Zelda is entertaining and a like it, but the path the series has taken in the second half of the decade (Twilight Princess is just FAIL, and Phantom Hourglass had really to be longer. I'll buy Spirit Tracks next month, so I can't talk about it yet) makes me think why I should be a religious fan of the series. My first Zelda was Wind Waker, and is considered the best for me today (Ocarina of Time seems so primitive that I actually disliked the game overall, while Majora's Mask was an innovative masterpiece), as no game seemed to follow its basis, I'm not sure what to expect from the next Zelda.
Besides, something that has made me quite disappointed with the franchise is how the use of the Wii Remote on Twilight Princess and in the artwork of the next one screwed with my vision of the series. I am proud to be left-handed, just as Link in almost every game (even though he was originally right-handed), but seeing that, to just "fit" the game better, the development team turned him right-handed. This makes me furious and seems that they don't care a thing about consistency in the franchise.
Overall, I see the Zelda franchise as a good one, but not excellent. It hasn't innovated for a long time and its success, as we can see here, is due only to a few faithful followers of the series, concentrated on a small group (take a look at the total sales today, they don't pass the 60 million, behind franchises like Madden NFL and TETRIS -_-), and hardly gets newcomers among the newest games. YET, it's a good franchise, but it's far from being an universally acclaimed one, I mean, recognized not only by Nintendo fans, but by Nintendo "haters" as well (for instance, God of War is also inserted in this category).
| Maneco's Hall of Lame As of October 2010 and, hopefully, until the end of times |
 4.3 |
 4.6 |
 6 |
 6.8 |
 7 |
| Notable Mentions (a.k.a. "Games I Played and Hated") |
 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time |
 Pokémon Channel |
 Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity |
