Nintendo: Zelda Motion Controls Are Here To Stay

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword launched last month, and unsurprisingly, it was met with critical acclaim. Naturally, nobody expects anything less than critical acclaim for the latest entry in the Legend of Zelda series, but some critics have gone so far as to say that this is the best Zelda adventure yet.

No small accomplishment for Nintendo, especially when Skyward Sword is competing against Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past for that title. One of Skyward Sword‘s features that garnered significant praise was the game’s use of motion controls, and now that Nintendo has seen the reaction, they’re going to stick with it. In a new interview with ONM, series lead Eiji Aonuma said that from here on out, it’s only going to be motion controls for Link:

I honestly think we cannot go back to button controls now, so I think that these controls will be used in future Zelda titles, too.

We got a taste of Zelda with motion controls back in 2006 with Twilight Princess, but it wasn’t until Skyward Sword that the motion controls became the star of the show, thanks in no small part to the Wii MotionPlus. Even though Aonuma was hesitant to require MotionPlus during the development of Skyward Sword – and wanted to scrap motion controls entirely at one – it seems that the success of MotionPlus in Skyward Sword has changed his mind.

While I’m sure many Wii owners won’t object to Nintendo only using motion controls for The Legend of Zelda from now on, this news makes me wonder about the Zelda project planned for the Wii U. We caught a brief glimpse of it at E3, and in the trailer Nintendo played, Link’s inventory screen was depicted on the Wii U controller. It seems that it would get pretty annoying to have to switch between the Wii U’s touchscreen controller and the Wii remote, so it leaves me wondering if Nintendo will include button controls in that Wii U Zelda game.

What do you think? Will Nintendo revert back to button controls for Zelda on Wii U? Are you happy to hear that Nintendo wants to only use motion controls in future Zelda games? Head down to the comments section and give us your opinion!