How difficult would it have been for them to have two maps for the wii version of twilight princess and skyward sword? - Zelda Universe Forums (2024)

When booting up either game you would be able to choose between left and right handed mode, left handed mode being a mirror of right handed mode (like you’re playing on mirror mode in Mario Kart)

Seems like they should’ve done this to cater to people who are left handed

This is true. After a period of confusion I ended up being ambidextrous. I still write with my left-hand, play music right-handed, do most stuff left-handed but playing video games is a primarily right handed activity.

I find to do better in video games that require combinations from both hands to play.

I'd even say "they should have done this because Link has always been a leftie and ever since the came along, something seemed wrong".

Maybe that's just my personal opinion, but it's a hill I'm gonna die on.

It's weird they didn't accomodate like that. They sooner mirrored the entire world from the GameCube version for everyone than just have a left-handed option for Twilight Princess--Also forever dropping the left-handed aspect of Link's character in nearly every iteration going forward.

Iirc, Wii Sports had a left-handed option for individual miis. It seems like it would've barely taken any dev time at all to just reuse the already existing and fully tested map from the GC version for a left-handed mode.

There's a lot of different answers to Twilight Princess handed-ness, but if we're specifically talking about having two different modes where everything is mirrored (apart from the HUD) depending on handed-ness, then the likely answer is: Possibly Difficult, main issue: potentially run into disc space issues having a clone of the content in the game.

Swapping which hand the wiimote and nunchuck are in people can already do, though I presume the intention here is to have Link swing with the same arm as the player, so that's not quite a solution. Changing the controller mapping wouldn't work either; the nunchuck is notoriously worse at sensing motion than the wiimote and does not have an IR sensor.

Mirroring all of Link's weapon animations is the most expensive option on the list (though honestly they should have gone for it, even though TP already got delayed). Possible, potentially easy, but would take a bit longer than simply taking the entire game and mirroring it and potentially could have caused more delays, and could hypothetically cause some glitches due to mirrored positioning, anchor points, etc. Mirroring Link entirely would cause its own set of issues and take even longer to fix as Link's animations and the world are set up for the dominant hand - you'd end up with Link opening a door with the door handle on the opposite side, cats and dogs floating on Link's shoulder while he's miming carrying something else on his other shoulder, etc.

I have a hard time comparing TP to the Wii Sports games since TP is a much bigger game with a lot more freedom in what you can do. Wii Sports lends itself very well to changing handedness because of the limited scope and controls for the minigames, and the fact that the Miis have Rayman limbs.

Quote from Topaz Mutiny

There's a lot of different answers to Twilight Princess handed-ness, but if we're specifically talking about having two different modes where everything is mirrored (apart from the HUD) depending on handed-ness, then the likely answer is: Possibly Difficult, main issue: potentially run into disc space issues having a clone of the content in the game.

Swapping which hand the wiimote and nunchuck are in people can already do, though I presume the intention here is to have Link swing with the same arm as the player, so that's not quite a solution. Changing the controller mapping wouldn't work either; the nunchuck is notoriously worse at sensing motion than the wiimote and does not have an IR sensor.

Mirroring all of Link's weapon animations is the most expensive option on the list (though honestly they should have gone for it, even though TP already got delayed). Possible, potentially easy, but would take a bit longer than simply taking the entire game and mirroring it and potentially could have caused more delays, and could hypothetically cause some glitches due to mirrored positioning, anchor points, etc. Mirroring Link entirely would cause its own set of issues and take even longer to fix as Link's animations and the world are set up for the dominant hand - you'd end up with Link opening a door with the door handle on the opposite side, cats and dogs floating on Link's shoulder while he's miming carrying something else on his other shoulder, etc.

I have a hard time comparing TP to the Wii Sports games since TP is a much bigger game with a lot more freedom in what you can do. Wii Sports lends itself very well to changing handedness because of the limited scope and controls for the minigames, and the fact that the Miis have Rayman limbs.

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I would agree with most of these points if it weren't for the fact that the Wii version of the game *is* mirrored. The only reason I say it's odd there isn't a left-handed version is because it would be easier to make a left-handed version of TP for the Wii than the right-handed version we actually got.

Obviously, Nintendo made the right-handed version because the majority of the world's population is right-handed, but it seems odd that they wouldn't accomodate for left-handed players at all when it would've taken significantly less effort to just *not* mirror everything from the GameCube version.

That said, I suppose I can't assume there would be enough memory space on the disc for both, and selling separate versions of the game based on handedness would probably be a bit too confusing for the average consumer. Without seeing the source code of the Wii version, I don't know how they handled the mirroring. I always assumed they just inverted the rendering and joystick inputs and, if that's the case, they could certainly make it work effortlessly by just not applying that filter.

