Who's excited for Skyward Sword? I'm not.

[Khuutra]

Mr Khan said:

Khuutra said:

Getting into the peak of Death Mountain in itself w as a pretty involved puzzle. Yes, we are operating off of different definitions of a puzzle here, but you didn't give a definition, you gave a minimum requirement.

A puzzle is an environmental challenge that does not involve combat and for which the means of progression are not apparent at first glance. Needing to bomb the shit out of walls? That's a puzzle. Pushing blocks? That's a puzzle. Playing the Christing flute in front of a lake, why would you even do that? Oh, you better believe that's a puzzle.

Under your definition the entirety of Metroid is a puzzle then, which i would not disagree with, but we should make a semantic effort to differentiate between our modern, Layton-esque Zelda puzzles and the Metroid-esque puzzles that have been with the franchise since its inception

There is not a linear differentation, here. One evolved from the other, and playing through all the games gives you a sense of how it happened.