For ten years I've been unable to play this game due to cerebral palsy. I physically cannot do motion controls, so I'm very happy to see that the button controls actually work. Update: Finished the game now. Very good and very fun with the new controls

It would be nice to have the flying with sticks and the swordplay with motion controls.

I'm personally just excited for all the attention this is going to bring back to Skywards music

for those planning to play this for the first time if you swing the sword around with motion controls like he did in this video you will have a bad time thats not how its meant to be played

"It just works." - Todd Howard

The "pull back the left controller to draw your bow" is something I 100% took for granted when I first played Skyward Sword, because I had played tons of Wii Sports Resort archery that summer and literally did it on instinct. I didn't even realize the game doesn't teach you to do it!

Gotta say - I'm consistently impressed with GameXplain's opening custom graphics.

Biggest con: Link looks really dumb with his sword when using button controls. My favorite part of SS was running with my sword behind me like an anime character.

“Pros and Cons”...That is literal genius!

Good lord, that is NOT how you use the motion controls. Clear, deliberate strokes is the name of the game.

Ah, that's cool that you can use gyro controls in conjunction with the sticks and buttons for a bit more precise aiming.

Flick for slashing.. Joycon drift is going to spread far and wide

Just FYI; the Wii never used the IR sensor to calibrate the motion controls. The motion plus accessory was mandatory as all motion controls were tied to the gyro sensor in said accessory, the D-Pad was used to recenter the reticle much like the Y button in this version of the game.

This is an awesome video! I absolutely love all of GameXplain’s videos! 💖💖💖💖

This was the video I needed to decide if I was going to get the game or wait! I was scared that it would hit a middle ground where button controls were lacking but motion was clunky leaving no perfect way to play, but it sounds like the game plays just fine with button controls! Can’t wait to pick it up!

I would love an option for button control flying, but motion swordplay. That would be great

For button controls, wouldn't it make more sense to just have the right stick control the camera whenever Link's sword isn't drawn? Instead of having to hold down the left shoulder button to move the camera? And just have one of the face buttons assigned to drawing / sheathing the sword. I hope Nintendo would be willing to patch something like this in.

With the controls feels like Metal Gear Rising blade mode Link: RULES OF NATURE!!!!

This is just what I have been searching for thank you!

Thank you for this explanation. I started my playthrough with motion controls, but I think I will try with the controller next time I get on. I'll just have to go back to the Sparring Arena to brush up on the combat controls.

Love the button controls for flying….it was difficult for me to fly otherwise…But as far as attacking enemies…it’s easier with the motion control…. for me

Thank goodness they actually let you use a pro controller in this version. I was scared to death they would pull some Pokemon Let's Go bullshit and lock non-motion controls to handheld.

I've played it several times with motion, so I am definately going to try the button controls out and try the whole game that way.

When The switch first came out, I actually thought about an HD remaster of skyward sword since it’s my favourite Zelda game. I thought about handheld mode and how they would execute it properly. I did actually think about the right stick! Now finally they have a released it, and it uses these methods. I’m really happy because this is what I’ve really wanted!! Edit: Spelling lol

I will definitely pick it up eventually. I like the Button controls. I couldn’t get far on the Wii version because of the Motion controls.

Very helpful video. Thank you.

You were flying the loftwing completely wrong with motion controls

I'm happy you made this i been looking to see if I buy it thanks man

Motion controls are for me! except for the loftwing.. I'll have to see how that goes

Super happy to see I can use button controls with the remotes in my hand. Just broke my collarbone so this will let me have something to do while it’s healing.

So excited to play this game for first time tomorrow night. Will be switching between motion and regular controls to see what I prefer

I’m excited to pick this up tomorrow! I’m going to be using Button controls because I’m lazy but I’m planning to try out the motion controls.

Wow Joey you showed us playing with a Pro Controller before Nintendo has, well done dude!

I prefer buttons for any kind of game

Thanks so much! I had a Repetitive Stress Injury in my forearms a bunch years back, and while I recovered completely, certain things aggravate it. Motion controls is one of those things. The repetitive short movements aim me towards re-injuring myself, so I never bothered getting a Wii. I love Zelda, but never got to play this one, and it's good to know it can be played well with only buttons.

Thanks for the breakdown! Been thinking of giving my siblings their first new system experience.

I'm really surprised by the button controls. Battle gives me anxiety but I'm enjoying the game overall. I wish instead of using L to move the camera, you used L to swing the sword, because I'm holding L 75% of the time.

The fact that you can switch so easily between motion and button controls makes the the game so much better imo

Switching back and forth from button to motion on the joy cons has been most ideal for me

My copy of skyward sword hd arrives in two days as des my switch oled and pro controller. I moved to the wii u pro controller when it came out and have never looked back. Thanks for sharing

the 'buttons or motion controls" question has been gnawing at me for a while and now i have decided to use buttons. thanks

I played this back when you released on Wii in 2011, loved it. I now have the HD version, I’ll try playing it with the pro controller.

