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ksv on 09 January 2009
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Hmm, I am all for Nintendo expanding the audience and making games accessible to less skilled players. In principle I think it is a good idea.

But they don't have to do it for all their franchises. I mean, why does every game have to appeal to everyone? I think most of the people who actually are Zelda fans are pretty dedicated players who like a challenge. Zelda is a huge series, sure, but it's never going to be all-family-mainstream like Mario Kart is, so why try?

It is a mixed bag though, Nintendo's games aren't all getting easier, not yet anyway. Mario Galaxy had a pretty good mix I thought, a lot of the stars are quite easy, but getting them all is more of a challenge. Personally I had problems with some of the "beat the boss over again with just 1 on your life meter" (the ghost boss I always would get hit at some point).

Super Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube was much harder tho, and much harder than Mario 64. Some of the levels there are tough as nails, especially those retro levels where you could fall to your death any second and you didn't have the water pack. It was one of my first games on Gamecube, and I actually got so frustrated that I broke my controller :)

Other Nintendo franchises are hard to, F-Zero comes to mind, F-Zero GX was EXTREMELY hard on the higher difficulties, even tho that was developed by a Sega studio, Nintendo must have approved.

The Metroid Prime games aren't very easy either, the puzzles are both big and complex and some enemies and a lot of the boss fights aren't a walk in the park without some practice.

So, Nintendo are definitely not making all games easier yet, but Zelda definitely has been dumbed down a bit to appeal to more players.

Both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are much easier than Majora's Mask. Phantom Hourglass has a casual appeal with the control system, and I didn't find the puzzles that hard. I got the fold the DS screen together puzzle in just a few seconds. I did almost run out of time in that damn hourglass dungeon tho on several occassions. Once I actually ran out and barely managed to finish before I lost all my life, and I consider myself quite a skilled Zelda player, having played Zelda games for about 20 years now.

I hope Nintendo won't come to the conclusion that all games should be made so anyone can play. That they wanna expand the user base of Zelda a little is understandable, and maybe this patent is how they are gonna try to appeal both to the skilled/experienced players and new ones. But I want harder Zelda games, not easier, and especially harder puzzles. Not necessarily frustratingly hard, but atleast back to the level of Majora's Mask (my favorite game EVER!)