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burninmylight on 20 December 2023
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Wman1996 said:
Soundwave said:

They could have made Wind Waker as the second Zelda on the system.

Making it as the first Zelda game at a time where the GameCube badly needed a system seller was extremely irresponsible.

Miyamoto hated the Wind Waker art style too, the Zelda team hid what they were doing from him and when he first saw it he "cringed" and then stated it would hurt the sales of the game.

And he was 100% right.

If you want to do that fine, make it the 2nd Zelda on the system (2nd Zelda games tend to be more experimental), but you can't be serious and do shit like that as the main Zelda. You have a responsibility to sell systems, that's an example of what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum. You end up with a system that can't even outsell the XBox, which was Microsoft's 1st attempt at a console.

The other problem is that they were desperate to get out a Zelda for GameCube, so Wind Waker didn't have very long of a development. 2001-2005 Nintendo really seemed uncharacteristically reluctant to delay games. We also saw that with Super Mario Sunshine, which launched less than a year into the GCN's life.

Post-2005 mindset Nintendo probably would've released Wind Waker (or some other 3D Zelda) around Holiday 2003 globally, and Sunshine probably would've been a Holiday 2002 or February-May 2003 release.

Shoot, even Super Smash Bros. Melee which is very highly-rated as well was rushed. It only had about 13 months of development, and the six clones were in there because they didn't have time to make more unique fighters. 

I still don't know what Nintendo was thinking having a cel-shaded Zelda with a lot of sailing as the first new Zelda game on GameCube. Even though Wind Waker is a loved game after launch and now, the optics at the time were horrible. 

The issue with Wind Waker coming out as the first Zelda on GCN wasn't just that it sprinted in the exact opposite direction of the day's zeitgeist, which was already bad enough. It was exponentially compounded by the fact that when Nintendo showed off the first GameCube sizzle reel at Spaceworld 2000, it included this:

You have to understand that back in 2000, this footage had our jaws collectively sore from striking the floor so hard, and anyone hiding their baldness under wigs and toupees were found out from our hair being blown back. This was the power of the GameCube, and THIS was supposed to be the game we were getting!!!!!

And then, as has been said many times in this thread, we got a purple lunchbox with a Fisher-Price controller and little discs that looked like coasters. Bad optics next to big black boxes that looked like they meant business. But just you wait, that new Zelda is going to show all of the naysayers what a mature game really looks like. With masterpieces like Ocarina and Majora on N64, YOU KNOW that next Zelda is going to have all the haters ducking for cover!

And then at Spaceworld 2001:

I'm telling you, you really had to have been around at that time to understand just how let down, confused, bamboozled, hoodwinked and outright betrayed many felt. Yes, Nintendo never outright said the first GCN Zelda would have a realistic or mature art direction, but that was the impression we got when we saw that first trailer! That's where we THOUGHT things were going!

And you want to know what makes it even sadder/sillier? This was revealed on April Fool's Day, lol. It took me weeks to accept that this wasn't an elaborate AFD joke and Wind Waker really was the game we'd be getting.

So yes, even though it's fondly remembered now, Wind Waker being the first GCN Zelda was a horrible decision that helped further push the perception as Nintendo consoles being "for the kids". Twilight Princess really should have come first.