Tantalus CEO: Skyward Sword’s Motion Controls Took Over A Year to Translate Into Traditional Controls
Posted on May 16 2022 by Mike Midwood
Upon its 2011 Wii release, the most striking element of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was the use of 1:1 motion controls to manipulate Link’s sword and other objects. This was a fairly controversial decision, and despite the system’s far-from-perfect consistency, the unique controls undoubtedly lend Skyward Sword an air of singularity that separates it from other Zelda titles.
When creating Skyward Sword HD, Australia-based developer Tantalus had two goals: improve the quality of the game’s motion controls, and make the game more accessible for those who dislike or cannot use motion controls. While Tantalus succeeded on both counts, the latter ambition was apparently quite the struggle, as CEO Tom Crago claims that Skyward Sword’s motion controls took a year and a half to translate into a traditional control scheme.
During an interview with the Fragments of Silicon podcast, Tom Crago discussed the difficulties Tantalus faced when updating the controls for Skyward Sword HD. There were struggles with translating the Wii-era motion controls into the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers, as well as creating a button-only option for Switch Lite users.
Tom Crago had this to say:
“It had to work for those (Switch Lite) users. Having it work button-only, joystick only was probably the biggest challenge for us. And it’s not that there’s 50 engineers sitting in a room writing lines of code to figure it out. It’s more just, ‘Okay, let’s take a step back. Let’s really think about what we’re trying to achieve here from a gameplay and feel standpoint.’ Keep on making suggestions, working back and forth until we nail it.”
“It took a year and a half. So it was a long process making this game. I don’t know on what day we were actually able to pronounce that we nailed the controls. It wasn’t right at the last minute. We certainly sent lots of different options and suggestions to Kyoto for their review, but yes, it was a big part of the process. Also with games like this, if we hadn’t figured that out, Nintendo just wouldn’t have published it. They’re not gonna put something out there that doesn’t really resonate with The Legend of Zelda, with the fanbase, and with the legacy. We knew that we really needed to get that right.”
All things considered, Tantalus did an excellent job. It isn’t easy translating a delicate system of controls from one technology to another. Even more difficult is translating motion-controls into button-based controls; a complete format shift! It’s great that they were able to accomplish this, as many people dislike motion-controls and they aren’t even an option for Switch Lite players. For many others, motion-controls aren’t even viable due to disabilities or other conditions that restrict their ability to engage with movement-based controls. Tantalus’ efforts were well worth it and the result is a version of Skyward Sword that anyone can play.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Fragments of Silicon (via My Nintendo News)
Hi, I’m Mike Midwood and I’m a Senior Editor at ZeldaDungeon! Video games and literature are my greatest joys in life. An avid Zelda fan, some of my other favorite games include the Resident Evil and Dark Souls series. I hope you enjoy my content here on ZeldaDungeon!
“The sword has no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage.”
