Skyward Sword's Lack of a Left-Handed Option

You raised my hopes then dashed quite expertly, sir! Bravo! -- Tinny Tim, Futurama.

Of course, as readers of my blog might note, I follow these Zelda issues rather closely, and I recall hearing that the game would not have a left handed option. As a person who does almost everything with my left hand, I found that to sort of suck, of course. But I toughed it out and tried to start holding that Wii Remote in my right hand to prepare for it. I rather like Zelda, of course, and don't want to miss a console title just because of some hand preference issue.

But then, there was hope! IGN made a video saying that the game would indeed have a left handed option. This appeared to resolve a much more trivial issue of mine.. that Link is now right handed. The only reason it matters to me is that, when I see the sword in his right hand, he looks sort of odd to me. It was particularly evident in Wii Twilight Princess, but that might have been because the title in question reminded me of Ocarina of Time.

Anyway, before I started trying to play Wii games right handed and become halfway decent at it, I'd hold the remote in my left hand and the nunchuk in my right. Like playing the guitar right handed, it took a decent degree of effort on my part. I certainly would understand if someone didn't buy Skyward Sword because of the issue in question.

However, there is good news. Initial testimonials from E3 seem to indicate that the game can be played pretty well with the Wii Remote in your left hand. That's good news, but there's one rather large issue with doing that: The game won't look right. This was a large issue for me the first time I played Twilight Princess (using my left hand for sword swinging). The actions on screen didn't match what I was doing, and I was very aware of the fact that I was using some gimmicky tacked-on motion controls. Will Skyward Sword be the same? Well.. with vastly improved controls, I should the think the lack of realism for left handed Wii Remote users will be infinitely worse!

So, anyway, I'll be playing it right handed, but there are people who can't do that or just won't want to take the time to learn to do it. I understand that, and *grumble grumble* Link is.. was.. a left handed hero! Don't give me that sprite mirroring garble, either! Lefty is lefty is lefty! :P