Should Skyward Sword Give Players More Control Options?

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was released today, and the game is already buzzing with controversy. Specifically, some reviewers and players are insisting that the game’s motion controls are fantastic while others are reporting that they are “clunky” and intermittently unresponsive. That’s part of the reason why I gave the game a 9.5, though I personally felt that the game’s controls were just about perfect. I thought that Nintendo was going to potentially alienate a lot of players by preventing them from playing the game with standard controls. By definition, a perfect game does not alienate fans.

Some find that motion controls make them constantly aware of their bodies in a way that button controls do not. Button and stick controls have become second nature for most “diehard” gamers. For them, button and stick controls work as the most direct and non-intrusive connection between our world and the game world. Just as they don’t have to think about moving each muscle in their body when going for a walk, they don’t even have to think about what button to press on the controller when playing a game. For these players, the standard controller truly is an extension of themselves.

That’s why they hate motion controls so much. Where standard button controls are something their muscle memory has fully embraced, motion controls are still a relatively new and awkward thing to adjust to. Even though many of the motions in Skyward Sword only require a flick of the wrist (or the elbow at the very most), the game’s controls are still likely to distract and annoy them.

This brings us to Skyward Sword, a game that seems to try to have it both ways but isn’t quite willing to go the extra mile to get there. According to certain reviews, the game’s motions controls have clearly taken at least one person out of the game. Now, as the video from TheBitBlock above clearly demonstrates, to fault the game’s controls for your inability to play it properly is an inaccurate assessment. That would be like giving a bad review to a perfectly good basketball because, every time you try to get it in the hoop, it bounces off the backboard. Good reviewers would know when it’s their fault, not the game’s, for their inability to enjoy it. That’s often not true of reviews of motion-controlled games. A lot of reviewers fail to understand that if a motion-controlled game works some of the time, then that means that it would work all the time if they were playing it properly. I could go on about that topic, but I’ll save it for another time.

In addition to being able to differentiate between personal flaws and a game’s flaws, it’s also their job to speak from their heart as well as their head. Though I felt like Skyward Sword was a perfect 10, I thought that the game was too potentially alienating to be considered flawless from a design perspective. To get a 10/10, the game has to give all players everything they could possible want or expect out of a title. The forced motion controls are just enough to keep Skyward Sword from getting there.

The fact that the Wii U exists says that Nintendo understands how much players appreciate being provided with control of how they experience their games. The same goes for the 3DS and its ability to turn off the 3D effect. If Nintendo ever makes a 3DS game that forces you to play with the 3D on, you can be sure that it will alienate some people. So far, that hasn’t been an issue. As excited as Nintendo may be about 3D, it still seems to understand that, if 3D is as great as it hopes, it won’t need to force us to accept it. We will gravitate to it naturally if it truly enhances the experience.