The Zelda that we've been waiting for.
User Rating: 10 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword WII
The first Zelda game I ever played was A Link to the Past, the first one I ever owned was Wind Waker, and despite my struggles, frustrations, and constant rage-quits, I've always loved the series, and I've tried hard to fall into ownership of at least all of the console titles, though that hasn't been very fruitful, I've made sure that I've beaten every game I've owned. When Nintendo released Twilight Princess on both Gamecube and Wii, I weighed my options and bought the GC version of the game, and as it turned out, that proved to be the better choice seeing as how, though the graphics were better and there was some extra content on the Wii version, GC had better gameplay. The motion control of the Wii at the time left something to be desired. Then Motion+ came out and soon after, I heard of Skyward Sword and I lost my mind. I pre-ordered the game and waited for what felt like eons before it came out and the very day I dragged my girlfriend with me to go pick it up. My expectations and over a year of waiting were paid well as I spent every night in the basement where the our Wii is kept playing the game until I beat it. It was everything you would expect, and the sword-fighting is as realistic as ever. The blend of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess visuals makes for a truly beautiful world and the build up and sense of tension in certain points of the game make it an incredible piece of work and the game shows the work Nintendo has put into the series. Though the charging my sword-beam got a little glitchy at times as Link couldn't seem to make up his mind on whether or not he felt I was holding the Wii-remote high enough and just twitched his arm up and down, the rest of the combat made me feel like I was really fighting off hordes of enemies and the game constantly builds up toward the end and lets loose during the last two bosses. The final battle almost looks like something from Final Fantasy, a seemingly empty world full of toe-deep water and a blue sky, but intensifies as the battle rages on, the sky filling with black storm clouds and lightning raining down on the battlefield. The last battle even tests your wit a little, making you observe your opponent to discover the way to finish him. The game plays its role as the beginning of the series well as it bit-by-bit explains things in ways that almost make the game seem even more mysterious, and the high number of side-quests are intriguing as well as a lot of the characters, one of these escaped me before I made a fatal mistake and lost my chance entirely. One more thing that is pleasing is the relationship between Link and Zelda, one of the things that has plagued the thoughts of many Zelda fans for years. The two are much closer in this game than they have ever been before, and the hints of romantic interest in each other are there as well, Zelda teasing Link flirtatiously, getting very close to his face, giving him a quick bad of her eyelashes here and there, while Link shows his determination to find Zelda no matter what happens, altogether giving the game its own sense of fairy-tale-completion especially towards the end. One thing to watch out for in the end though is the game's offer of a Hero-Mode, which is a more difficult version of the game, and saves over your completed game-file, so if you haven't played the game to its fullest yet, don't make a hero-mode file until you do, or you'll lose all of your progress like I did. Otherwise, this game makes for an excellent addition to the series and has plenty of action and mystery to sate the sweet tooth of any Zelda fanatic, it jumps straight to number 1 on my list of top Zelda games! The dungeons are also what a true Zelda-fan would expect: challenging, twisted in their design, and massive, maybe even a little tedious. One of these dungeons just happens to be a ship at sea stuck in time, I was stuck in that dungeon for quite a bit of time, traveling back and forth between four or five rooms trying to figure out what to do with the elements I was presented with, and to be honest I'm not even sure how I figured it out, and that is what Zelda is! 
