http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOC3vixnj_0

thoughts?

Copy/Paste of my comment over at GoNintendo:

That was a pretty good video...I didn't agree with everything (SS hate was unnecessary..."oh motion controls are so bad because...well just because. I don't want to explain it, just agree with me."...Blegh. Being a SS fan is hard ;~; EDIT: Wow...that rant at the end of the video...I don't even know what to say. C'mon man...) but he made good and interesting points for the most part. I think some of his points were a little overstated on how important they are, but they were still good points.

I'm cautious going into this one, because I know Arin dislikes Ocarina of Time, and loves Link to the Past.

I dont want to explain just agree with me? 

Didnt know that cat rescuer needed to be explained.

Didnt know the dodgy wiimote controls needed to be explained. 

I agree with some of his points, but not others. In the end, they are two very different games, with very different design philosophies. Ocarina of Time is a more directed experience, but that focus allows the game to do more as well.

Regarding his comments on Skyward Sword, though...yes. Very much yes. Exactly that.

3D Legend of Zelda series frequently presents relatively mundane tasks in the first hour of the game, to first of all serve as a tutorial and second of all give a taste of ordinary life in the world. This is a frequent pattern in all entertainment media, showing how simple regular life is and then making everything go crazy which presents a far stronger parallel than simply throwing the player into the fray (which is a viable way of doing things, but it is simply different, not better).

Secondly, control issues were more often than not the fault of the user than the system. I personally never experienced problems with the controls throughout the game.

Third, there were a lot of other points where he attacked SS in ways that I felt was unjustified (For example, criticizing the "every enemy is a puzzle mentality" which once again is different, not better or worse) or just overblown, like many of his other points throughout the video.

PS: Just because you disagree with me doesn't mean you need to be rude...sentences like your "Didn't know that...." are not a good way to have a civilized discussion, they are a way to attack people's opinions and point of views without actually supporting your own argument. I can support my argument and I have many times before, I wasn't really looking to do it again in this thread and honestly, this isn't the place for a full SS discussion...

This guy sound far too impatient to play games.

Watching OOT here, after just enjoying Darksiders 2, remind me what a superior game OOT is to Darksiders 2. I replayed OOT a couple of years ago on the 3ds and it's aged very well.

I'm not a skyward sword fan but it fixed a number of the puzzle issues raised here (I found his definition of a puzzle very narrow). In skyward Sword puzzles were varied and felt fresh with new items which were use for far more than just one dungeon. Also the time stone and orbs which were brilliant and helped make the world feel epic.

He definitely has a grudge against ocarina of time. He's one of those that thinks Ocarina of time is not as good as Link to the Past therefore it is a very bad game.

He doesn't like that everyone likes a game that he doesn't, so he finds all these small pointless things wrong with it.

I wrote this in feb 2012 and I'll just repost it because it fits pretty well

Eh, with a little more perspective I think you'll find that this has nothing to do with nostalgia.
It also doesn't have anything to do with difficulty, although the difficulty factor is a necessary theme.

What he's saying is that Zelda USED to be about exploration and adventure. Maybe you kids just don't get the same feeling I did when I played the original zelda. And I don't mean "you kids" as in crotchety old grampa saying "you kids today with your music" etc etc, but that maybe you've experienced so much already that the game just feels blah to you.
I remember playing it and it feeling dangerous. It was very exploratory, and it was great figuring out these incredible secrets, and sharing these secrets with friends, spending hours drawing maps and sharing them. "Hey, did you know that this bush is burnable?", etc etc There was a whole game outside of the game, much like the current zelda metagame of "what the fuck is the damn timeline", except it was legitimate :D.

I'd say, that by today's standards, the game that most fits old zelda, shockingly enough, is Demon's Souls, a game that the reviewer himself loves.
However, I do kinda disagree with him on link to the past, and I think Ocarina did a very good job blending the spookiness and eeriness and danergous realism that zelda 1 provided, but he's right that it felt hollow with these characters who are really just plot filler, and towns that always need your help doing even just menial tasks.

It does feel like zelda doesn't have "secrets" anymore. Anything hidden is now marked, all destructible walls have cracks, etc. It's not the same game.

And while overtly, this may look like a nostalgic rant as well, trust that it has nothign to do with nostalgia, and everything to do with pointing out that Zelda has changed. To say it's evolved would be a lie. The game, atmosphere, and mechanics are completely different. Thrown out in favor of accessibility.
The same goes for the new metroid. M:oM is so far gone from super metroid that it's not even funny. Prime did a great job, and for some reason they stopped.

The point is, metroid-vania style is a great style, and dangerous adventurous zelda is a great style. Those styles though have been abandoned. I would not complain if there were simply a new IP to take their place and hold those styles/genres, but now, 2D castlevania is a better metroid than metroid, and demon's souls is a better zelda than zelda.

I'm happy to take those games in place, but it doesn't change the fact that nintendo simply abandoned these great games. Sure the new games are good. ocarina, twilight princess, are great, but there's obviously a hole as to the style these games used to occupy. They simply occupy a new space now, and I can accept that.

About the author, I will say this. He is less forgiving than I. For me, at least I have my demon's souls, and I have my castlevania. The author wants zelda the way he wants it to be. Maybe zelda has moved on, maybe nintendo doesn't care. The industry hasn't changed though. There are still very popular games occupying the holes that nintendo abandons.

That's why i don't feel the need to watch the video because i already know that he hates OoT with a passion.