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I understand the desire for large, open worlds to explore. It's one of the many joys of video gaming. But I'm not sure Nintendo has walked away from that, or ever really focused on it to begin with.

Yes, Ocarina has expansive environments packed with secrets and items, but so does Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Wind Waker, arguably, has more freedom of movement than Ocarina, and Twilight Princess certainly has more real estate. Skyward Sword, with its focus on motion controls at the expense of large, open worlds, is the exception.

Mario 64 certainly had a big hub world with lots of nooks and crannies, but its successor, Super Mario Sunshine, is probably the truer open world game. Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy aren't very different in terms of openness.

Then there's Metroid, which wasn't even present on N64. Retro managed to create three games, across two systems, with huge, detailed environments that demand a healthy amount of backtracking. Metroid Prime 3 even had several different planets.

So there are many, recent games on Nintendo systems that satisfy the itch for nonlinear gaming. I didn't even mention the RPGs on GCN and Wii or any handheld games. And I'm sure "X," the new Zelda and new Metroid will meet those standards also.

Lastly, open world gaming doesn't equal great gaming. Look at Oblivion and Two Worlds, two very similar games that are miles apart in terms of quality. Nonlinear, sandbox-style games aren't intrinsically good. And linear, stage-based games aren't intrinsically bad.