When it was released back in 2011, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was met with critical acclaim with many publications lavishing it with perfect scores and fans quickly rushing to call it their favorite in the series and at the time it really did feel like Nintendo had managed to not only give the Wii the perfect sendoff but deliver a Zelda game that met and even surpassed all expectations. However it didn’t take long for this honeymoon to come to an end and today Skyward Sword is often remembered as a divisive title that is either beloved by fans or looked back on with disdain. The release of Breath of the Wild, with its radical shift in gameplay style and tone seems to have only soured even more people’s memories of its predecessor, which begs the question – what happened to our collective feelings about Skyward Sword and why is it so disliked now?

The very first thing most people will cite as a gripe they have with Skyward Sword is how much it relies on motion controls. For those reading who didn’t grow up with a Wii in their house, the system was essentially built with its controller, the Wii Remote, in mind, and many games on the platform made use of the then new motion control technology as part of their core gameplay. The Wii launched with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as one of its marquee launch titles and while that game did include motion controls it was still at its core a ported over GameCube title and outside of basic swings and some pointer functionality the game only essentially replaced button presses with basic motion inputs. For Skyward Sword, Nintendo built the game from the ground up for the Wii and made motion controls an integral part of the experience.

Utilizing the more precise motion detection offered by the Wii Motion Plus add-on and Wii Remote Plus controllers, Nintendo was able to finally achieve the goal of putting in 1-to-1 in a Zelda game. This allowed Link’s sword swings to be matched exactly to the player’s movements, items like the bombs could be rolled or thrown and new items like the whip could also be replicated with precise accuracy. This of course led to many of the game’s puzzles and enemies requiring a sort of precision with motion controls to be dealt with, and while that was definitely new and novel at the time the game also seemed to overdo it at times, turning even the most basic of enemies into a slow game of chicken to see who would blink first and ‘allowed’ to be hit. And that’s really what I think is the biggest problem with Skyward Sword‘s motion controls, that they take center stage over things like the story and progression and make the entire game feel like a sort of tech demo for the Wii Motion Plus rather than a unified and cohesive experience.

That being said, Skyward Sword also has some pretty serious problems with its progression system. The Wii of course was not a powerhouse console, especially when put up against the other platforms and titles that were being released in 2011 (Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Deus Ex: Human Revolution were all the same year). This of course meant that Nintendo had to make sacrifices when it came to the game’s design and overworld. Whereas other Zelda games typically presented a large, open play-field for players Skyward Sword divided the land of Hyrule into distinct regions that could not be traveled to directly but instead required players to head back to Skyloft and then travel to the various regions individually. This made the world feel much less connected and was a concession that had to be done for the sake of the Wii hardware.

But more than just affecting the way player’s progressed through the game itself, this also affected the game’s story as well as many of the narrative elements that had to explain why Link was constantly going back and forth between key areas leading to a tale that was less organic than is typical for a Zelda game. This is especially jarring since Skyward Sword features an absolutely fantastic storyline and cast of characters, quite possibly the best the series has ever seen. Link and Zelda’s relationship in this game feels the most genuine it ever has and characters like Impa, Groose, Ghirahim and the denizens of Skyloft are all interesting and very well represented, so to have this story held back by technical limitations is frustrating to say the least.

However these aren’t new concerns for the Zelda series. Twilight Princess, the direct console predecessor to Skyward Sword suffered from many of these same issues, with sluggish pacing, a disjointed world filled with loading-screen hiding canyons and plenty of backtracking, yet that game also had a story, that while different in many aspects retread many of Ocarina of Time‘s beats. So why does Skyward Sword seem to get so much hate these days when compared to other Zelda games? I think that has to do with choice on how you experience the game. As the only proper 3D Zelda game to have never been re-released or remade you have only one way to experience the game – on the under-powered Wii with its forced motion controls. Every other console Zelda game has since been remastered or remade for new hardware, giving players more choice in how they experience the world and story and how they interact with Link and his surroundings, something that Skyward Sword desperately needs.

Recently we have heard rumors of Nintendo toying with the idea of re-releasing Skyward Sword on the Switch, likely in the form of an HD makeover similar to The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess before it and I frankly think that’s an excellent idea. Not only would Skyward Sword look fantastic in high-definition but the more precise motion controls offered by the Joy-Cons could help many of the game’s more frustrating moments be smoothed over and given new life. And while I think that motion controls are at the heart of the Skyward Sword experience and can’t really be removed without fundamentally changing the game it’s definitely possible to re-tool some portions of the game to make it a more streamlined and enjoyable experience all around.

I have always held The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in high regard and consider it among my personal favorites in a series that is also my favorite in all gaming, but it’s far from a perfect experience and more than any game in the franchise it hasn’t aged the most gracefully. I think this is part of the reason why many people’s opinion on the game tends to have gone down over the years, as we have started to expect more not only from The Legend of Zelda series as a whole but from any action/adventure game. Skyward Sword is very much a relic of a bygone age where linear gameplay and player choice weren’t at the top of game developer’s agendas when making games and that makes it seem like a lesser title when compared to titles like Breath of the Wild. But if Nintendo ever does decide to bring the game over to the Switch, I would hope that new and old players alike would give it a fair chance, because remember, this is a critically acclaimed game and many people really did love it back in the day, and the reasons why are still very evident.