I do the tightropes by waving my wiimote in the opposite direction link is leaning, it works pretty well.
also the only time I've used my shield so far is against octoroks and to parry the sword attacks of the first boss and it seemed pretty natural on both of them. you won't lose any durability if you time your parry right, which seems to be only thing the shield is used for so far.
fighting skulltulas before getting the beetle is pretty lame though.
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DON~!