Zelda on the Wii To Include Sword Swinging

IGN has the news that the Wii version of Twilight Princess has been retooled to allow you to swing Link's sword. The bow and arrow has been moved to the 'B' button, alleviating one of the big complaints hands-on users had at E3. From the article: "Miyamoto felt that that shooting the arrow with the D-pad was too difficult, and the B button allows for quicker and easier shooting. It's unclear if the game will require the new control scheme or if players will be able to chose between different methods of control. Nintendo Dream closed off by asking Miyamoto to name the version of Zelda he personally prefers. The master game maker said that he'd play the Wii version, but added that both versions will be fun."

Comments

Not a real sword, folks.

[dmwst30]

The Wii controller isn't a sword, there's not that much weight extended several feet from your arm. It's not going to take physical training for most people to use this. More importantly, given the motion detection and location detection described so far, a small twitch of your wrist should be enough to move the cursor across the screen.

So while you CAN pretend to really sword fight, you don't NEED to do so. Nothing to complain about here.

Re:Not a real sword, folks.

[Coryoth]

Try swinging your arm in circles for about a minute. Now try to justify how your arm, which is likely incredibly tired now, will be better able to hold up to playing Zelda sword fighting for 45 minutes to an hour.

Because as we know it takes years of fitness training for, say, an orchestra conductor to manage to wave his baton continuously for the hour or three (depending on the performance really, some operas are rather lengthy) of a performance. I mean have you seen those guys? Nobody but extremely fit well toned people in their 20s can pull it off. Combine that with the fact that any session of Zelda is going to be continuous hack and slash effort through an endless supply of enemies (all that tedious exploration and puzzle solving and story has been done away with apparently) and yeah, I can see that it would just be brutal.

Odd final question

[y5]

Nintendo Dream closed off by asking Miyamoto to name the version of Zelda he personally prefers. The master game maker said that he'd play the Wii version, but added that both versions will be fun.

What? What kind of stupid question...? What did they expect him to say?

"I think I'd prefer the Gamecube version. Playing with the Wii controller just isn't intuitive - as a matter of fact, don't bother buying one. I wasted my time helping produce it, and it's embarrassing to me. Death, come quick come quick come quick..."

Sword?

[dohzer]

Sword shmord! I want to be able to play the Wiimote like an ocarina!

Re:My Arm

[wuie]

Never underestimate the arm/hand strength of a lonely gamer.

Ambidextrous Link?

[the_crowing]

Has anyone ever noticed that Link is left-handed? I wonder if Nintendo is going to allow Link to hold the sword in either hand to match the players unidexterity? I'm not an experienced swordsmen by any means, but I think I would have a hard time playing a game that forced me to use my left hand for something like that since, like the majority of the population, I'm right handed. And I think it would be pretty awkward swinging my right arm and watching Link mirror my motion with his left.

Re:Ambidextrous Link?

[thatguywhoiam]

Welcome to my world, you bastard! I have to use my off hand for shifting (I live in North America)

There is an adaptor available for people like you; I believe it is called Britain.

Re:Noooooooo!!!

[voice_of_all_reason]

Ah, the convoluted mantras of a nintendo fanboy...

The wii is the revolution, comrade! Backwards compatability to the NES! Everyone is welcome! Use either controller! It's open to all users! Family friendly games as well as more mature content! Online! The entire userbase will be satisfied... but use the fucking wiimote or I'll gut you like a fish!!!

Re:Why wouldn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you don't believe somebody could come up with a swordfighting AI good enough to take advantage of random flailing? It doesn't seem too hard to me.

Excellent news. When do you think you'll have it finished?

Re:Why wouldn't it? or how heavy is my sword

[WillAffleckUW]

They originally wanted all swinging to be done through the Wiimote, but then found that it tires you too quickly, so they just constrained it to "special" sorts of attacks, or something like that.

Well, real swords do that. They're heavy. Your wrist and your arm and your shoulder get tired.

Personally, I rather look forward to more realistic swordplay. I've had it with teeny young girls swinging giant two-handed swords in glowing arcs as they attack, or throwing halberds (those things are heavy) as if they were toothpicks.

I would hope you can choose to have "realistic effects" if you want, quite frankly. Sure, turn them off if you can't handle it, but leave them for the purists like me who just don't want all the scars you get from that kind of thing.

Feedback

[GFLPraxis]

The real difficult part is feedback. You swing a sword from right to left. Halfway through the swing, on screen, your opponent puts out his sword and blocks the attack. Your hand keeps going. Now your hand is all the way on the left, but on the screen, your sword is in the middle of the screen, confusing the heck out of the player.

Regardless, the reason the Wii version of Zelda didn't have real-time sword tracking is because it was an up-port of the GameCube version. Nintendo simply mapped all the GameCube buttons onto the Wii-mote, and then let you use the pointer for aiming arrows (which worked spectacularly well when I tried it at E3, I was pulling off headshots within ten seconds of pulling out the bow and arrow).