I’ve been a long time fan of the Zelda franchise. I admit my first love was Ocarina of Time, but I’ve since gone back and played the classic SNES titles and can happily say I’ve played every console iteration of the series in the last 10 years. Some people were bothered by the Gamecube’s change-up to cel-shading but I thought the quality of the gameplay more than made up for that fact. Others were disappointed by Twilight Princess for not living up to the hype, while I was more enamored with the setting and attention to plot that was lacking in most other Zeldas. So I was extremely excited to play Skyward Sword, which was the only game this year to receive a 10 rating from Game Informer, with games like Skyrim, Batman and Uncharted 3 receiving the so-close-yet-so-far 9.5 rating. So my expectations were quite high for this. Did this game really break through and show the perfection that a 10 rating would warrant? In one word, no.

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