Oh yes it obviously would have been easier for Wii to have a left-handed version of the game seeing as the original GC development was all left-handed, and that the decision to make the game right-handed is due to handedness demographics. That's not in debate, haha.

I was coming from the perspective of "how do we make a right-handed port for this game" being the question. Obviously we know the answer they chose for real, but I brought up other potential options.

Again:

Nobody accommodates left handed people.

Nintendo would rather put the effort in to mirror an entire game before catering to a minority. As was mentioned, most of the world's population is right handed so they are going to focus on that first and foremost.

And honestly, most left-handed people have had to adapt to everything being made for right-handed people so why would Nintendo bother making an entire separate game for us when they know that we will just play with our right hand anyway.

Quote from Topaz Mutiny

There's a lot of different answers to Twilight Princess handed-ness, but if we're specifically talking about having two different modes where everything is mirrored (apart from the HUD) depending on handed-ness, then the likely answer is: Possibly Difficult, main issue: potentially run into disc space issues having a clone of the content in the game.

Swapping which hand the wiimote and nunchuck are in people can already do, though I presume the intention here is to have Link swing with the same arm as the player, so that's not quite a solution. Changing the controller mapping wouldn't work either; the nunchuck is notoriously worse at sensing motion than the wiimote and does not have an IR sensor.

Mirroring all of Link's weapon animations is the most expensive option on the list (though honestly they should have gone for it, even though TP already got delayed). Possible, potentially easy, but would take a bit longer than simply taking the entire game and mirroring it and potentially could have caused more delays, and could hypothetically cause some glitches due to mirrored positioning, anchor points, etc. Mirroring Link entirely would cause its own set of issues and take even longer to fix as Link's animations and the world are set up for the dominant hand - you'd end up with Link opening a door with the door handle on the opposite side, cats and dogs floating on Link's shoulder while he's miming carrying something else on his other shoulder, etc.

I have a hard time comparing TP to the Wii Sports games since TP is a much bigger game with a lot more freedom in what you can do. Wii Sports lends itself very well to changing handedness because of the limited scope and controls for the minigames, and the fact that the Miis have Rayman limbs.

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how do they handle mirror mode in mario kart? Do they just have a clone of the tracks in the games files or do they make a “flip everything vertically” filter?

Now I'm starting to wonder why there isn't a lefty-mode for Metroid Prime 3 (and Prime Trilogy).

Quote from Super Paper Mario

how do they handle mirror mode in mario kart? Do they just have a clone of the tracks in the games files or do they make a “flip everything vertically” filter?

Dunno. I'm not part of any modding or emu scene; looking at the guts of old games is something I've never done.

Mario Kart is definitely a different case, because all the animations and whatnot aren't inverted in mirror mode.

I don't know if it's automatically generated based on the original track or if it's saved as an entirely separate track in the game's data, but either way it's not a full-on inversion of visuals. Mario doesn't suddenly start throwing items from his left hand on mirror mode, for example.

Quote from Aurafox

Mario Kart is definitely a different case, because all the animations and whatnot aren't inverted in mirror mode.

I don't know if it's automatically generated based on the original track or if it's saved as an entirely separate track in the game's data, but either way it's not a full-on inversion of visuals. Mario doesn't suddenly start throwing items from his left hand on mirror mode, for example.

i remember characters do use the opposite hand in double dash and 8 deluxe if not 8 wii u. Other things such as the mario kart banner at the start/finish line, course sponsors and the L logo in Luigi’s cap are reversed too

Quote from Dark Link Reigns

Again:

Nobody accommodates left handed people.

Nintendo would rather put the effort in to mirror an entire game before catering to a minority. As was mentioned, most of the world's population is right handed so they are going to focus on that first and foremost.

And honestly, most left-handed people have had to adapt to everything being made for right-handed people so why would Nintendo bother making an entire separate game for us when they know that we will just play with our right hand anyway.

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Yep. And I have got used seeing the main character in many video games holding a sword at their right hand at this point. Although it's not much of a problem for me.

Link has always been left-handed except in TP and SS. So I don't know how the right hand players perceive Link to this point.

I think we should ask them.

I believe that the spin attack for instance would feel a lot more awkward if Link was right handed..

Quote from Super Paper Mario

Quote from Aurafox

Mario Kart is definitely a different case, because all the animations and whatnot aren't inverted in mirror mode.

I don't know if it's automatically generated based on the original track or if it's saved as an entirely separate track in the game's data, but either way it's not a full-on inversion of visuals. Mario doesn't suddenly start throwing items from his left hand on mirror mode, for example.

i remember characters do use the opposite hand in double dash and 8 deluxe if not 8 wii u. Other things such as the mario kart banner at the start/finish line, course sponsors and the L logo in Luigi’s cap are reversed too

Is that so? I guess it's been a while and I'm simply misremembering. It probably does use a similar technique then, inverting everything except for the HUD.