[soccerant]

uber, I'll side with you on the fact that it doesn't feel like real swordplay. And it shouldn't. Red Steel 2 went for that approach where you actually had to get your whole arm into sword swings, and such a tactic would be unnecessary and tiresome for the long play sessions that Zelda provides.

Regarding flailing, I think it's inevitable that people will resort to that. After all, that's what worked so easily in Twilight Princess. But precisely why I'm optimistic about combat. You actually have to think about it now. Enemies in TP practically invited you to kill them. Z-Targeting automatically brought out your shield and you were protected, no questions asked. It seems in Skyward Sword that enemies hold their guard and you have to determine where you will strike and how. Granted, in my playthrough as well, it wasn't 100% accurate, but for the vast majority of the time that it worked, it worked well, and it was fun. Definitely a lot more fun than the waggle-fest that was TP. Bring on this new combat system, I'm pumped for it.

On that note, item selection is a chore. Every item is assigned to the B trigger which frees up the D-Pad (perhaps for camera control?), so when you click the trigger, your selection of items pops up. Choosing is simple and is done in real time (the game doesn't pause as it did in the past, which is a nice touch). However, if you're shooting your bow, see an enemy in front of you and bring out your sword to kill him, pushing B afterwards won't pull out your bow; it'll pull out your item wheel again. Items aren't locked to a specific button anymore (D-Pad in TP; X,Y,Z in GCN); you have to find the one you want each time you push B.