Now that the wii is ending it's run I figure it's a good time to look back on the thing everybody wanted the console to do in the first place: realistic sword fighting.
I was really excited about the wii, way back when it was released, for it's potential to allow realistic sword fighting simulations. In fact, I even have a little sword shaped wiimote attachment type thing to make it seem more like a sword. However, when I played Twilight Princess on the wii I was really disappointed, there was nothing to the sword mechanics that wasn't already accomplished with a simple button press. Then came the wii motion plus, and finally there was the possibility of having a decent sword fight in a video game.
The first game with WM+ that I played was Red Steel 2. I was pretty impressed by this game: it allowed slashes in - pretty much - any direction you wanted, the character's sword moved in - pretty much - the same way you moved the wiimote, blocking worked well, and some super moves spiced things up. One thing that was not so good was you couldn't move while slashing, but overall it felt like you were actually fighting with a sword. Although, the game was a bit too easy.
Next, was wii Sports Resort's swordplay game. This game was in third person rather than Red Steel's first person and allowed for slashing and blocking but not manual movement. It worked well and the fast paced slash-block-counterattack allowed the game to capture the flow of an actual sword fight. It starts of painfully easy but as you increased in rank the opponents started offering a decent challenge.
Finally I played Skyward Sword and I was pretty hyped for this game. Finally, I thought, a Zelda game that would make me feel like the awesome swordsman that is Link! Too bad though, that in this game, Link is a guy who runs around waving his sword all over the place like a doofus. Okay, well that's not fair you don't need to have your sword out while running, but I liked to imagine that Fi in the master sword was pretty much dragging him around, so he would frequently have it out while running like it was leading Link.
Anyway, the sword play in this game felt downright clunky. You could move the sword around when not slashing, but I'm not really sure what this does. Maybe you are supposed to position the sword in the right place before you swing, but it's too slow and hardly seems to make a difference anyway. Not to mention what a dumb idea it would be to make the response delay of the motion controls even greater by having to make more motions before you are allowed to attack. Slashing in the right direction is frequently imprecise and I got barbecued on those blasted cattle prods more times than I'm proud of. Actually getting Link to swing his sword was probably the most difficult thing about the combat; it seems like the only motion the game will register as a sword slash is a flick of the wrist. I don't know about anybody else, but when I think of sword fights I don't think about the combatants flicking their swords around like their conducting an orchestra. Not to mention that all this flicking started to make my wrists sore after a while. I don't even really get it, both Sports Resort and Red Steel allowed for much broader movements to trigger slashes. Actually, it's probably this way to allow for the pointless stupid sword waving. Blocking is probably the worst it's ever been in the Zelda series, no longer allowing the shield to be angled at all. The enemies were pretty boring too, mostly blocking for an eternity before attacking. The biggest thing to worry about when fighting random mooks (other than those stupid electric axes) is the enemy dying of old age, which in the desert, they frequently do. Overall, the swordplay in Skyward Sword felt pretty much the same as it did in Twilight Princess, only with slashing in 8 directions that could have been accomplished with an analogue stick. I think, for a game that was supposed to be developed from the ground up using the superior technology of the WM+, that's pretty sad.
I don't know if there are other WM+ games that focus on sword fighting, but from what I've played I would have to say that Red Steel 2 is the best, followed by Wii Sports Resort, With Skyward Sword trailing far behind.
What does the rest of The Escapist think? Agree? Disagree? Have another game with mechanics even better than the ones that I mentioned?
I was really excited about the wii, way back when it was released, for it's potential to allow realistic sword fighting simulations. In fact, I even have a little sword shaped wiimote attachment type thing to make it seem more like a sword. However, when I played Twilight Princess on the wii I was really disappointed, there was nothing to the sword mechanics that wasn't already accomplished with a simple button press. Then came the wii motion plus, and finally there was the possibility of having a decent sword fight in a video game.
The first game with WM+ that I played was Red Steel 2. I was pretty impressed by this game: it allowed slashes in - pretty much - any direction you wanted, the character's sword moved in - pretty much - the same way you moved the wiimote, blocking worked well, and some super moves spiced things up. One thing that was not so good was you couldn't move while slashing, but overall it felt like you were actually fighting with a sword. Although, the game was a bit too easy.
Next, was wii Sports Resort's swordplay game. This game was in third person rather than Red Steel's first person and allowed for slashing and blocking but not manual movement. It worked well and the fast paced slash-block-counterattack allowed the game to capture the flow of an actual sword fight. It starts of painfully easy but as you increased in rank the opponents started offering a decent challenge.
Finally I played Skyward Sword and I was pretty hyped for this game. Finally, I thought, a Zelda game that would make me feel like the awesome swordsman that is Link! Too bad though, that in this game, Link is a guy who runs around waving his sword all over the place like a doofus. Okay, well that's not fair you don't need to have your sword out while running, but I liked to imagine that Fi in the master sword was pretty much dragging him around, so he would frequently have it out while running like it was leading Link.
Anyway, the sword play in this game felt downright clunky. You could move the sword around when not slashing, but I'm not really sure what this does. Maybe you are supposed to position the sword in the right place before you swing, but it's too slow and hardly seems to make a difference anyway. Not to mention what a dumb idea it would be to make the response delay of the motion controls even greater by having to make more motions before you are allowed to attack. Slashing in the right direction is frequently imprecise and I got barbecued on those blasted cattle prods more times than I'm proud of. Actually getting Link to swing his sword was probably the most difficult thing about the combat; it seems like the only motion the game will register as a sword slash is a flick of the wrist. I don't know about anybody else, but when I think of sword fights I don't think about the combatants flicking their swords around like their conducting an orchestra. Not to mention that all this flicking started to make my wrists sore after a while. I don't even really get it, both Sports Resort and Red Steel allowed for much broader movements to trigger slashes. Actually, it's probably this way to allow for the pointless stupid sword waving. Blocking is probably the worst it's ever been in the Zelda series, no longer allowing the shield to be angled at all. The enemies were pretty boring too, mostly blocking for an eternity before attacking. The biggest thing to worry about when fighting random mooks (other than those stupid electric axes) is the enemy dying of old age, which in the desert, they frequently do. Overall, the swordplay in Skyward Sword felt pretty much the same as it did in Twilight Princess, only with slashing in 8 directions that could have been accomplished with an analogue stick. I think, for a game that was supposed to be developed from the ground up using the superior technology of the WM+, that's pretty sad.
I don't know if there are other WM+ games that focus on sword fighting, but from what I've played I would have to say that Red Steel 2 is the best, followed by Wii Sports Resort, With Skyward Sword trailing far behind.
What does the rest of The Escapist think? Agree? Disagree? Have another game with mechanics even better than the ones that I mentioned?
