The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is Nintendo’s next installment in the Legend of Zelda series for the Wii, and the successor to Twilight Princess. Gameplay will feel very familiar to any fans of the franchise since Ocarina of Time, and to its credit, Nintendo wants gameplay to be intuitive. There are some slight new wrinkles, such as a radial weapons selection system and the ability to remote pilot certain launched weapons.

Gameplay on display included dungeon exploration and a bird flying experience. Environments (and graphics in general) really betray the age of the Wii console, and don’t seem to push its limits at all. What wasn’t apparent in this early demo however was the overall plotline that would send Link on his journey, and that could make the difference in what might seem like a mediocre entry in the series.

Super Mario (titled just like that), for the 3DS feels strikingly similar to New Super Mario Bros. for the 1st gen DS, albeit from a top-down perspective. The 3D effect, for the most part, felt arbitrary, although the game gets its highest marks when it uses it as part of a puzzle. A good example of this is when a block appears to be part of an isometric pyramid, but when the 3D is enabled, perspective reveals it to be isolated.

Mario also has access to his Tanooki (Raccoon) suit from SMB 3, allowing him to soar over perilous chasms.

Skyward Sword and Super Mario, while both entertaining in their own respects, underscore a sense of complacency Nintendo has with their legacy titles, one that nearly borders on contempt for their audiences. While it’s now a foregone conclusion that Nintendo will continue to mine these properties for every new console release, I wish at least they’d trust their userbase to take the kind of artistic risks they’ve taken with titles such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or Paper Mario, for example. I feel hardcore fans are willing to go with Nintendo on that journey.

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Photos by Andrew Sorcini