What’s New in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD?

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the last entry in the series to be released on the glorious Nintendo Wii, and the only one that has been built from the ground up for the console, as Twilight Princess was developed for the Nintendo GameCube and then ported over to the Wii.

Many years after its release, the game is a known quantity by now, but the fact that it featured some divisive motion controls and other issues put off more than a few fans of the series. This week, however, the game will get another shot at glory with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, which features a lot of tweaks and improvements that go beyond a simple new coat of paint.

Here’s everything that has been added or changed in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.

What’s New in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD?

Visuals

The most obvious change introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD are visuals improvements. The game now runs at 1920x1080p resolution in docked mode, which makes the game look considerably better than the original, which ran at a much lower resolution. In handheld mode, the game runs at 1280x720p, which is the screen’s native resolution, with minimal differences with docked mode.

The biggest change, however, is that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD runs at 60 frames per second, as opposed to the 30 frames per second of the original. This results in a much smoother experience, especially in combat, that makes the game feel way more responsive.

Controls

As we mentioned above, the original The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword heavily featured motion controls in the attempt to make the game feel more immersive, especially during combat. While the implementation was indeed fine, many long-time fans of the series did not appreciate the lack of traditional controls.

This issue is a thing of the past now, as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD features multiple control options. In the remaster, players can choose between the original motion controls, which use the Joy-Con controllers in place of the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo, and traditional controls. The implementation of traditional controls was also a necessity due to the Nintendo Switch Lite, as playing the game with motion controls in handheld mode would be extremely uncomfortable.

With players no longer being stuck with motion controls, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD also lets players have full control of the camera, something that was not available in the original release.

Quality of Life Improvements

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD tries its very best to make the experience much better with the addition of a ton of quality of life improvements. The game not only features an Auto-Save option that automatically saves your game at regular intervals, but also the option of silencing Fi, giving players the option of accessing the hints at any given time, the ability to fast-forward dialogue, the ability to skip cutscenes, and the removal of the item description text box every time an item is picked up.

While what most considered bloat in the original is still present in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, the ability to skip most tutorials should improve the experience’s pacing considerably at the start of the game. The initial hand-holding is definitely annoying, so it’s nice that Nintendo attempted to improve it with new options.

Should You Buy The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD?

With all the improvements added to the game, fans of the Zelda series will definitely not want to miss out on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, especially if they never played the original due to motion controls and other issues. The game features one of the best stories seen in the series, and if you’re a fan, you definitely do not want to miss this origin story. With Breath of the Wild 2 still being far from release, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD should tide you nicely until your next adventure in Hyrule.