A very possible explanation of why the girl is the master sword...

For those who have used Wii MotionPlus, it is well known that it needs to be calibrated before use to work properly. To do this Grand Slam Tennis uses the ‘hold still for 2 seconds’ option which can get in the way of the gameplay and break the flow a little bit. You can be quite sure that Nintendo’s finest studio will not be ok with anything less than seamless calibration that the user doesn’t have to think about.

Virtua Tennis 09 and Tiger Woods 10 may hold the secret. In both titles, a point and click calibration technique is used but again breaks the flow.. What if it was integrated into the gameplay that felt more natural?

Point at her, hold A + B  to grab her and you’ve calibrated the WM+ while not even thinking about it but more about the cool A + B grabbing mechanic you’ve just used, hey it could be a major feature of the game too!

Thinking about holding her brings other thoughts to mind such as perhaps she has a limited time she can stay in sword form, meaning you have to continually think about how you use her...

Also perhaps grasping A + B can be used to hold other in game objects, perhaps you have to grab a cup, take it to a pond and dip it in the water, then keep the remote steady as to not drop any on your way back to the objective point.. It would also mean you are basically without weapons as you have to hold down A + B the whole time. These are the types of things that EAD 4 will be able to bring to not only Zelda, but gaming as a whole.

As far as I've seen the integration in Grand Slam Tennis is pretty seamless. Maybe that's not the case for people who like to flail the remote around between points though...

It is but in the heat of the battle you can kinda forget about holding the remote still in between shots, especially for those that use full motions

@puffy: I didn't know it also needs calibration between shots. Maybe in those really long runs?

One thing though... doesn't it also calibrate if you point at the sensor bar? There's bound to be some moment when the remote can see the sensor bar which should allow for calibration. I guess one way to test it would be to unplug the sensor bar and see if calibration is lost.

No the sensor bar isn't needed in GST, it uses the accelerometer to detect it's orientation via gravity to recalibrate.

Also the game does begin to get out of sync in medium to long rallies, just when you need to be most accurate and holding the Wii Remote still after you make your shot just allows 100% accuracy for every shot.

It's a fascinating idea. You're really in touch with the kind of thinking that Nintendo's internal teams do

It's always been about limitation pushing gaming forward. Turning a limitation into a natural part of the gameplay and even making it more immersive is exactly how all game developers should be thinking.

It's these limitations that, when pushed, create the most memorable gaming experiences. Of course there is only so far you can go with limited hardware and so eventually new hardware is needed, but until then developers should think our of the square to push through the challenges.

If that is true, then in theory you could turn 180 degrees and play the game without facing the screen.... because if it calibrates using gravity then it cannot determine which way you are facing.

Someone should set up a pair of mirrors (2 mirrors means you are looking at it the right way around again) so we can actually test if it works.

You make a good point TWRoO, I'll test it out and let you know the outcome

Yep I played it backwards and I also unplugged the sensor bar and played it normally.

No sensor bar required at all for GST as the menus don't use IR either :)