I brake for Zelda.

 A while back, I focused on the Legend of Zelda franchise and how it may be better off to go back to the basics. After E3, I digested the videos that Nintendo gave us when revealing Skyward Sword, not quite sure how to approach the topic. Zelda is loved by nearly every one, and that's not a statement I make lightly. Nearly every gamer, even the casual ones, have either put their hands to work for Link for at least five minutes or have watched someone play for at least an hour. I'm almost sure that my parents, who are strictly the non-gaming types, know at least something about the series. That said, it's difficult to say something ballsy about the franchise that made many of us fall in love with games in the first place.

 It needs to be said, though; things aren't looking promising.

 Even though they may have started the downhill trend, there's nothing flawed about A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, or Ocarina of Time. Nintendo knew that fresh gimmicks were needed to keep Zelda shiny for the gamers, so the introduction of musical instruments, time travel, and parallel worlds weren't considered to be a hindrance. The games were perfection on whatever system they graced, so it never truly bothered us that we had already strayed from the original titles. No one will argue that these gimmicks weren't a good thing, because they never felt like gimmicks in the way we associate them with other games.

 Let's list a handful more Zelda titles that came afterwards.

Majora's Mask
Wind Waker
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
Minish Cap
Spirit Tracks
Oracle of Seasons/Ages

 The common thread is that every title implies that there is a gimmick involved, and it's not so much an implication when the facts are in our gaming collections. Are they bad games? Not by a long shot. You're guaranteed that every game in the series is going to be good, except for those who happened to purchase a CD-I. If anyone wants to send me a CD-I gamepad in an attempt to change my mind, I'll be open to a neutral re-review, but I'm still not quite sure how that's going to change anything.

 The problem lies with the reliance on gimmicks as a rule. With each new Zelda, a new mechanic is heralded for gamers to try. Sometimes, Nintendo just wants to try something new and show it off in the perfect way. Other times, they want to show off what their tech can do with a familiar face and a neat premise to mix things up. Unfortunately, this approach is really backwards. No one in Nintendo seems to want to make a great Zelda game that has a good gimmick. They seem to be more occupied with making a good gimmick and then turning it into a Zelda game.

 That's a really uneducated thing to say, really, because we all know that statement isn't very accurate, but it certainly feels that way. We're getting great games with good gimmicks, so we really shouldn't have anything to complain about, but when you watch the videos to Skyward Sword, you begin to realize that we lost the magic somewhere. We're getting Zelda games built around the Wiimote and the DS, and we really aren't getting the next legendary Zelda game.

 I've already mapped out what needs to be done to get back that feeling, so I won't retread about it here, but I will say this: Skyward Sword looks boring. I'm tired of z-locking in battle. I'm tired of using the stylus and Wiimote. I'm tired of having to deal with the gimmicks. I'm tired of dealing with "themes". Skyward Sword looks good, maybe great, as a regular game...but it feels like it's going to be just another Zelda game with a twist. The twist seems to be just an overall usage of motion controls, which is perfectly fine...but something is missing. It feels like Nintendo wanted to make a Zelda game that showed off their motion controls and not the best Zelda game they could make that just happened to have motion control. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit