Got it when it came out… finished it yesterday.
I would say it’s the second best game I’ve ever played, after Ocarina of Time. It’s the first major advance in 3-D gameplay and control since Ocarina of Time.
Playing Skyward Sword reminded me a lot of playing OoT for the first time in 1998—both games were slow and frustrating at first, the new controls felt unwieldy, the fairy helper companion is insulting in her hand-holding… and by the time you have your first swordfight with a Stalfos you realize you are having the most fun you’ve ever had in a videogame.
There is so much stuff in this game that is obnoxious and dated-feeling that probably doesn’t exist in a game like Skyrim or Halo Reach or what have you. The story is lame and nonsensical, the dialogue takes too long to scroll through, the first couple hours are unbearably slow, the game constantly and insultingly interrupts you to tell you that you’ve found a bug or an ornamental skull or “hey look at that shiny rock that only an idiot would not see is important.” But all of that stuff is tangental to gameplay—and no game feels as good to play, period, not even close. Once you get the swordfighting and the motion control you will never want to go back to the old way of playing 3-D adventure games. (Finally being able to run helps a lot too.)
It also goes a long way towards evolving the traditional Zelda level design. The “overworld” is much more detailed. People have said the overworld’s areas feel like giant dungeons, but I would say they feel more like Mario levels. Flying on the bird is really fun too, once you get used to the controls.
Also the final boss is the single raddest thing I have ever seen. I actually started laughing because it was so awesome that some of my synapses must have broke.
I don’t want to say much more about the game because I don’t want to spoil anything.