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I love Zelda. Remember that as you read the following.

The next game in the Zelda series is called “Skyward Sword,” and will require usage of the Wii Motion Plus accessory. The timeframe for this game’s release is still a bit unclear as we’ve gone from expecting it at the end of this year to some time in 2011. And here’s what you’ll probably want to know about the game:

1. It works! The inclusion of the Wii Motion Plus has been a point of concern ever since the fact was revealed some time last year. Aside from Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2, using the Wii remote as a sword has been a rare occurrence. And, however fun it may be in those games, some level of awkwardness exists where one might be concerned if a whole game was based on that mechanic. People who’ve tried this new Zelda, however, are reporting that the sword does work, and seems like it could support the game rather well. Also, you move through the environment with the nunchuck’s analog stick (while the nunchuck itself acts as your shield). Here are a video of someone playing, so you can see for yourself. Notice how he needs to swing the sword a certain way in order to register a hit, and how throughout the course of the demo, he becomes more and more familiar with the fighting mechanics.

2. Story! At a developer round table after Nintendo’s press conference, and from various interviews, Aonuma and Miyamoto have revealed the setup to this game. Link is a boy from a land in the clouds called Skyloft. Everything is nice and peaceful there until, through a series of plot building events, he learns a land exists below his own and it is plagued by evil. The Skyward Sword itself interacts with Link in the form of the blue fairy-like girl from the initial concept art shown last year. At some point, that sword will become known as the Master Sword. Also, the land below is definitely Hyrule. Along this premise, we also know that there will be some manner of frequent travel between the two worlds. So. Sky people. Hyrule. The girl is a sword.

3. Style! When I first saw images of this game, my immediate thought was “Holy crap, Twilight Princess design with cel shading.” And, I was amazed. After all, cel shading can be used to make some beautiful things happen, as we have seen in Wind Waker and Okami. It turns out, however, that it wouldn’t be exactly accurate to call what Skyward Sword has “cel-shading.” The coloring style is meant more to be reminiscent of impressionist art, particularly Paul Cézanne. With that in mind, you’ll notice the screen shots actually have more of a watercolor-esque vibe. Apparently, they’re at a point in the development process where the graphics of the game are still being perfected, so perhaps this style will come out more in the final version. Also note that the trailer’s music may not reflect on that of the final game’s, as they’ve yet to compose a lot of it.

4. Items that take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus seem well crafted. The bow let’s you dictate how strongly your arrow will fly, and there’s some arc to the arrow’s trajectory. Yet, unlike Wii Sports Resort, where difficulty in aiming is part of the game, in Skyward Sword, you can use the remote to point directly at your target. Then there’s bombs, which you can bowl or throw through gestures. There’s a whip that sweeps across the screen as directed by the controller. There’s a new item - the beetle, which flies around and picks stuff up. I believe it detects tilt in order to move, but I could be wrong.

Screenshot gallery!
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Art gallery! - If you're looking for higher resolutions of these images, send me a private message. There is a decent sized image on this server if you go to the image page and click "Original."

And the trailer is after the jump.

I’m really having a hard time putting this information into words. There’s a lot here. I’m going to have to make specific articles for Zelda and 3DS later, so I’ll just go through each item as a list.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is cel-shaded, but in the style of Twilight Princess. Miyamoto demo’d the game live on stage (with some technical difficulties), but it looks like it’s integrated WiiMotion+ rather thoroughly. The Wiimote is your sword, then the nunchuck is your shield. It looks really nice, but I’m looking forward to hearing back about the demo’s on the show floor. Apparently, the sky is a key plot element (which reminds me of the sky people in Minish Cap). Also, it’s been delayed to 2011. And here's the trailer! And here's some gameplay!

