Skyward Sword originally featured button control

Forthcoming Wii adventure The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword originally featured traditional button controls, the game’s producer has revealed.

Speaking in a new Iwata Asks interview on Nintendo’s Japanese site, as translated by Siliconera, series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that, even though director Hidemaro Fujibayashi had experimented with MotionPlus controls when production started, he remained skeptical.

It wasn’t until Aonuma saw the sword fighting mini-games in Wii Sports Resort that he changed his mind, by which time design lead Ryuji Kobayashi was finishing up button controls for combat.

Elsewhere in the interview it was revealed that the game’s flying beetle item was initially a boomerang, before evolving into a flying hand, and then its final form.

Fujibayashi also apparently experimented with an inventory system that saw you twisting the Remote to cycle between items, but it was scrapped because of the wrist’s limited turning radius.