Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom wasn’t clicking for me. Then I turned off motion controls

You’re excited to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and you’ve just sat down with your Switch in hand (or with the machine docked nicely in its hub and the Joy-Con in your hand, philistine) and arrive at the first dungeon. ‘Here you go,’ you think, licking your lips and leaning forward in your seat. ‘Don’t trust me, honey.’

But then, as you familiarize yourself with Ultrahand’s unique new mechanic and prepare to graft items and shore up makeshift bridges in the stone temple, you realize to your horror that Link is moving with you… . with you. Your shaky hands wobble as you direct the shirtless youngster to collect stone slabs, causing the screen to shake, your uncertain physical whirring and ahhhing as you decide where to plant your creations are reflected in-game as the camera vibrates and pans. he wobbles, trying to keep up. you.

not great. After a bit of practice, you can make everything a little smoother: be more confident in your movements, be more assertive in the way you move, but there’s still clumsiness and a little shakyness. Even in the (Ultra) hands of the most experienced Link. I understand that some players like to use the motion controls to ‘adjust’ their aim and complement the joystick controls, but for a lot of people… well, that’s not how their heads and hands are connected.

There’s no shame, then, in opening Tears of the Kingdom’s pause menu (by pressing the ‘+’ button on your Switch pad), going to the Options menu, entering settings, and choosing to turn ‘Aiming with motion controls’ off. The result can affect a few things: you will no longer be able to point your definitely non-Switch tablet at things with the aiming gyroscope, you won’t be able to aim your bow without a joystick, and you won’t be able to nudge items you’re manipulating with the Ultrahand by simply shaking your console. , but it will give you finer control (at least, that’s what I think).

Traditionally, using the right stick to make the game do what you’re actually asking it to do, rather than accidentally knocking an important item off an island because you turned your head to see what your dog is chewing, is important to me. . And it’s also an accessibility issue: some players who can use joysticks and pads can’t use motion controls. And vice versa.

So I’m glad Nintendo put the option to disable these mechanics in the game. Just know that I think there’s no shame in disabling them, if you want more predictable and knowable control over what’s going on in the game you’re playing. Some purists might yell that ‘this is not how Nintendo wanted you to play it! It was designed for motion controls! but these adult children who wet the bed do not reflect the broader audience.

Play how you want to play. Get comfortable. Because you’ll likely be playing Tears of the Kingdom for a long, long time.

You can read our Tears of the Kingdom review at the link, watch our Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough here, and catch up on what you’re missing in the series here.

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