The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD brought to Switch the most debated entry in the series, originally released on Wii as that console's swan song. It tells the earliest story in the Zelda timeline: Link and Zelda grow up in the sky-bound town of Skyloft, where people travel on giant birds called Loftwings and know almost nothing of the land below the clouds. When Zelda is pulled down into the world below, Link sets out after her, gradually uncovering the origin of the Master Sword and the cyclical struggle that will repeat itself for a thousand years. It's the most fairy-tale-like and, at the same time, the most mythologically serious Zelda the series had offered up to that point.

The core of the gameplay is combat based on strike direction. Enemies guard themselves in ways that force you to keep changing your angle of attack, and boss fights turn into small puzzles of timing and precision. The Switch version offers two options: motion controls with the Joy-Con, more reliable than on Wii thanks to more precise tracking, or an entirely new right-stick control scheme for those who want to play handheld. A number of comfort improvements arrived too — faster dialogue, the ability to skip repeated item explanations, more frequent saving, and a less intrusive Fi.

Technically, it's a noticeable leap forward. The game runs smoothly at a higher resolution, and its watercolor-like, impressionistically blurred visuals have aged surprisingly well; the orchestral soundtrack ranks among the best Nintendo has ever had recorded for Zelda. Reception was good, though the original version's criticisms remained: the world beneath the clouds is divided into three relatively small areas the game isn't shy about sending you back through, and the pacing drags toward the end. Even so, Skyward Sword HD is an important piece of history — its emphasis on verticality, full-scale exploration, and physical combat could still be felt in Breath of the Wild, and today it plays far better than on the original hardware. As the only entry to tell the very origin of the whole legend, it also holds a value for series fans that no other Zelda can offer.