I really liked the idea of shield upgrades, shields taking damage, and having to shake the nunchuck to defend you at the perfect time (shield bash) in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Well, I really hope that those ideas will return in the upcoming "Zelda Wii U" or possibly "Zelda 3DS". I just hope they take the upgrade system higher in the next game. More upgrades, and more items to upgrade would be nice (I wished that you could upgrade the whip so it could be longer, so you could swing to hard-to-reach platforms and get heart pieces/ treasure). The upgrade system from SS felt sorta unfinished to me. I had an idea that you could shake the Wii U controller forward in order to shield bash. Maybe the next Zelda will be focused on (the Hylian) shield(s), just like SS was about the swords. What are your thoughts on shields and item upgrades in general in a future Zelda game? Thanks!

I'm pretty sure they're sticking with wiimotes with the Wii U Zelda. And I personally loved shield bashing and would like it in the next games.

Oh, yeah, I forgot you could use the normal Wiimote for Wii U. Silly me. If they stick to Wiimotes then, I hope they don't change the controls from SS. I thought the controls were perfect!

Zelda Wii U

Things to Keep:
1. Motion Controls! (w/ maybe improved calibration and more items, more minigames too)
2. Upgrade System (w/ even more upgrades please)
3. Stamina Meter (despite what some think, it was a Brilliant addition that forced players to constantly consider strategy)
4. Level design and Puzzles (SS did an awesome job with these)
5. Fully Orchestrated music and Cinematic Cut Scenes

Things to Get Rid Of:
1. Anything resembling Fi. We don't need the ENTIRE game to feel like a tutorial.
2. Repeated text. If you've heard a person's spiel, you should never have to hear it again. In fact, maybe there should be an option to skip the spiel faster in the first place.
3. Revisiting an area more than twice. I was fine with going back to Faron woods twice, I actually kinda liked it. But when it came to visiting it for a third time for the last part of the song I was not so happy. Also I would like to only have to return to one or two places twice, not every single place I've been twice or more.
4. Goddess Cubes or anything resembling them. It seemed like they got lazy and decided to make most of the secret treasures not so "secret".

Things to Bring Back:
1. Massive Exploring. It's what helps make a Zelda game feel like a Zelda game.
2. Epona. I would like to see what they can do with Epona with motion controls
3. An interactive instrument. The harp didn't feel the same way the Ocarina did, when you played the ocarina you kinda felt like you were controlling an instrument, with the harp it never felt like you were controlling any aspect of the music.
4. Ganon. There's something poetic about the reoccurring cast of 3 characters.

I actually like the Goddess Cubes and feel that its a nice addition, but I agree with you about Fi, But then she's not the first one, Ocarna had a just as annoying fairy companion.

As for the upgrades SS wasn't the first one to have it, Spirit Tracks had it also, but SS does it a lot better. I would like the ability to skip cut scenes after the first time.

All I care about is seeing all of SS's awesome ideas improved and expanded upon in future Zelda games. The less I see future Zelda games inspired by TP in any way, the better.

Uh... Skyward Sword shares many of the same assets as Twilight Princess, but I prefer TP for it's darker, more mature atmosphere.

• Link's character model is practically identical in both games, many of the sound effects are the same.
• The "helper character" was done better in Twilight Princess (Midna > Fi).
• Twilight Princess had a more comprehensible story that wasn't filled with plotholes.
• Ganondorf in TP was a bigger threat than Demise, who just seemed tacked on.
• Twilight Princess' Hyrule was open for exploration, instead of being a bunch of self-contained areas.

In Skyward Sword's favor, I will say this: Girahim was a much better villain than Zant.

What Nintendo needs to do is come out with a brand new wireless nunchuck with great Gyro controls. 'That' could be used as Link's Shield and would produce 1:1 realistic movements. The only downside is that this wouldn't work well at all while Link is moving forward with the nunchuck analog stick, it would be an akward clumsy mess unless you used the Wii remote Plus's D-pad to move Link....Because I don't think you'd want to be slicing away and deflecting attacks with your Sword/Wii Remote when you're busy manouvering your shield around....Then again. ;p

Otherwise, in a stand still position it would be amazing or during an On Rails segment.

