Yep, enjoyed this game upon its release. It didn't live up to all of my expectations, but it was fun. There was a good 4-5 hour adjustment period to the controls where I was definitely having doubts, but at some point (very nearly to me giving up entirely), it just kind of clicked. I had to play in a pretty cramped space at the time, as well, so I had to make probably even more minute adjustments to work it out, but once I did, I felt exactly like that guy from:
Was the same year Dark Souls came out, and having fallen in love with Dark Souls a little bit prior to getting Skyward Sword, I feel the need for concentration and precision began to feel kind of familiar once I understood what the game expected of me, motion-wise.
I did find the overworld equivalent in Skyward Sword to be noticeably a step down in terms of providing a sense of interconnected scale to the world, and the actual world design was almost TOO engaging -- it was very active and felt like I was puzzle solving to make progression nearly the entire way through the game. Seldom felt like I was kind of just exploring a living, breathing place, which was a sorely missed feeling. Didn't feel like there were Kakariko Villages or Lon Lon Ranches that, sure, did have some puzzles to solve, but kind of felt like actual inhabited places. And none of it felt very connected and cohesive because the overworld was in the sky (and pretty dang empty) and you dropped in on zones from distant points.
So yeah, the flaws came from more of the world design than from the controls themselves. I even found the story to be mostly likable, if not a bit long-winded (good Zelda-ish plot, but so much time spent going through excessive dialogue trying to, and sometimes failing to, breathe quirk and life into it all).
