While the duo discussed several projects throughout the interview, one of the most interesting details came from Iwamoto talking about wanting to work with Monolith Soft again in another game in the Zelda series. He praised the studio as being a “strong partner” when it comes to making games in the Zelda franchise, and went on to say that they should “use the know-how we’ve developed by working together” to make a new unique title in the series.

“Monolith Soft is a strong partner when it comes to developing Zelda games from scratch,” said Iwamoto. “And more and more I would like to see them taking on a central role in production. Going forward, let’s use the know-how we’ve developed by working together, and the strength of the whole Monolith Soft team, to create a unique title in the series together.”

While this by no means serves as definitive confirmation that the next mainline entry in The Legend of Zelda franchise will be developed by Monolith Soft, Nintendo and the developer are quite likely already working on something new for the series in the background.

Elsewhere in the interview, Fujita also discussed the role Monolith Soft had played in the development of Zelda games, and how it has evolved since its work on Skyward Sword.

“Monolith Soft now has a larger number of developers, and the way we’re involved has changed,” said Fujita. “With Skyward Sword, the main relationship was that Monolith Soft would create the data in accordance with the game design and specifications laid out by Nintendo, but with Breath of the Wild, we’re more likely to ‘think and create together.'”

While the studio had been working with Nintendo for quite some time with the latter owning 96 percent of the studio as of 2011, Nintendo became a 100 percent owner of Monolith Soft back in December 2024. While this didn’t really change much since Nintendo was already the majority stakeholder in the studio, Monolith Soft now being owned 100 percent by the company likely means that it has more access to the internal infrastructure and support system that had already been set up.

In June, Monolith Soft had revealed that it wasn’t just working on Xenoblade Chronicles and The Legend of Zelda games. It had also provided support in developing Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World. While details were sparse, the studio confirmed that Nintendo contracted it to work on the kart racer’s open world and character designs.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Let’s kick things off with what’s probably the most prominent example of a great game with bad controls in recent years. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a jaw-droppingly impressive masterpiece in more ways than one, but its controls have, of course, been criticized widely, frequently, and persistently. As anyone who’s played the game will tell you, it’s not hard to see why Rockstar’s open world epic gets that criticism. On top of input latency and heavy in-game movement coming together for many to criticize the game’s controls as being cumbersome, the actual layout of Red Dead Redemption 2’s setup on a gamepad has also often come under fire at times, especially with unintentional inputs thanks to its weapon wheels, context-sensitive dialogue system, and what have you.

To celebrate Zelda’s 35th anniversary though, Nintendo has brought Skyward Sword back into the limelight by remastering it and putting it on the Switch. More than a few times, games have been given a new lease of life on the Switch, enabling them to capture larger audiences and, as such, more love and adoration than they could when they first launched. The problem here, however, is that even though Skyward Sword HD improves upon the original game in several ways, not only do some of its additions just not work out, there are also flaws baked into the core of the experience that no remaster could have ever rooted out.

"Even though Skyward Sword HD improves upon the original game in several ways, not only do some of its additions just not work out, there are also flaws baked into the core of the experience that no remaster could have ever rooted out. "

On a surface level, Skyward Sword HD sharpens up the game’s visuals, and while the remastering work done here doesn’t hold a candle to what we saw in, say, The Wind Waker HD, it still looks pretty good. Sure, it definitely looks like a better looking version of a game that came out a decade ago, but it helps that Skyward Sword had an inherently timeless art style even when it released on the Wii. That aesthetic helps the remaster overcome issues that exist on a more technical level. Far more noticeable are the improvements made to the game’s frame rate, which is now locked to an almost flawless 60 FPS, as opposed to the 30 frames of the original. As you might imagine, that boosted performance does wonders for the game.

On a visual and technical level, Skyward Sword HD is a very conservative remaster- to the extent that it almost shouldn’t even be called that. But when you look deeper, you realize that it makes several other smaller improvements and quality-of-life changes, and though these might each seem negligible in isolation, put together, they really do make a difference. On the Wii, Skyward Sword was characterized by how much friction there was in the experience, how Fi would pop out with long tutorials every few minutes, how characters would insist on talking to you about meaningless things in excruciating detail, how the game just couldn’t help but keep getting in its own way at every turn.

In Skyward Sword HD, a lot of those rough edges have been smoothed away. Excessive handholding and constant tutorializing aren’t major issues anymore, gameplay isn’t constantly interrupted by needless dialogue boxes or prompts every time you pick up an item, and there’s just far less friction in general, which means that actual gameplay isn’t interrupted nearly as often as it used to in the game’s Wii version. That really does make a difference, to say the least.

"Excessive handholding and constant tutorializing aren’t major issues anymore, gameplay isn’t constantly interrupted by needless dialogue boxes or prompts every time you pick up an item, and there’s just far less friction in general, which means that actual gameplay isn’t interrupted nearly as often as it used to in the game’s Wii version. That really does make a difference, to say the least."