The motion controls are why I didn't finish the original. I'm glad there's controller support now. Though I'm going to have to try the new motion controls again.

I haven't got Skyward Sword yet but I'm getting it next month and I'm definitely playing it with the button controls

0:55 Gosh darn that's a spicy pun

There was another game that I played that had attacks on the right stick and I remember that took some getting used to as well. Can't remember the name of that game though. Anyways, good to hear that they made vast improvements to the button controls as I'm definitely using those over motion.

I wish there were sensitivity options, I usually don't mind motion, but this is one of the few games where a simple flick isn't enough in some cases. Flapping for example takes about as much force as tugging an actual giant bird.

I finally beat the harp minigame on my lite.. was pretty rough. Hard to control speed

this was helpful thank you

Probably going to stick with the classic Motion controls, until it comes to swimming. Swimming was the ONE issue I had with Skyward Sword.

Definitely want to give the motion controls a try. I had a lot of fun playing this on Wii.

Thanks for the comparison

they really gave us two ways to play this game awesome I been playing too although I enjoy both I can say they did a good job with adding a new way to play awesome.

I've been using both on and off, primarily motion because that's what I enjoy most, and they are both great control schemes. Motion is vastly improved and button controls feel great too.

Part of the fun n challenge of this game is figuring out the best way to make motion controls work for u, I had to put my elbow on a pillow to make me like the motion controls on the wii

I see what you did there with the Pros and Cons. Nice.

Wii’s MotionPlus was actually also gyro-based though, and you also had to sync it often back then too

I already have this Pre-Ordered and I feel the exact same way about the Motion Controls.

Nice video!

2 things I just wanted to point out as "errors". 1.The Wii version didn't use the sensor bar for aiming. It used the gyro in the Wii motion plus. So calibrating was necessary there too. Yes the bar was used for minor calibrating behind the scenes. It still required pretty constant manual recalibration. 2. You aren't supposed to "flick" the controller to fly. You are supposed to "flap" with it. Motion up and then down. Other than that, I'm glad someone put the time into explaining the differences for people that may be unsure about getting the game. *Edit* you guys made better mention/explanation of the use of the sensor bar in the review. Which is awesome.

Idc what people say, TP and SS on the Wii with the Wii remote and nunchuck is my absolute favorite way to play. I’ve always loved the motion controls.

Thanks for this!! 👍

I would just use both Depends what control style you’re in the mood for.

This is a good summary. I really don't understand why the cursor doesn't reset to the centre of the screen each time you need the pointer. Does it really matter if you're not pointing at the absolute centre of your TV/Switch screen? If it does to you, then you could point at your TV and press the Y button to recalibrate it anyway. The cursor *always* (and I've tried with multiple Joy-Con controllers and in docked/tabletop mode) wanders off to the top-right, so why rely on the gyro's interpretation of where the screen is anyway? I hope a patch comes with an auto-centre option.

My problem with Skyward Sword HD is how the motion controls are implemented. With the Wii remote and nunchuck combo, people who are left handed can use the motion controls with the Wii Remote in their left hand due to the ambidextrous design of the Wii remote. With the Joy-cons, however, the sword controls are locked to the right Joy-con, a controller that is designed to be specifically held in the right hand when used as a pair with the left Joy-con.

Is there a way to change which Joycon controls the sword and which one controls the shield? I’m left handed and on the Wii version I would simply hold the Wii remote in my left hand and the nunchuck in my right. If there isn’t a way to control the sword with the left Joycon, I’m not gonna bother getting this game and I’ll just dust off my Wii

I'm using the motion controls for this. I didn't have any trouble with them on the Wii version, so this will be easy for me to pick up.

When I got the game for the first time, I started with motion controls just to get the feel of it since I played the original on my Wii U (I know, I used the Wii U, please don’t judge me). However, right around halfway through the game, I decided to try button controls, and I think button controls are better just because it’s more accurate and less tedious. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna like button controls, and it definitely took some time for me to get used to it, but I prefer it over motion controls.

Well this is the video that convinced me I’m going to buy this. I never played the original but wasn’t quite ready to pick it up. Until now. I’m going to start with motion controls first though.

I’m definitely going with button controls. Playing on a controller will always feel better than waggling your hands, plus now the shield parrying and stabbing looks far more convenient and satisfying. Also, holding L to access the camera controls really isn’t that big of a deal considering the original game never even had camera control as as on option so you could literally go the whole game without controlling the camera if you wanted to

Thank you so much now i know that i can play with the pro controller so excited to get Skyward sword

The question will hopefully not be which is better, but rather which you prefer, which is always the best when players get to play according to what they enjoy (and that option should have been in the original). I will give both a go but I’m likely to keep with motion controls simply because that’s how the game was designed to be played and I got on well with them in the original (other than for flying and swimming where they felt shoehorned in). But it’s just great to have the option this time.

I love thumbnail picture 😀

So now it's "Jet Li's Rise to Honor."