Then there’s the 3DS, which looks rather amazing. They weren’t able to demo the technology on stage, so this is another thing where we’ll have to wait to hear some opinions. The top screen will be widescreen, with full 3D capabilities, while the bottom screen is still touch, but not 3D. There’s motion sensors and gyroscopes, and something called a “slide pad” that appears to be a flat analog stick. There’s two camera lenses on the back that allow you to take photos in 3D. You’ll be able to watch current movies made with 3D technology on the device, with Warner Bros, Disney, and Dreamworks as frontrunners in support of that. There’s a free service that connects the device to Nintendo’s servers while you’re not playing, regardless of the presence of a Wifi access point, and downloads new game content.

Kid Icarus: Uprising - after describing the 3DS’ various features, “Project Sora” was revealed to be a new Kid Icarus game. The trailer they showed had me convinced it was a Wii title - it just looked too pretty to be otherwise. Turns out, it’s for 3DS, and seems quite fun. I’ll post more on this later as well.

Read the full article for more!

Nintendo’s Media Summit started today with some rather big news. Two of Nintendo’s biggest franchises have 2010 release dates, and what’s more, they’re relatively soon! Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23, while Metroid: Other M will arrive on June 27.

These two games were shown for the first time at last year’s E3, highlights of Nintendo’s press conference. Galaxy 2 surprised few, given the success of the first game, but Other M, developed by Team Ninja, is a peculiar surprise. It will mix 2D and 3D gameplay for something that should feel like classic Metroids while still holding onto something from the Prime series. With a speaking Samus Aran, the story also promises to be more involved than we’ve probably ever seen in a Metroid game.

Meanwhile, Galaxy 2 looks to be a lot more of the “same” we saw in the first game, except this time with Yoshi and new power-ups. And, I’m not complaining. More of the same is exactly what they should do. There's a trailer for Galaxy 2 after the jump.

Iwata has said in a recent interview with the Asahi Shimbun that one of Nintendo’s goals for 2010 is to release the next Zelda by the end of the year. It’s hard to tell from the article whether or not this a hopeful goal or a scheduled one, but I’d guess either way that Nintendo will plan on a 2010 release, but then let it slip into early 2011.

Twilight Princess was released a month earlier in Japan than in America, though the release also coincided with the Wii launch in both cases, so it’s difficult to say if this is a release trend that will be continued or not for the console Zeldas. Spirit Tracks was released in North America and Europe two weeks before Japan, so it would appear to be a safe assumption that we’ll get the game around the same time... so this 2010 proposed date is for us non-Japanese folk.

Considering we still haven’t seen a trailer, or anything more than the concept art from this game, Iwata’s declaration is surprising. The developers have gone on record saying that there will be much more to show at E3 this year (June 15-17). But that’s so far away from a statement like this... I’m really unsure what to make of it. Perhaps a trailer will be released before E3, something similar to Twilight Princess’ completely vague “Blades will Bleed” trailer. Then, at E3, they can show off their new concept, and just what that Master Sword fairy girl is up to.

Let me take a moment to touch on some of the Wii Zelda-related news that’s come and gone in the past few months, so we’re all on the same page. Starting with most recent... (that list after the jump)

So it seems for their 500th title, the fine people behind Virtual Console uploads decided to give us a game fans have been expecting since day one. The original Smash Brothers game, originally for N64 is now available for download on North American Wiis. What a day! What a day. How fantastic. Yeah.

So when was the last time something significant was put on VC? I'd say... Majora's Mask? And before that, what? The fact that Nintendo has been holding onto this title in order to call it their 500th... kind of absurd. The timing is good, of course, since it gives people another reason to gift Wii points, but I still feel cheated. Guess we really have no way of knowing when a particular game will come, and we can only assume things like Donkey Kong and Goldeneye will never find their way to VC, due to Rare's affiliation.

DsiWare also got Dragon's Lair this week, which is kind of amazing. Dragon's Lair, albeit unforgiving and insane, is quite a classic, at least in that Don Bluth did the animation for it. This is quite possibly the first tinge of a reason to get a DSi.