TP wasn't even all that dark, just on visuals. No SS shares qualities with other Zelda games. I don't see how sound effects have ever changed with Zelda and character model has always been the same since with seen adult Link. No they were both equally annoying that doesn't change but it might seem that Midna was better since you got to play with her. Last time I checked TP was ridiculed by it's horrible plothole story while SS was praised on fixing that. So was Ganon, him and Demise were just tacked on. Every Zelda game is just a bunch of self contained areas. Your argument is invalid because your basing it on your personal opinion and not stating any facts at all.

I didn't enjoy the imprecise Wiimote controls, but I thought the ideas with the sheild and the Nunchuck movements were great!

Not every game. The 2D games had open worlds to explore. And Wind Waker had the huge Great Sea that you could explore at-will, it was completely open.

Yes, despite what some people say, I loved the staminia meter. It was so useful, but I just hated the beeping. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. I agree with you on the harp, too. Every song was the same, and you barely used it. I would like some-ocarina-like instrument back please. And I loved Ganon/Ganondorf, but ever since I played Skyward Sword, I've loved the fabulous Girihim, along with his Master Demise.
On the other hand, I liked going back to places more than once. Ninty meant to make it feel like a Metroid game. Thats one of the reasons it got such high praise from other reviewers.

I liked the whole upgrading aspect they added to Skyward Sword, but there were too many other things I couldn't stand that kept me from enjoying the game.

1. Visual presentation: I didn't like the way the game looked when I first saw the screenshots, and it never really grew on me. It just made the whole game feel wrong, to me. I know I'm in the minority on this, but I was wary of the game as soon as I saw it.
2. No IR pointer: Why, why, why, oh, why did we have to use motion plus for everything? Did anyone really like the fact that you couldn't just point at the screen to shoot/select and had to re-calibrate every 5 seconds? This was especially annoying during the Tentalus battle, when you have to quickly switch to the bow
3. Fi. What else needs to be said? If she had died at some point in the game, I would have cheered. Please don't ever add a character that annoying ever again. I don't need to be told literally every single thing I'm supposed to do.
4. Shoddy swordplay recognition: This was especially noticeable during the battles against Ghirahim. Every time you fought him seemed like pure luck, except the final battle. Everything was supposed to be 1:1, but I can't count the number of times I tried to stab and it registered as a side-slash. I think pretty much everyone went through the game just slashing at random except when otherwise required.
5. No overworld: This, along with the visual presentation, made SS seem much less like a Zelda game. I know some people didn't like that there was such a huge overworld in TP (personally, I loved it) but condensing it to a hub world with a bunch of "levels" to warp to just destroys your sense of exploration. Yeah, there was the sky, which is another problem in itself (namely, it being completely pointless save for a couple islands and fetch-questing)
6. Unwavering linearity: I'm a fan of linearity in games, but not to this point. Sure there are sidequests and whatever, (on Skyloft, and nowhere else) but the game might as well have been on rails, as linear as it was. It didn't help that Fi basically told you exactly what to do at every turn. The addition of goddess cubes was just annoying.

I think Nintendo just tried to add way too many new things to the formula, and it made the game as a whole very uncertain and hit-or-miss, not to mention it just didn't feel like Zelda at times.

Oh, also, please stop with telling us exactly how many rupees a blue rupee is every time we turn on the game, or what a jelly blob is when we already have 56 of them.

I completely agree with number 2 and especially your last point. I mean the fact that every time you turned the game off and on again it was like Link got amnesia and had to be explained what an amber relic was, it made me avoid getting the treasures. As for number 4 I do believe the swordplay can be fine tuned although I found it to be quite fantastic. I of course was one of those people who decided to bend instead of break when it wasn't registering correctly...I have a form in which I use the remote which ensures proper tracking but its not exactly intuitive. And I think every pointer based item should have IR except the bow and arrow. I really liked holding the Wii Remote vertical and pulling back the nunchuk like it was a real bow...something you couldn't do if the bow and arrow was MotionPlus based.

Midna was just as annoying as Fi (in my opinion).

I feel the opposite. Bring on the TP inspired Zelda games!!!