The Legend Of Zelda - Ranking Every Gameplay Gimmick

The official timeline puts Skyward Sword as the first chronological Zelda game, so it’s no surprise that it explores the origins of the series and the mysterious bond between Link, Zelda, and Ganon. As well as this (and swapping Link’s beloved horse for a flying mount) the game’s main gimmick was the introduction of full motion control.

The Wii version of Twilight Princess had already featured rudimentary motion controls, but the addition of the Wii MotionPlus allowed the game to (almost) perfectly replicate the player’s movements on screen. As such, you were able to embody Link like never before, using the controller to perform complicated sword swipes and manipulate all kinds of other items.

The motion controls allowed for some fun puzzle solving, such as spinning your sword around to make enemies dizzy and controlling a flying beetle to fetch far away items. Unfortunately, the Wii MotionPlus was far from perfect and often needed to be re-synced during play. Whilst this was simple to do it’s not the type of thing you want to be worrying about in the midst of a hectic battle.

Though a worthy experiment, motion controls in Zelda were greatly toned down for later instalments and - crucially - made optional.