For those that sail the high seas, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD has leaked onto the internet and is available to be played via emulation or on hacked Nintendo Switch systems, before the game's actual release date, set for July 16th. As usual, interested parties have been poking around in the game's files to find out any interesting tidbits about the port. Twitter user Oatmeal Dome has already uncovered some details about Skyward Sword, such as the fact that despite being recompiled for the Switch, the game emulates some elements straight from the Wii version, which makes sense, as this is what Nintendo did with Super Mario Galaxy's port in Super Mario 3D All Stars. However, this is not the same emulator used for Galaxy. Oatmeal Dome mentioned that a quick look at the files shows that the HD version emulates the Texture Environment Unit of the Wii, and that there are BRRES format files, which were used on the Wii as well.

Please remember that sharing illegal files, or "warez" is against GBAtemp's TOS.

[Skyward Sword HD]

SSHD has leaked to the Internet.

Game codename is Shoebill.

The game was recompiled to run natively on the Switch. However, like Galaxy in SM3DAS, the GPU is at least partially emulated. (Hagi, SM3DAS’s emulator, isn’t used. Appears to be something new.)

— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) July 14, 2021

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[chef420]

....

 

[barnhilltrckn]

I for one do NOT like motion controls like this. It can be implemented in a good way with some games for sure and those I enjoy but full motion controls like this suck in my opinion. I tried to play through it with the Wii back in the day but several hours into the game I put it down. The controls ruined the game for me and I wish they would have some how made a version that didn't require motion. I understand the amount of work that would've been required but damn.....I would've happily payed more if that's what it took to recoup money spent during development. But this is just my opinion and I don't fault anyone who does enjoy it, I wish I could...

 

[Benja81]

Looks great at 720p and a very solid 60fps when I tested it (granted not very long but I was outside). I hated the low res graphics last time I played it on the Wii, what a smudgy mess that was. Starting to get used to the camera controls and I'm actually liking the control stick replacing the motion controls much more than I thought I would at first. Seeming like a much better experience than the Wii version. Never tried to play it on Dolphin due to the motion contraptions.

 

[TheCasualties]

I for one do NOT like motion controls like this. It can be implemented in a good way with some games for sure and those I enjoy but full motion controls like this suck in my opinion. I tried to play through it with the Wii back in the day but several hours into the game I put it down. The controls ruined the game for me and I wish they would have some how made a version that didn't require motion. I understand the amount of work that would've been required but damn.....I would've happily payed more if that's what it took to recoup money spent during development. But this is just my opinion and I don't fault anyone who does enjoy it, I wish I could...

There is a "button only mode". The right stick controls the sword. Hold L to change the right stick to camera control.

It works pretty well. Been playing mostly handheld.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

emulation.... thats a bit lazy

It's not entirely emulation. The game was recompiled for Switch, but they're probably using emulation for for stuff like audio and graphics, and the right analogue stick simulating the Wiimotion Plus because that's something people did with Dolphin so Skyward Sword didn't require a Wiimote with Wiimotion Plus for emulation.

I for one do NOT like motion controls like this. It can be implemented in a good way with some games for sure and those I enjoy but full motion controls like this suck in my opinion. I tried to play through it with the Wii back in the day but several hours into the game I put it down. The controls ruined the game for me and I wish they would have some how made a version that didn't require motion. I understand the amount of work that would've been required but damn.....I would've happily payed more if that's what it took to recoup money spent during development. But this is just my opinion and I don't fault anyone who does enjoy it, I wish I could...

You don't have to use motion controls. They took the Wiimotion Plus to right analogue thing from Dolphin for this game.

 

[barnhilltrckn]

There is a "button only mode". The right stick controls the sword. Hold L to change the right stick to camera control.

It works pretty well. Been playing mostly handheld.

Oh I know what they did with putting controls on the right stick but it still seems like a gimmick. I may try it later when/if the price comes down. It still doesn't look promising to me but I AM open to atleast giving it a chance.

 

[linkchidori]

will they fuck, its nintendo, we have all heard the bullshit promise of "better game support" since the N64.

we will see soon another crap inferior console come soon, subpar to the PS4/XBX1 in order to compete with the PS5/XBSX and itll have some other form of bullshit gimmick and theyll again promise to do a better job at getting the games it yet again failed to get....... which translates to all the games it promised to get, that it failed again, aka old games we have been there, done that and worn that fucking t-shirt to death.


its nintendo, the most none innovative cheap company period, they only survive because it has a massive fanbase of brainwashed sheep that cant see what it really is, because they like its franchises, perfect example all the sheep that will blindly say BOTW is the best zelda game going.

Tbh Nintendo will probably never again compete as a serious console maker.

 

[AboodXD]

Woah woah, wait for a sec. This is not emulation. It seems more likely that they just needed to provide some sort of wrapper / compatibility layer for the GX library / env used in Wii development for easier porting - that is, which means that no emulation is done here. It's just a port. In the past many ports were using wrappers / compatibility layers, so it's nothing new and applying 'emulation' sticker to all stuff like this is just a pure misunderstanding. Just my 5 cents...

... that is what high-level emulation is.

 

[AboodXD]

It's not fully emulated. Like fuck... it would be ass to remake everything for the Switch GPU.

As stated earlier in the thread, what SS HD is using is just a wrapper for the GPU, specifically for models and textures which isn't inherently lazy as recreating everything for the Switch's GPU would be a waste of time.

But they were supposedly fine when they ported NSMBW to the Wii U as a base for NSMBU.

 

[CeeDee]

But they were supposedly fine when they ported NSMBW to the Wii U as a base for NSMBU.

Difference there is that Wii and Wii U share very similar architecture, and the Switch does not to either of them.

...Now, that doesn't explain NSMBU Deluxe and the like, but still.

 

[Mikemk]

But they were supposedly fine when they ported NSMBW to the Wii U as a base for NSMBU.

NSMBU was a simple 2D game, not a complex 3D game.

 

[AboodXD]

(Late reply, I know. I'm barely on the site anymore)

Difference there is that Wii and Wii U share very similar architecture, and the Switch does not to either of them.

...Now, that doesn't explain NSMBU Deluxe and the like, but still.

But still what? You defeated your own point by yourself.

You may not know Nintendo games' internals. I do. Therefore, I know what I'm saying.

Nintendo uses custom-made libraries (most notably NintendoWare, but starting from the 3DS, they made more libraries, such as sead and agl) so that the game's own code does not have to depend as heavily on hardware-specfic code. The libraries themselves are what contain the hardware-specfic code and they can be ported around.
It's like the std libraries in C++ where the source code is the same for whatever platform you have and the compiler has the hardware-specfic implementation you need.

As for the game files, Nintendo uses intermediate files (mostly XML) and for the same reason; not relying too much on hardware-specfic stuff. They have tools which convert these to the hardware-specfic files.

This is also the reason why they are able to port Wii U games to Switch so effortlessly. All the libraries they have on Wii U were ported to Switch already (like the ones I mentioned earlier; NintendoWare, sead, agl). In theory, they can just rebuild the code and link against the libraries they compiled for Switch. In practice, they may have made slight updates to the libraries between the original Wii U game they are porting and the current versions of the libraries they have, so they would need manual fixing for any updates that broke compatibility (these are not frequent and it's definitely an easy task for Nintendo).

For Wii, sure, they have more things to update, but like I said, the game's logic itself is specifically written so that it does not rely on hardware-specfic code. They would just need to update their library usage. Sounds affordable for Nintendo. (Also fyi, SS does indeed use NintendoWare.)

NSMBU was a simple 2D game, not a complex 3D game.

That reason is not as valid as you think it is. See above.

(BTW, fun fact, NSMBU was in development for 3 years.)