The Newest Legend of Zelda Remake Took A Ridiculous Amount Of Time To Perfect
The most recent Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword remake took a ridiculous amount of time to make, because of one crucial element.
As gamers, we often don’t give enough credit to the tireless hours that most developers have to go through in order to deliver the best game possible. While some often get frustrated at the fact that games get delayed, there is a level of understanding that must be upheld as well. Games take a ridiculous amount of time to perfect, and that is certainly the case when more updates have to be rolled out to fix glitches and bugs. It was recently revealed by Tantalus Media, the developer behind the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD remake, that it took a year and a half for the motion controls to be converted into button inputs for the Nintendo Switch.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword game was one that may have escaped from many gamers, mostly because not everyone was able to secure a Nintendo Wii when the game had risen to prominence. But even more than that, players were flabbergasted by how awful the control scheme was for this game. Even though the Nintendo Wii had some of the best motion controls of any console, playing a Zelda game in this fashion was just awkward. The Wii remote was used to mimic slicing down with the Master Sword that Link wielded. It felt strange, to say the least. However, because the Switch does not support motion controls, those all had to be converted into button inputs for this remake to truly be accepted. Thankfully, it was. The button inputs on the control made things seem far more fluid.
CEO of Tantalus Media, Tom Crago, spoke about the troubles that it took the developer to go through making these button inputs for the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword remake. According to Crago, “Having it work button-only, joystick only was probably the biggest challenge for us,” he added, “It took a year and a half, so it was a long process making this game.” Imagine having to spend that long on just one task. You must give credit where credit is due, as the controls for the game now feel amazing. It was truly great work by many people to bring the magic of Skyward Sword to a brand-new audience. Crago spoke about these issues on the Fragments of Silicon podcast. He also claimed that Nintendo may not have published the remake had they not figured out the control issues of button inputs.
Crago also was asked about the long–rumored port of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess port to the Nintendo Switch, but he sadly shot those rumors down. Tantalus Media was responsible for the Twilight Princess HD that was made for the Wii U, so it stands to reason that Nintendo would ask them to head up the Twilight Princess port for the Switch. However, even with that bad news, we have to think Crago and Tantalus for bringing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword to the Switch and ensuring that no one else would be tortured by awkward motion controls any longer. Skyward Sword is currently available on the Nintendo Switch, and the game is a strong remembrance of the inspiration that would lead to Breath of the Wild, which is arguably the best game ever made.
