Maybe we have been too hard on Nintendo with this series?

I think I'm starting to understand what has happened - why there is so much backlash for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And I think it's unfair. Here is why.

1. Nintendo does not release these games all that often. There has still only been four 3d Zelda games since 1998. How many Tony Hawk games have come out since then? Madden? Pokemon? Look at Castlevania. Since Symphony of the Night, there have been 6 other "Metroidvanias" that critics and fans have been way more forgiving to. So why are Castlevania fans okay with this, while Zelda fans seem to being throwing the FOURTH 3d Zelda to the flames.

2. Maybe the Zelda games HAVE been different. No one will argue that Majora's Mask wasn't different enough. In a lot of ways, so was Windwaker. So now we get to the fourth game and...

3. I don't think Nintendo wanted to push the envelope with Twilight Princess. I'm convinced Twilight was intended as a spiritual remake of Ocarina of Time. It was a game Nintendo made for all those Ocarina fans that maybe didn't love certain aspects of Windwaker. The only major difference were the wolf segments, but honestly, I really feel it was just a new take on the Young Link/Old Link mechanic. But this time, they actually gave you different functionality instead of a slingshot versus a bow and arrow. Again, I really feed Okami hurt the perception of Wolf Link.

and often ignored...

4. Wii-mote functionality in Twilight Princess might be the cause of even more backlash. I think way too many people were expecting Twilight Princess to be the most different of the 3d Zeldas because of its new control style. Becuase of this, way too much emphasis was placed on how the game controlled instead of the content itself. Read the reviews. I find it disgusting just how much critics ignored the changes it made outside of controls. When people saw that the new controls were not only not all that different, but in many cases actually worse, the fans became unfairly harsh to the other content that felt the same. This is VERY similar to how Phantom Hourglass was received. Way too much backlash because of the stylus control.


Just a thought,


Brad