link : http://wii.ign.com/articles/119/1197148p1.html
"I hate goats. I didn't always hate them, but after suffering through the opening of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I was ready to kill goats on sight. And cats. And fish. And cats that make you fish.
Twilight Princess isn't a bad game by any means, but its opening hours, which largely focus on acclimating players to Link's new adventure, force you into mindless tasks that ultimately have no application in the large adventure that follows. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword doesn't suffer from that problem to nearly the same degree.
That doesn't mean there isn't an introductory sequence to Nintendo's new Zelda adventure. Expect an opening cinematic, which I wasn't allowed to watch, that then opens to a familiar sight – Link fast asleep in his bed, without a care in the world. A mysterious voice begins to speak to Link, and he is suddenly jolted awake as his giant bird, a nameless Crimson Loftwing, sticks its head in the window of his room in the Skyloft Knights Academy.
What follows is a series of quick tutorials mixed between character and story development. It helps that the mechanics you are learning here are relatively new. Since Skyward Sword requires and fully integrates Wii Motion Plus, even basic activities like swordplay feel very fresh and will require some practice to fully master. Don't expect to waggle your way through this game – your health bar will suffer for attempting to do so.
Link drags himself from his bed, and quickly meets Pipit, a young resident of Skyloft wearing a very familiar outfit – the very tunic that we've seen Link wear over the past quarter century, albeit in yellow. It turns out Link's battle outfit is the uniform of the Skyloft knights, and the color denotes the year of graduation. This year's color? Green. Naturally.
A quick errand involves bringing a barrel of food to the kitchen. This seemingly ridiculous task is actually the game's way of making you realize you'll be using Motion Plus frequently, and you're taught how to throw and roll via movement with the Wii remote. Quick lessons on Z-targeting, dashing, climbing, auto-jumping and save points and the bulk of Link's movement abilities have been covered.
Save points? That's right, Zelda now has save points that are present in the physical game world. By "praying to the goddess" at bird statues, players can record their progress. These statues also serve other purposes later in the game… but more on that some other time.
Many of Link's activities involve a new stamina meter, a circle that is carved up into slices and expended in variable amounts depending on the activity. Simply climbing a wall will slowly deplete the bar while leaping up the same wall will rapidly use full slices. Likewise Link's special attacks and dashing will rapidly force the hero to the point of exhaustion.
The concept of stamina is deceptively clever. At first the notion of Link growing weary is frustrating – he's never become tired before. Why add that mechanic now? Yet Nintendo's application of the idea works because it's carefully designed, and will allow Link to do bigger attacks and faster movement without making him overly powerful. Sprinting across a field is fantastic, but it does make sense that there would be some amount of cost for that benefit.
Here Skyward Sword shifts toward story and character. Zelda is quickly introduced as an old childhood friend of Link's. Many previous iterations of Zelda have focused on her role as a princess and as a defender of Hyrule, but here she's neither. In the town of Skyloft, Zelda is the daughter of Headmaster Gaepora of the Knight Academy. More on him in the future.
Zelda has a younger, more energetic and exuberant spirit in Skyward Sword. One of the first things she does is pull Link off the edge of a cliff, declaring that he needs more practice for the upcoming aerial race. This, of course, leads to a quick tutorial on flying, which is a critical concept for much of the game.
Upon returning to Skyloft, Link quickly meets a group of local troublemakers. The leader of this pack, Groose, could best be likened to Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. Groose steals Link's Crimson Loftwing, and Link's quest to find his aerial ally will yield him a sword and basic combat training. Again, a lot of this would seem basic, except that this Zelda adventure controls differently than previous games in the franchise. Taking these lessons lightly would not be a good idea. The tutorials run through directional slicing, spin attacks and the "fatal blow" concept that was introduced in Twilight Princess. 
At this point, the developers start to bring all of your training together. Movement and combat are called upon as Link treks through a dark cave, fighting basic enemies like Keese (bats) and Chu Chus (small slime monsters). Rescuing your Loftwing will quickly lead toward the race I mentioned earlier, which will truly test your flying abilities. Predictably, Link beats his opponents, and as he and Zelda celebrate, a dark tornado bursts through the clouds and pulls her away, while Link is thrown back to Skyloft.
Link is awakened by a blue spirit named Fi, the same being that was seen in the Skyward Sword concept art released at E3 2009. The strange, almost robot-like being leads the Skyloft hero to a secret chamber, where he is given the Goddess Sword and some direction to recovering Zelda, who appears to have been pulled to the dark, wicked world below the clouds. Before departing on a much bigger adventure, Link is visited by Gaepora, who not only reveals that he knew of the Goddess Sword but finally grants the hero his green tunic. It's then that Link is sent to rescue his best friend.
All told, Skyward Sword's introductory moments took a couple hours, though a focused player could likely push this timeframe down considerably. The game's designers seemed to focus on making sure the plot continuously moved, and avoided getting tied down in lengthy tasks that have little bearing on the story. Those interested in exploring the island of Skyloft could no doubt spend far more time checking out every corner of the Bazaar, Graveyard, Lake and Knight Academy. (It has a toilet!) But that's the beauty of this game's design. It seems more aware that some players will know what they're doing, and seems interested in allowing players to play a bit more to their style rather than to the game's specific demands.
Zelda games are known for following some very basic principles, even though each entry finds its own way of innovating for the franchise. Skyward Sword is similar, but it does things differently enough to keep this entry from feeling like it's wasting your time. The game wants Link to be on his grand adventure as much as you do.
I've barely scratched the surface of what I've experienced in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Expect plenty more in the future, including my thoughts on the game's graphics, control and much more. Got questions? In a few weeks Audrey and I will be gathering as many as we can and answering them in some huge mailbag installments. Send your questions and thoughts to nintendo@ign.com and we'll get to them if we can. "
sonnds good
