The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Message Board older than one year ago

Nintendo elaborated on the "strong sales" for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land today, in its list of million-selling titles for the last nine months. The Wii adventure sold 3.42 million units worldwide, of which 3.04 million took place outside of Japan.

That makes it the best selling Wii game for the period, right? Nope! That's Mario Kart Wii, which sold 4.91 million copies between April and December, for a life-to-date total of 31.91 million copies. New releases Kirby's Return to Dreamland and Wii Play Motion squeaked into the million-seller club with 1.21 million and 1.12 million respectively.

On 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land sold 5.03 million in total -- 3.68 million "overseas" and 1.36 million in Japan. Mario Kart 7 sold almost as many, at 4.54 million. Even the good old DS managed to have some million-selling new releases: Professor Layton and the Last Specter (1.19 million, all outside of Japan) and Kirby Mass Attack (1.01 million).

Keen with desire to own a golden Nunchuk to match the golden Wii Remote released for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword? Well, you can't get an official golden Nunchuk outside of Japan's Club Nintendo, but that can't stop you from making your own.

Enter Reddit user alycenwonderland, who crafted a very slick custom Nunchuk that, dare we say it, looks even better than the official peripheral. Of course, should you decide to make one yourself, it will likely take hours of monotonous work before you can reap the sweet payoff -- not unlike the latest Zelda.

#speakuponkotaku Some folks loved the latest Legend of Zelda game but weren't fond of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Others turned up their noses at Skyward Sword but embraced Bethesda's latest wholeheartedly. Somehow commenter Sloopydrew found himself disappointed with both games. In today's Speak Up on Kotaku we try to determine what sort of alien he is. More »

If you missed out on last October's debut performance of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, you're in luck - the full North American tour is kicking off this month, and tickets are available starting today. If you've been living in the Dark World the past few months (I'm looking at you, pink bunnies), this tour - which is a continuation of the Zelda 25th anniversary celebrations - presents orchestrated versions of various themes from the Zelda franchise's legendary musical past...

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary concert series is continuing its journey around the United States, and the show is so popular that it's added four new dates to the proceedings. In addition to all of the dates already listed, the show is also coming to Denver on April 7, will be in Vancouver, Canada on March 14, Phoenix, AZ on April 20, and finally Atlanta, GA on May 12. So if you're in any of those cities, you can buy tickets from Ticketmaster right now to go see the show.

The show features a full-length four-part symphony of Legend of Zelda music performed by a full-sized orchestra. Reviews on Ticketmaster's site are great so far, so if you're interested in seeing the show, better send that boomerang out to grab them quick.

#zelda Let's imagine, for a moment, that 2011 Wii game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had been released a little earlier. Early enough to have wound up on the Game Boy. More »

The 50-cent random-toy twist-knob machines lining grocery stores and movie theaters across the western world don't contain Zelda figures, which makes them more proof that Japan is way cooler than everyone else, ever. Takara Tomy Arts is offering six gashapon figurines direct from Japan, including characters from The Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword, dubbed the Zelda Figure Collection. Import specialist NCS is taking pre-orders for the collection, priced at $28.90 and scheduled to ship in April.

For just $30 you can get two tiny Links, a Tetra, Zelda, child Link and child Zelda, which is much cheaper than a plane trip to Japan and the 100-yen coins you'd have to spend at the actual machines.

Did you ever wonder what all the writing found throughout The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword translated to? Neither have we, but fan "Sarinilli" did, and discovered that it's just our alphabet represented by new characters. A few of the Hylian characters represent multiple letters, but it's a simple substitution regardless.

With this knowledge, Sarinilli then created a font out of the Hylian characters, which you can download here. Now you can write secret messages meant only for Link! We think he'd be very surprised to find out how concerned people are about the Zelda timeline.

#zelda Over at website GlitterBerri, they've scanned and translated the first ten pages of the The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Japanese manga. More »

Never underestimate the power of dedicated fans. While Nintendo may not be willing to divulge the secrets of the Hylian text in Skyward Sword, we now know all the details thanks to the hard-working fan community. If you'd like to take a look at the Hylian to English text translation, hit up the link below.

