Are you excited for Skyward Sword? We sure are. After going hands-on several times with the title at E3, talking to everyone from Nintendo who would listen, and scouring every roundtable and interview out there, we've put together a list of 13 facts that you might not know about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

1. Link is still right-handed. That’s right, like with Twilight Princess, Link has been changed from a lefty to a righty, so as to further immerse most of the population who will be holding the Wii Remote in their right hand. So it looks like lefties may be out of luck, as Aonuma has stated that he “just hope[s] that people will play it right-handed.”

2. Drinking potions no longer stops the game. Unlike in previous Zeldas, where the action would pause while Link leisurely suckled his magic juice, Link will have to slurp it down while continuing to evade enemy attacks.

3. The art style, which appears to be a mixture of those of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, is heavily inspired by late 19th century impressionists, particularly Paul Cezanne.

4. Item selection is handled differently than in other Zelda titles. In Skyward Sword, players switch between their currently selected implements in real time. Link possesses a sort of “hammer space” from which he can grab any of his useful devices. Players merely hold B while reaching towards the item to grab it, making dodging blows while swapping out your slingshot for your bow an easy process.

5. In the demo, what appears to be Death Mountain is visible in the distance. Sadly, it was inaccessible during the demo, despite our best efforts.

6. The controller outline on the HUD was designed for the E3 demo. Nintendo is still working on the final HUD, although players may be able to turn it off completely.

7. Aiming controls are a mix of IR pointing like in Twilight Princess and WM+ gestural aiming like in Wii Sports Resort. Miyamoto and co. are weighing the best option in every case to make item control as intuitive as possible.

8. Skyward Sword’s director is former Capcom employee Hidemaro Fujibayashi. He worked on the Capcom-developed Zelda titles Minish Cap, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and the Four Swords portion of Link to the Past on the GBA, as well as working on Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo.

9. Most of the game is finalized. The rest of the development process will largely focus on refining the look of the game.

10. Some (if not all) of the music in the final game will be orchestrated, according to Shigeru Miyamoto. If true, this will be the first Zelda game to feature this during gameplay.

11. The game is much harder than recent 3D Zelda titles. Minibosses take off two hearts when they hit you, which is up to eight times what they have in other recent games in the series.

12. MotionPlus sword control greatly affects battle strategy. Players have to watch their enemy’s movements, wait for the proper timing, and then strike from the appropriate angle in order to make blows connect.

13. So far, nine different enemy types have been shown. We have seen Bokoblins, Chu Chu, Deku Babas, Deku Octoroks, Keese, some kind of Scorpion, a Stalfos, Walltulas, and a fiery Toadpolis.