Unfortunately, those niggling issues weren’t the only thing that made the original Skyward Sword such an uneven experience- poor pacing was basically built into the game’s design, thanks to sections that felt like little more than needless padding. Skyward Sword is at its best when you’re in the dungeons, which are some of the best and most ingeniously designed dungeons in a Zelda game. The problem is, you just have to cut through so much crap to actually get to that stuff. Every dungeon, for instance, is preceded by long and arduous quests that are meaningless filler, existing solely to pad out the game’s runtime, and though there are certainly highlights even in these sections, by and large, they feel like pace-killers.

Of course, the defining trait of Skyward Sword was the motion controls, which, too, have seen some improvements in the Switch remaster, and generally feel more accurate and intuitive. Of the two control schemes on offer in Skyward Sword HD, the original scheme is definitely my preferred option. Enemies are designed around making you actually take the movement and aiming of your attacks into account, and that just feels far more intuitive and enjoyable when you’re actually physically swinging your weapon yourself. Of course, things aren’t exactly perfect here either- there’s still some inaccuracy at times, while the fact that you constantly have to keep recalibrating the controls is also a bit of a nuisance. It’s a pretty simple process, to be fair, and takes less than a second – you just have to point at the middle of the screen and press Y – but you have to keep doing it constantly, especially if you want to play the game sitting down. Also, I’m pretty sure I got tennis elbow because of how much I’ve been flailing my arm around like a crazy person these last few days.

If you don’t want to deal with the motion controls, Skyward Sword HD also adds a completely new button-based control scheme- but it’s not something I’d recommend playing the game with. You swing your sword with flicks of the right analog stick, which just feels far too imprecise. The shield, meanwhile, is brought up by pressing the left stick, which isn’t exactly ideal, since you need the left stick to keep moving around during combat. Meanwhile, when playing with the button controls, controlling the camera requires holding down the L button, which just feels… unnatural. I can’t tell you how many times I tried moving the camera with the right stick, only to be momentarily confused to see Link randomly start swinging his sword around for no reason. It really should have been the other way around – hold down the L button for combat, and control the camera normally – and it’s disappointing that it’s not even an option in the game.

"Skyward Sword HD is a better game than the original Wii title, but for all the improvements it makes, it is still a deeply flawed experience- and no amount of quality-of-life changes could ever fix that, because that’s unfortunately just how the game was designed."

All the flaws in Skyward Sword feel that much more disappointing because this is a game with so many redeeming qualities. The soundtrack is amazing, the story is probably one of the best this series has ever told, the combat with motion controls can be a lot of fun, and the dungeons, as I’ve mentioned, are excellent. Sure enough, Skyward Sword HD is a better game than the original Wii title, but for all the improvements it makes, it is still a deeply flawed experience- and no amount of quality-of-life changes could ever fix that, because that’s unfortunately just how the game was designed. I’d still recommend it to Zelda fans, because when Skyward Sword is good, it’s very good. It’s just that there are large portions of the game when it’s far, far from good.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is something of a black sheep in the Zelda franchise, and for many, represents the series’ worst tendencies of excessive handholding and linearity, and the backlash against the game was what led to the drastic switch that we saw with Breath of the Wild. There’s still a sizeable chunk of the Zelda fanbase, however, that loves the game dearly- and if you’re among that group, there’s good news for you.

During their Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo announced that the long–rumoured The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD will be releasing for the Switch this year. The game’s unique motion control scheme will be brought over exactly as it was on the Wii, thanks to the Switch’s Joy-Cons. Of course, there’s also going to be an option to play the game without motion controls, which will see players flicking the right analog stick to determine the direction of their sword swings.

Additionally, Nintendo are also releasing new Skyward Sword-themed Joy-Cons to go along with the remaster. If your current pair is drifting, maybe keep an eye out for this one.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD launches for the Switch on July 16.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is something of a black sheep in the Zelda family. Though a great game in its own right that saw plenty of critical praise when it launched on the Wii in 2011, the game has since often been maligned for its excessively linear nature, and how it seemed to be spoon-feeding players all the time. The criticism it got for those things was, in fact, what led to Nintendo going in the completely opposite direction with its successor, Breath of the Wild.

But it seems the Wii title might soon have its time in the sun once more, and fans of the game could get another chance to dive back into it. A listing for a Nintendo Switch release of the game has gone up on Amazon UK– it likely won’t stay up for long, so if the page has been taken down by the time you click on that link, you can check out a screen grab below.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was particularly reliant on the Wii’s motion controls, so it will be interesting to see how the game manages on the Switch, if it is indeed brought over. Given the fact that Nintendo also have the Switch Lite to consider, it’s likely that if they do indeed port Skyward Sword, they will do so with a traditional control scheme.

But of course, this is completely unconfirmed and unverified for now, and especially with Nintendo, it’s best not to believe anything until it’s officially confirmed. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Skyward Sword coming to the Switch, after all. In 2018, in fact, Nintendo said that they had no plans to bring the game to the Switch… but that was 2018, and this is now, so you never know.

This isn’t the only game Amazon UK have recently spilled the beans on- they recently also put up a listing of a remaster for 2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Read more on that through here.

MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA

No one needs to be told about the massive legacy of the original Mass Effect trilogy. Barring some missteps here and there, BioWare’s first three Mass Effect games are collectively probably the best work they’ve ever done. Then there’s Mass Effect Andromeda, which is… not. To be fair, Andromeda is a good game in its own right, and it certainly has a lot going for it, but it just doesn’t do justice to the magic of its predecessors. Even if we ignore the overblown criticism the game was subject to at the time of its launch, we still have to accept that Andromeda is a pretty big step back from the Commander Shepard trilogy.

Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma set up quite a few expectations when he talked about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Nintendo Switch. This was at the recent The Legend of Zelda concert in Japan. While not explicitly confirming it (Aonuma’s exact words were, “We know what you are thinking, Skyward Sword on Switch, right?”), it seemed like a possibility.

After all, Nintendo had brought HD ports of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to the Wii U. However, it’s not happening. At least, not right now. As a Nintendo representative recently confirmed to Eurogamer, “At this time we have no plans to release The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Nintendo Switch.”

While that is somewhat of a bummer (depending on whether you like or dislike Skyward Sword), it might not be long before we see Link and Zelda again. Aside from their appearances in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a brand new game could be on the horizon. This is according to Game Informer editor Imran Khan, who recently said that the next Zelda “will probably be sooner than we think”. As always, stay tuned for more information.

With the exception of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on the NES, 2011’s Wii title The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is perhaps the most divisive game in the entire series. In many ways it is the antithesis of what Nintendo did with its direct successors, A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild. While those two were open and offered complete freedom, Skyward Sword was highly linear and was riddled with overbearing tutorials.

That said, there was also a great deal that the game did right, from a great story that served as the origins of the series’ convoluted chronology, to great dungeon design, to excellent music, and more. For those who feel that thanks to those things and more, Skyward Sword is, for all its faults, still a very good game, there might be some good news.

Recently, at the 2018 edition of The Legend of Zelda concert in Japan, series producer Eiji Aonuma reportedly (via Nintendo Everything) came on stage and specifically name-dropped Skyward Sword on the Switch. “We know what you are thinking, Skyward Sword on Switch, right?” he said, which was promptly met with loud cheers from the audience.

Granted, that’s not much to go on, but there is the fact that in the last few years, Nintendo have brought most of their older 3D Zelda titles to their current systems. Starting with Ocarina of Time on the 3DS, Nintendo have subsequently re-released Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. Which only leaves Skyward Sword- though if it is indeed coming to the Switch, one has to wonder how Nintendo will handle its motion controls-centric combat. Perhaps remove it entirely?

Recently, we learned that the next Zelda title might be coming sooner than we think– is this what that tease was referring to? It’s entirely likely that this is a side project for Nintendo, while work on a full-fledged sequel goes on alongside it. In December of last year, Aonuma confirmed that work on the next Zelda title had already begun, while Nintendo have also been hiring for the project of late.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks to be a gorgeous, lush, fully realized open world. And while the series has always been known for having vast worlds for players to explore, this is the first time that Nintendo is attempting to tackle a modern open world.

So, to help them out with this, they enlisted the help of Monolith Soft, the developers of Xenoblade and Xenoblade X, who have, with both games, already developed modern open world games before. Monolith Soft had already previously helped Nintendo with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. However, speaking in an interview with Gamekult (via Siliconera), Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma explained how Monolith Soft were recruited for their expertise with open world games this time around.

“On Skyward Sword, Monolith had mainly helped us on graphics design and other artistic elements. Even though we could have asked them for help on the technical side, we realized their way of making games was completely different from ours and we didn’t have much to learn from them on this installment, since we were almost doing two different jobs. On the other hand, for Breath of the Wild, we’ve been assisted by level designers used to large game areas, in order to make topographic arrangements.”

Considering how rich and well realized the open worlds of Xenoblade and Xenoblade X were, this only portends good news for Breath of the Wild.

The 3DS has received remasters for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Meanwhile, the Wii U has had remasters of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Twilight Princess– but so far, there is one 3D Zelda game that hasn’t been updated for modern systems- and that is 2011’s divisive The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Skyward Sword‘s release was marked by highly divided player reception, owing to its control scheme that exclusively used the Wii Motion Plus’ motion capabilities, and its linear and guided design, which is a departure from other games in the series. But like with all Zelda games, Skyward Sword has its fans- and those fans would like to see it remastered, maybe on Wii U, if not the NX. And speaking to IGN, Aonuma confirmed that this was not a possibility they had ruled out yet.

“Yeah it’s definitely possible” Aonuma told IGN. “As I mentioned earlier in the presentation, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a result of what we wanted to expand and make a better Skyward Sword. It’s like an evolved or expanded version.”

“Putting out an HD version of Skyward Sword and tossing that into the mix might be a little weird,” he said. “It’s always a possibility, so I really don’t know.”

Personally, given that in just about every way except for the graphics, Breath of the Wild appears to be the antithesis of Skyward Sword rather than its evolution, I don’t know where he’s coming from, but hey- Skyward Sword fans. At least you know your game isn’t forgotten. Hell, if you’re lucky, it may even be remastered some time soon.