On the very first day of E3 2010, before I knew I was going to hit any other booth, I lined myself up just right to be one of the first people in the door. I did this knowing that many other people, many of whom would be a lot faster than me, would rush to one booth in particular - the Nintendo booth. And they would all be lining up for the same game that I wanted to line up for; The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. So as soon as the doors open, the crowd flooded in, and like a pack of kindergarten children rushing out for recess, many of us made a quick run right to the line for a chance to play the game for ourselves. I was lucky enough to be only about 25 people deep in line and I anxiously awaited my turn to play this hotly anticipated game.

Before I get into the feel of the game, I want to talk about the look. Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed to see that the visuals in this game were a blend between The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I was kind of hoping that Nintendo would go for the adult looking visuals that Twilight Princess presented. Instead, you get this semi adult looking Link that has a young appearance due to the color palette of the Wind Waker. Not that it is all bad; it is just not what I was looking forward to.

On to the game play; believe it or not, Wii Sports Resort is a great training game for Skyward Sword, bowling and swordplay in particular. When you play Skyward Sword for the first time, you will immediately notice that as your swordplay with Link, which is handled perfectly due to the Wii MotionPlus add on, it handles a lot like the swordplay mini game in Resort. I have told that to many people, and while some disagree, others can find how I felt that way. With the MotionPlus add on, the game really does seem to have that 1 to 1 movement needed to play a sword swinging game like this. And what I played at the show, Link and I were pretty much moving simultaneously, right down to the most minimal of movements.

As for why I said that bowling was also a great training device for Skyward Sword; when you select bombs from the onscreen inventory menu, not only can you throw them overhand but you can also throw them underhand and literally bowl your enemies down with them. It was actually a sight that made me laugh as I watched my bowling bomb explode right in front of them. If you ever pick up this game, just take some time and appreciate how fun bowling bombs can be. Other items that will be in the game are the slingshot, some kind of mechanical beetle that you can control during flight, your bow (which plays a lot like archery but still harkens back to Twilight Princess), and a whip. The whip is especially satisfying in that it reacts immediately to the swing of the Wii remote.

I wish I could have gotten that chance to play this a bit more, but due to the massive, and I do mean massive line forming behind me, I only got in about five minutes playing time in before I decided to move on before being asked to move. Still, it was a great five minutes with this latest entry into the Legend of Zelda franchise. Visual disappointment aside, Skyward Sword looks to be a solid entry for the Nintendo Wii. The only other disappointment I had with this game was learning that it would not be ready for a 2010 release, but would be on store shelves sometime in 2011. Balls!