The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword Gameplay Initial Impressions

The video above shows more elements of the gameplay in Nintendo Wii's The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword.

The good:

• 1:1 swordplay motion tracking with the Wii Motion+ add on to the Wii remote as well as the ability to use items like the sling shot and bow without pointing at the screen; basically it's all controlled through the wand now.
• Control of the shield via the nunchuck attachment.
• The ability to determine what to do with bombs via different control motions, throwing, rolling, etc.
• The beetle item, allowing the player to send a remote drone out to help collect hard to reach objects and presumably for solving puzzles.
• The addition of a whip to the items list, very cool.

The bad:

• I'm still a little less than thrilled about the overall look of the game, at least in the forest areas that were presented. It seems a little too colorful ala a Mario game. Perhaps the graphics are cel shaded?

The ugly:

• A most likely release date of 2011! Really Nintendo?