The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was released on November 20, 2011 with a few versions of the game being available for purchase. The standard version had/has a MSRP of $49.99, while the special/limited edition Gold Wii Remote Plus bundle had a MSRP of $69.99.
The game was developed by Nintendo's EAD studio, and it received an ESRB rating of "Everyone 10+" with "Animated Blood, Comic Mischief, Fantasy Violence" listed as content for gamers and parent to be aware of.
We first looked at Skyward Sword's reported game-play hours when they debuted back on November 28, 2011.
Just how many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported playing Skyward Sword since it released, and the last report? Let's take a look!
The Brew
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword now has 121,904 Wii owners that have reported game-play data through the Nintendo Channel, which is an increase of 111,415 players reporting data in the last 168 days.
The game's average play-time per day/session reported is now at 2 Hours 56 Minutes compared to its debut average of 3 Hours 44 Minutes, and the game has increased by 4,939,413 Total Hours reported since its debut.
Skyward Sword's "professional" review score average is 93.34% based on 56 reviews from GameRankings.com. The game's customer review score average is 83.69% based on 422 customer reviews from Amazon.com between two versions listed for the game.
Caffeinated Thoughts
Do you remember how Nintendo of America was initially advertising Skyward Sword on television? If you have forgotten, you can watch one commercial for it here:
I still haven't played Skyward Sword, though I do now own a Wii MotionPlus unit that I received at Christmas, so it's more likely to happen now.
As of the end of December, Nintendo reported The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had sold about 3.42 million copies. In Nintendo's latest financial report, adding January through March sales to the total, Skyward Sword had sold 3.52 million copies worldwide.
I find it interesting the game sold 3.42 million units basically within the first month of release, but since then has only sold an additional 100,000 units globally through the end of March.
Questions
Have any of you played and beaten Skyward Sword since it released? If so, do you remember how many hours it took you to complete (exactly how many hours have you spent on a Loftwing)?
Also, did Skyward Sword live up to your expectations as the Wii's first exclusively developed full Zelda game?
If any of you are interested in Skyward Sword, you can see it linked below on Amazon.com and GameStop.com, as well as a Skyward Sword related item:
It took me about 39 hours.
ReplyDeleteI awarded the game with SPC's Game of 2011 honor. It just beat out LittleBigPlanet 2 and Batman: Arkham City.
I adored the controls, liked the presentation, and enjoyed the shook up formula.
"I awarded the game with SPC's Game of 2011 honor. It just beat out LittleBigPlanet 2 and Batman: Arkham City."
ReplyDeleteFeel free to link to it.
As for your time, it appears that right around 40 hours then is what it takes to complete, at least I'm guessing from your time and the average "Per person" reported.
"I adored the controls..."
This is the thing I'm most interested in, and want to give a try. I really want to see how well the WM+ and enemy fighting plays out in the game.
Thanks for the feedback!
I played for about 40 hours then sold it as I could not take another minute of it. I think I was about 3/4 of the way through.
ReplyDeleteWell, hopefully you got a decent bit on selling it. Was there something in particular that you could not stand? Or, you just lost interest overall in the game?
ReplyDeleteFinally the news we’ve all been waiting for! While we were more than thrilled to check out the official Black Ops 2
ReplyDeleteReveal the other day, we weren’t thrilled when we didn’t hear any news about the zombies! Fortunately, Treyarch has
alleviated our fears about a lack of zombies … the team has just officially confirmed that there will be a zombie
mode in Black Ops 2!
call of duty black ops 2 forums
Bought it, played two hours, sold it, don't regret it.
ReplyDeleteThis game did not grab me in the slightest. I didn't last long in it but I found nothing worthwhile, and I am a Wii apologist who put 45 hrs in Twilight Princess. I was not impressed.
This is a game I didn't want to play. Unfortunately, my retarded brother gave it to me in Christmas, and since then my catalogue of games stopped being awesome.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the better games I've played in a long time. Completed it with just under 60 hours of clocked time, I think, but I did a most of the side quests with the main story.
ReplyDeleteLoved the controls and presentation was good. I would say it's a blending of Windwaker and Twilight Princess with motion controls, yet still is quite different from those two. This is actually one of the few Zelda games that I would actually pick up and play again soon after finishing it.
I think the only thing negative I would have to say about it is that it has a pretty slow start. Being the "first" chronologically, there is a lot of "setting up" to get through. Once it gets going though, I think I fit in with the numbers you posted.
If you're not a fan of motion control gaming, then I don't necessarily recommend this title, because almost everything you do requires movement. Personally, though, I wish there were more games like this one.
Ahh, after reading Schottgunn's comment just now, I think the "slow start" might be the problem then for some gamers. Hopefully you got enough money back by selling it early on.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment/feedback on your experience with the game!
You could sell it? Trade it in? Donate it? Give it back to your brother as a drink coaster?
ReplyDeleteWere you a Zelda fan before this? I know you said, "This is actually one of the few Zelda games that I would actually pick up and play again soon after finishing it.", have you played all of the games in the series before?
ReplyDelete"If you're not a fan of motion control gaming..."
