I think the author of this article's career is in decline.

Yes, but its funny read at you :P

It seems like half the people in this thread have comprehension issues :P

My tuppence says that Spirit Tracks is actually very good, but inconsistent. I liked Twilight Princess and Windwaker, but Link to the Past and Ocarina were both mindblowing and innovative at the time. That's the hard thing to do now.

Great article. I think Ocarina of Time is held on too high a pedestal which makes everybody way too critical of anything that is too similar or too different, even though every Zelda is completely different. I think it's probably one of the most important games in gaming history, and I think almost every 3rd person fantasy/action/puzzle/adventure game is following its blueprint, but I think this obsession with the game that most people have makes them unable to see the brilliance of the rest of the franchise before and after. Ocarina was just one of many flavors in the Zelda ice cream store, and I found Link's Awakening and Twilight Princess to be much tastier. And while Ocarina may be one of the most important games for the industry as a whole, I definitely think Link's Awakening was actually the most important Zelda for the Zelda franchise. (Even moreso after the Iwata Asks about it.)

I'd say the entire genre Zelda is in is on the decline, complex 3D adventure that is.

But Nintendo can still re-invigorate the OOT style presentation aif they push M+ as hard as they can to return the series to its fast paced action gameplay based roots.  I want the swordplay battles to be epic.

I have found the new zelda games -twilight princess and phantom hourglass (I haven't played spirit tracks) to be good games but the level of excitement for playing them just isn't there for me. I bought twilight princess the day it came out for wii and didn't bother to finish the game for over 2 years and i haven't played it again at all.

all i want for the next zelda is 16/32 bit game with an over the top view like a link to the past and minish cap, a ton of dungeons and sidequests, difficult puzzles, and make it a challenge possibly having multiple difficulties. oh and definitely no touch screen nonsense for anything other than menus...bring back some old school ffs

Zelda is Zelda. I really wonder if it it the same people complaining that games are too similar and too different to Oot. If they are the same people, they're hypocrites and we don't need to care what they think.

Zelda is experimental by nature, but it's also still a franchise. I think it's actually got quite the happy medium going on. They try new things with many installments, but it's still essentially the same gameplay.

If you want the game to be different, why not just play a game that isn't Zelda? Zelda is Zelda.

So his main point is that Zelda games always were all alike, and we just grew out of them? That makes no sense.
After all, many of us started playing the series from the original, and we were always perfectly happy with the amount of innovation a new Zelda introduced. Zelda I, III, LA, Ocarina, MM, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess... all great (btw, I always failed to see how Ocarina was "a 3D Link to the Past"). Maybe Twilight Princess was the first major title to feel a bit formulaic, granted.

But apart from that, most of us can exactly put their finger on the aspects they didn't like on certain games. My take:
- I didn't like the Capcom parts, cause these felt like Nintendo gave them a "LttP Zelda construction kit". Unoriginal and fake, in a way.
- Never managed to come far in Zelda II, cause it's so freaking hard and dry.
- PH was pretty good, but missing the epic scope and towns and exploration; Spirit Tracks' train mechanic killed the game for me. Seems that I'm not that happy with the focus of the DS team. 

No decline, I'd say, and I haven't grown out of anything. And considering that Nintendo is willing to shake up the formula next time, I'm more excited than ever.

Zelda is in decline because of mismanagement, and also Aonuma really just wants to make other games... even though he doesn't admit it.

ermm no not really considering Spirit Tracks was the best handheld zelda ever.