the front - although a matching Nunchuck (perhaps even shaped like a shield) would have been even better, seeing as the bog-standard white one might look a bit out of place when attached to the gold Wii Remote. The CD comes with some selected orchestral versions of some of the famous Zelda tunes, as performed as part of the Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony performances, and altogether, provides you with everything you need to play the game in one handy package.
In case you're still wondering what you'd be plonking your money down for, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the latest instalment in the Legend of Zelda series, and begins with Link living in the clouds in a place called Skyloft. Stumbling across the Skyward Sword, Link discovers the land of Hyrule far below, only to find it's being over-run with evil forces. As you may expect, it's up to link to step in and fix everything, over the course of an epic quest that'll see you solving puzzles, exploring dungeons, and using the Wii Remote Plus in all sorts of special ways. The big difference for this iteration is that the Wii Remote becomes your sword in battles, so every swipe is mirrored accurately in the game. Far from simply making your battles seem all the more impressive (or like Link's having some sort of fit, as it'll undoubtedly look like when I'm controlling him), it actually becomes a vital part of the combat - certain enemies will require you to chop in certain directions to avoid armoured bits, while strange eyes guard doors, and track your sword, so a quick swirl of the sword is all it takes to send them off in a dizzy spin.
So for those of you that think you need a Limited Edition gold Wii Remote Plus in your life, you'll need to get your skates on and get pre-ordering, as the pack is only available, while stocks last, for people who pre-order the game before it's release on the 18th November this year. Whether it'll cost more, or the same as the standard version of the game remains to be seen, thanks to an ambiguously worded press release, but you'll know as soon as we do.