Actually, the pointer for motion controls works EXACTLY like on the wii. It didn't use the sensor bar on the wii since it relied on the Wii Motion+ technology. You had to recenter it when it got offcentered just the same :)

Was planning on trying the motion controls out but still probably playing with buttons. I’ll probably just go right for the controller after seeing you try to fly loftwing like that haha

Motion controls for the lifting can be annoying, but I feel like being able to reset the gyroscope with Y is actually an improvement. It's annoying to always have to point the Wii remote at the screen. I've been playing the Metroid prime trilogy lately and sometimes my dog walks in front of the IR sensor when I'm in the middle of a fight. With the joycons you don't have that problem because the pointer is just bases on the gyroscope and I love it. I really hope they rerelease the Metroid prime trilogy on switch.

I'm interested why you believe the wii version used the sensor bar? It actually didn't not even in menus because you had to attach wii motion plus (or have a controller with it built in) which was literally a gyroscope. I had to center the pointer on the menus all of the time, this is actually not a new thing. Not upset at all just figured I'd help out anyone who didn't know.

yea as others have pointed out, the wii version didn't use the sensor bar. you had to recalibrate the pointer in that version too

It took me about 5 min to get used to the button controls but I got it down now, love the game

Finally played through the game mostly with motion controls which I preferred for most of the game up until demises second phase as I could not seem to be able to charge a skyward strike and then was forced to switch to pro controller to be able to finish the fight

Recalibrating on Wii was less frequent but a bigger hassle. You had to place the Wii remote face down on a flat surface and wait.

I forgot how much I miss the little lock in arrow above enemy heads like twilight princess and windwaker

Can you twist the sword with the stick too? If i remember right the sand ship had a puzzle where you had to jam the sword in at an angle.

How can you do the puzzle in skyveiw temple with button controls? The one where you make the eyes dizzy.

Remember to use deliberate precise strikes with motion controls. DO NOT FLAIL AROUND LIKE AN IDIOT. Flailing is what causes the motion controls to come out of alignemnt and need recalibration

yo gamexplain i have a question what are the motion controlls like while sitting in chair or something like that my back hurts realy easily while standing up for too long

1:31 the drift announces its coming

4:30 if you just flick the stick from neutral, link will automatically swing in the direction you specify. You don't need to "wind up" the stick, so to say.

Just want to know why can't I move the camera while running. I guess it's just Nintendo being Nintendo, they probably thought nobody would try that cause "how can you supposedly press b and still move the right stick?" But yeah, Nintendo will always do this kind of stuff, sadly. It feels like they want you to play their game their way, even post botw. It makes me wander if they are going to do something like what they did with the cat dive or even with the long jump for the 3d world theme in smm2 to botw 2, to avoid glitches or something like that. It's kind of like what they did with 3D world for the switch, they kind of said "screw the long time fans, we will use odyssey's item carrying system even in a game that you use y to run because that'll be easier to understand for new players and we won't even leave an option to change this."

This makes me feel better. I got over the price since I never owned the original but I was concerned about people's complaints about the buttons because I rarely ever play docked these days; I really prefer handheld.

I felt like the motion controls aren’t as precise as they used to be. So I played the original and HD game today and I have to say, Wii Motion Plus with the Sensor Bar is way more accurate than the JoyCons. The JoyCons aren’t terrible, it just feels more flimsy.

Never played the original because I never had a Wii. I'm thinking my first play through will be with motion controls since that was how it was played originally. It seems like motion controls will be superior here since we will be using joycons. Can't wait til I get off work tomorrow to pick up my copy!!

I can't tell if I missed this in your video or what but when you use the button controls, can't you not move the camera with the right joystick anymore? It looked like you were moving the camera using the button controls but I can't figure out how to move the camera and use the sword at the same time..

Motion controls work fine for me, found that sometimes using both controllers for some things like flying the loftwing seems to work better. Although I'm still not sure the best way to gain altitude. Combat works fine, my problem with combat seems to be more with movement rather than motion controls.

How did you actually record yourself using the controller while recording gameplay? What did you use to record using the controller?

I heard you can turn it on and off whenever you like, so as long as I can use motion controls to aim and fight, and the buttons to fly I'll consider this a game well made. Can't wait to play it again it's been a decade

I pick up my copy tomorrow and since I use the pro controller I'll be using button controls. I was one of those that wasn't too fond of the motion controls for this game. I guess that's why when I played this game on my Wii I never made it off of skyloft.

I hope theres an update to allow use of motion and buttons. I like the motion for almost everything except for flying the beetle and flying the loftwing.

Hm, I wonder how they changed one of the early puzzles in the game, during/before the first dungeon, where you have to move the point of the sword in a circle to confuse the eye statues. That part stumped me as a kid, until I finally looked up the answer. It seems like button controls only do slashes, and the stab wouldn't help for this puzzle? Button controls with gyro aiming seems like the best of both worlds though.