The New Zelda Won’t Have A Lefty Mode After All

Last week, I wrote about my experiences as a left-handed person playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. To save you the re-reading, I’ll let you know that I survived.

I had some trouble playing the game, which seemed tailored for righties, but I got used to it. Some readers, however, wondered if there was a lefty mode. Some even pointed to an IGN report that stated that there is one. I was surprised that none of the Nintendo reps who sat with me while I talked about the game’s compatibility for left-handed people had mentioned a lefty mode. None of them was a developer on the game, but they were knowledgeable folks nonetheless.

I e-mailed Nintendo public relations to be sure and even linked them the IGN video, which makes verbal mention of it but doesn’t show it, to make sure we were talking about the same thing. Now I’ve got an official response: Nintendo confirms there’s no left-handed mode in the game. Go figure.

This is no tragedy. What it means, I guess, is that Link will hold his sword in his right hand as he did in the Wii version of his previous Zelda console game. Prior to that, he’d been a lefty in all of his most famous games.