The Legend of Zelda is back, and it looks like it could be the most substantial break from series convention since Ocarina of Time. This morning, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto stepped onto the stage at Nintendo's E3 Press Conference and revealed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the latest installment in the long running franchise, and the first console Zelda release in four years. Skyward Sword will require the Wii Motion Plus accessory and, as a result, be capable of more accurate motion control experience than the previous Zelda console game.
Miyamoto demonstrated several of the various new gameplay in the game. Sword control is mapped to the Wii remote, but, like the sword fighting found in Wii Sports Resort, Skyward Sword will allow you to move the sword around by tilting and moving the Wii remote (instead of the "waggle-as-button press" movement of the previous Zelda game). This allowed for more dynamic sword moves (instead of canned animation for sword moves). To demonstrate the improved sword control, Miyamoto showed off a monster who had to be confused by waving the sword around in a circle to dizzy the monster. By simply rotating the Wii Remote, Link was able to spin the sword in the game world, with the monster following the rotation of the sword until it was dizzied.
In fact, it sounds like many of the gameplay design choices found in Wii Sports Resort will make their way into Skyward Sword. You'll be able to fire slingshot pebbles in a way very similar to the archery found in
Resort.
At the end of the demonstration, Miyamoto revealed that the game was still early in development, and won't be out this year. We'll have more information on Skyward Sword as it develops.