#zelda Leave it to Zelda fans to fix the Zelda timeline. And leave it to Zelda fans to undertake yet another laborious task: translating the in-game lingo. More »

You enter the quiet, overgrown cavern by pushing open the heavy stone door with all your might. Inside, sunlight streams through the broken ceiling, and dust that hasn't been disturbed in hundreds of years lazily floats through the air, shaken up by your entrance. The sunbeams land on the summit of a small set of stairs, where a very ornate, red and gold chest sits, teasing and waiting for you to open it.

You do. As you crack open the ancient treasury, a small fanfare plays, starting quietly, and then opening up into a triumphant series of simple notes, telling you that you have finally done it. This, this, that you pull out of the centuries-old coffer, is fine treasure indeed.

It's a shirt, adorned with some kind of legendary logo, a heart container tag, and the number "25" on the back. It's available in five sizes, for a special one-time only printing. Order now, before February 20, 2012, to get it sometime this May. You fold the shirt into your leather pack, and move on through the dungeon -- who knows what fearsome beast you might have to use this on, three different times, to defeat it?

But it's getting close -- game translator GlitterBerri used the above video of the Hyrule Historia, a history book edited by Zelda developer Eiji Aonuma, to create the below timeline of events throughout Zelda's history. This is the closest we've seen to an official timeline, but it may yet be tweaked. Enjoy your speculation:

UPDATE 12/24 When we first wrote our story, we aired on the side of caution, not wanting to completely commit to reports of Zelda's timeline without seeing visual proof. Good news! Through new online sources and one handy YouTube user, we now have all of that in hand. Our below story stands, but we'll do you one better, including a video that will give you a tour of the "Hyrule Historia" book as well as a diagram that features full descriptions courtesy of the amazing folks at GlitterBerri...

#gamemusic2011 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is perhaps the most compelling argument yet for "Video Game as Concert Piece." As a game, it is a smartly designed interlocking series of puzzles, an ever-more-complex world filled with hidden secrets and challenging combat that unfolds with a uniquely Zelda-y sense of joyous excavation. But as a concert piece... oh, boy. More »

#gameclub Welcome to the Kotaku Game Club! Today will be our third meeting to discuss The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. More »

A portion of an A-N review...

Even if not every new inclusion in Skyward Sword is heartfelt, it's easily the most graciously alternative Zelda since Majora's Mask and certainly features enough great entertainment to earn a recommendation to anyone who's been, at the very least, remotely interested with the franchise. Mark this one as a series high note.

Full review here

Looking to fix that pesky bug with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword? North America can now get in on the fun. Just hit up the Wii Shop Channel and check out the "Save Data Update Channel", which is available for download. Thanks to KingBroly for the heads up!

#zelda We've written before about the nasty bug that will break Nintendo's latest Legend of Zelda game and Nintendo's plans to address it. Gamasutra reported earlier today that Nintendo opened up a special "Legend of Zelda Data Restoration Channel" to deliver the patch that would fix the problem for Skyward Sword users. More »

Wii doesn't have an easy mechanism to alter game code, ala Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

Nintendo is finally being explicitly clear about the roundabout, kind of totally weird way it will finally solve the game-breaking glitch currently hiding within The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Andriasang reports Nintendo of Japan has come clean, revealing players can download an entirely new channel called the “Zelda Data Restoration Channel” that should allow you to progress.

In the past, Nintendo has solved glitches by swapping copies of the game or players mailing SD cards with saved games, then altering them manually. That’s an option for Skyward Sword players, too, but something tells me downloading a channel, however strange, is the preferred option.

Skyward Sword’s glitch occurs “Song of the Hero,” quest, in which players are given three options how to proceed. If they choose to head towards the Lanayru Desert and complete that area first, the cutscene to trigger the subsequent legs of the journey may not pop up, rendering the game unplayable.

Nintendo of America has not announced this yet, but has confirmed there will be a downloadable fix.

What's that, Link? You say your progress in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been halted by a game-breaking sequence of events? And that I must deliver expository text because you're unable to speak? Alright then.

Nintendo's corrective strategy for Skyward Sword, which will strike you as unorthodox and elaborate compared to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 patching procedures, is to release a full Wii Channel. It will repair (or effectively patch) save files created after the glitch has occurred. According to an announcement from Japan, the "Zelda Data Restoration Channel" will be available through the Wii Shopping Channel, from the Wii Channel section.

Nintendo of America has not yet updated its support page to highlight the new channel. At the moment, it's letting customers send in their save files for repair.