Skyward Sword Almost Went on Without MotionPlus

The concept seemed so simple, it was as though it were basic math.

Just as 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, it seemed that it would follow that Wii + MotionPlus + Zelda = Wii Zelda with MotionPlus. And yet, though that is what nearly everyone expected when Nintendo first announced the add-on for the Wii Remote, it very nearly did not come to be.

One might suggest that it was not for a lack of trying, however; Producer Eiji Aonuma admitted that after trying to implement the feature, they very nearly gave up on it. Fortunately, it was the persuasiveness of Nintendo’s Senior Managing Director, Shigeru Miyamoto, along with the aid of Wii Sports Resort Producer Katsuya Eguchi which allowed the team to persevere in the quest to include realistic swordplay in Skyward Sword:

“With Wii MotionPlus you would assume that being able to swing a sword around any way you please would be the way to go,” said Aonuma as he discussed the development of Skyward Sword with Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata. “I wasn’t able to figure it out. We did it the free way but I didn’t feel the effectiveness I was expecting. So we kept working on it. However, the lack of effectiveness made it so that the foundation that this high density gameplay needs to be built on wasn’t getting done, so before Wii Sports Resort was finished I told the staff we shouldn’t do this Wii MotionPlus in Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword.”

“For a while we gave up on the Wii Motion Plus accessory and went ahead on without it. But when Wii Sports Resort came out, Eguchi-san came up to me and asked ‘since he was able to make a swordplay game work in Wii Sports Resort why wasn’t I doing the same thing with Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword?’ I told him I agree with him and I went to talk to Miyamoto-san.”

As it would happen, Miyamoto had already discussed the idea with Eguchi beforehand, asking him to approach Aonuma with the idea:

“I thought we should go deeper into that desire to swing the sword around with your hand freely,” explained Miyamoto. “This is the kind of thing that can only be done on Wii so I see it as a chance. It’s worth the effort. We have to have the confidence that if we do it right people will see that it’s a better way to play. Once we focused on the sword we found it fun.”

After hearing impressions from E3, it sounds as though things might have worked out for the best. Could you imagine if Nintendo did try to release a new Zelda without MotionPlus control?

Source: Official Nintendo Magazine (via GoNintendo)