The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword North American Release Date Revealed

Nintendo has finally unveiled its planned launch date for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in North America: November 20th, 2011. While Twilight Princess was the first title in the franchise to include motion controls, Skyward Sword will be taking advantage of the Wii Motion Plus. This makes it so that where you strike your opponent is just as important to the experience as everything else. Our own Matt Yaeger had some hands on time with it at E3 2011.

The game is also slated to precede The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time chronologically, officially becoming the new “first” game in the Zelda timeline. The title takes place on a group of islands called Skyloft where this version’s Link originates from. The Skyward Sword will then be used to travel between the land in the sky and the world below. How it ties to the later games remains to be seen (wouldn’t want to spoil too much anyway). In the meantime, here’s the trailer that was shown at this year’s E3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zm1tLH1Oks

Ever since the announcement of the Wii U, Nintendo’s focus seems to be shifting towards that and the 3DS and further away from the original Wii console that is likely collecting dust for everyone at this point. The prospect of North America getting localized versions of Xenoblade, The Last Story, & Pandora’s Tower grows slimmer by the day, so there isn’t too much left to look forward to on the system. That said, the way things have been going, it would seem that my time with the Wii will be both starting and ending with a Zelda title. How poetic.