I actually enjoy motion controls if they're done well, and I received a WM+ unit at Christmas, but there's another game I want to play first that uses/requires it.
Thanks for the comment/feedback on your time with the game!
I have it, but have only played marginally so far - half a dozen hours or so. My son's played quite a bit more, but he is a huge Zelda fan. He played through Twilight Princess on the Gamecube two or three times.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of the Zelda series. Played through all of them with the exception of Majora's Mask and some of the handheld titles. In fact, I think I mentioned on some earlier posts from last year that I was taking my wife through the series. She didn't play she just watched, but there were definitely some titles she favored over others. From a spectator standpoint, her favorites were Windwaker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.
ReplyDeleteWhat game are you going to play that requires the WM+? I feel like there aren't many games that utilize that extension. I might be wrong.
Canadian data
ReplyDelete701,833 hours 243,420 times
Per person 41 hours 22 min 14.35 times
That makes 16,981 Canadian Wii owners reporting or 14% of the US value;
A surprising skew here for Canadian numbers as it seems more Canadians reported data, or the game sold better in Canada
I knew there were a few more comments floating around I needed to respond to!
ReplyDelete"What game are you going to play that requires the WM+? I feel like there aren't many games that utilize that extension. I might be wrong."
You're correct, there aren't many that utilize WM+, but the one game I want to play that requires it is Red Steel 2. The problem with WM+ was/is a Nintendo problem. The company that releases the accessory doesn't even make their own games use it as an "option", that's nothing more than laziness IMO. Especially when you have a few WIIWARE games that use it as an "optional" control method.
I haven't played this, but will pick it up one day. (and am looking forward to trying the WM+) I could have sworn it was $20 somewhere recently, but now I can't find where. Could have been a dream.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate it's a shame that the slow start turns people away as I've read similar things about Spirit Tracks. I've been playing that on and off for the past 6 weeks and can understand some of the frustration. Those first few hours were a bit rough to get through some of the train basics, the town and do a few things before they let you have some real fun in the dungeons...
"A surprising skew here for Canadian numbers as it seems more Canadians reported data, or the game sold better in Canada."
ReplyDeleteConsidering it's a Nintendo title, I'm guessing that perhaps like most first party Nintendo games, it probably just sold better than the average game.
Plus, Zelda has name good name recognition, so people are probably more likely to purchase it if they see it, than waiting to do research.
"... I could have sworn it was $20 somewhere recently, but now I can't find where." K-Mart? I looked online for it, but the sale wasn't the same online, and I didn't stop by our K-Mart store that week, so I don't know if the sale was ever actually confirmed to 100% legit.
ReplyDelete"...shame that the slow start turns people away..."
Yea, kind of odd, especially with a game that was supposedly in development for so long. You would think SOMEBODY else in the development staff might have noticed it and said something, but perhaps they were afraid Miyamoto had the Sword with him.
That's right, it was a K-Mart thing. It seems like it was a typo, but some people claim they got K-Mart to honor the price in-store.
ReplyDeleteNot sure on the slow start. Maybe it was unavoidable due to the storyline going back and trying to bring things together. Maybe it's an artifact of them trying to make games friendly for everyone these days so it turns into an extended tutorial.
It's funny how un-friendly the early Zelda titles were, but yet we still played, beat and love them to this day.
One thing to note: It's hard to find a Wii Motion Plus, and I haven't seen a Skyward Sword bundle with the Wiimote Plus since the limited editions ended. A lot of Zelda fans bought Twilight Princess at launch, so how many of them would own a Wii Motion Plus at this point? Probably not a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think this has hurt Skyward Sword quite a bit. I remember hearing that Majora's Mask suffered from this as well back then, since it required an add-on for the N64. I'm sure other factors are there as well, though. I just think this was the biggest problem for it.
"A lot of Zelda fans bought Twilight Princess at launch, so how many of them would own a Wii Motion Plus at this point? Probably not a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think this has hurt Skyward Sword quite a bit. I remember hearing that Majora's Mask suffered from this as well back then, since it required an add-on for the N64."
Yea, which is why I think having it as an "optional" control method, and not a "required" method, would have probably helped the game with sales more...and probably even in reception with fans. Want to play it with typical Zelda controls like Twilight Princess? Got it. Want to see how awesome WM+ is? Got that also.
I don't recall all the bundles, though can understand people not wanting to pay extra for the gold Wii Remote Plus that already included WM+ functionality. With that said the WM+ dongle is readily available on Amazon or if you're a new Wii owner it's already built-in.
ReplyDeleteEither way it should have been optional, but suspect they didn't want to do this for fear of fragmenting the experience.
download lingaa torrent
ReplyDeletelingaa movie download torrent
movie lingaa download torrent
torrent lingaa movie download
lingaa download movie torrent
lingaa torrernt download
lingaa torrent.
merry Christmas wishes
ReplyDeletemerry Christmas wishes messages
merry Christmas messages
we wish you a merry Christmas song
Christmas wishes quotes
merry Christmas wishes quotes
merry Christmas cards
Christmas wishes for cards
wish for Christmas
Christmas wishes
fsg