With Zelda, have Hyrule town build up over time.

Essentially Link's missions to dungeons are to gain various technologies, resources, or trigger certain events which will cause a sort of a growth or advancement for Hyrule town. So Hyrule begins as a relatively primitive farming village, and ends up a high medieval Imperial capital.

Perhaps have Link lead a revolution against the tyrannical King of Hyrule who has chosen to live an exuberant  existence, purely at the hands of the Hylian working class. Link leads the peasant revolt, and that would be one of the events! =P

Maybe I am just joking about the last part....

Anyway, Mario? Mario should stick to 2D. The 3D ones, while super-advanced, are not as fun to play as they do not keep the player constantly challenged or engaged.

Nintendo needs to GET Tetsuya Takahashi WRITING stories for them. He is the best author in the videogame industry.

We NEEEEED more Donmkey Kong Country and Kirby as well. 

Nintendo also needs to hold Dragon Quest, and push it hard, very hard into mainstream western gaming (though 9 did fairly well), maybe do what Square did to boost 8's sales in the west to high levels, and that is pack a demo of a popular game in the west, into it. A new Zelda or Pokemon demo would be the PERFECT fit.

You really think Nintendo couldn't make the Zelda world interesting in a more advanced time period? While, there is nothing inherently wrong with the Zelda series currently how long can they keep on recycling characters and items? I like bows, boomerangs, bombs, and grapple hooks as much as anybody but some really fresh ideas would be welcomed with open arms. 

I'm looking forward to Skyward Sword as well because it could be a key game in mapping out future Zelda control schemes and gameplay design if everything works out however despite the fresh coat of paint it looks old. There is really only so much you can do with a Middle Ages setting before you start treading in familiar waters.

I wouldn't want Nintendo to make it some sci-fi Star Wars-like monstrosity with spaceships and lightsabers, but moving the timeline forward a bit could offer some new opportunities. Electricity, steam power, firearms, and machines could provide interesting new puzzles and enemies to the Zelda formula.

Steampunk is about the "path not taken" which is something that works very well with Zelda. It's more modern than the current fantasy setting however it is still very much an impossible and highly stylized world of it's own. I wouldn't be opposed to doing something like "Enslaved" either and go with a post post-apocalyptic setting.

My idea wasn't so much the more modern and steampunk settings and more about really changing Link's character. He would still be a silent hero but he would also be much closer to your average guy being thrust into these confusing and unfamiliar worlds. I guess you could say my picking up Neverwhere recently and starting to replay Persona 3 with my friend were heavy influences.

This is a totally cool idea. It's kind of like Rune Factory meets Zelda with a political struggle as well. I like the idea of a tyrannical King because it would also make the Link & Zelda dynamic more interesting. She could either a) really dislike her father and aid you in rebellion or b) be very content with her life and you have to convince her to join you. Good stuff man :D

To me it just sounds like you want to play a totally different series/game. It sounds so different that it could be called anything else and no one would recongnize it as Zelda. And yes you can make different story, weapons and such, while preserving a fantasy ancient world setting. If Nintendo just puts a fresh lick of paint over Zelda, like you say, then maybe the game isn't so broken, is still selling and people (me included) still appreciate it the way it is. I'm not against changes (in fact I have told in the past stuff I wanted for the series) but everything you said would make me NOT want to play the game. Oh and guns are overrated!

Maybe you should just stop playing Zelda if it bothers you so much. *Shrugs*

I never said it bothers me anywhere.  You seem to think I want to drastically change the gameplay or something, but that's not really the case here. I'm going to venture a guess that Majora's Mask and Wind Waker aren't up there on your Zelda list right? Zelda is about traveling through a fairly large world gathering items to complete dungeons with the goal of saving the world from evil generally.

I would still very much want to preserve that type of game however I want to see some new locales. Is Super Mario Galaxy not a Mario game because it takes place in space? It's definitely a personal preference and while I don't think I'm alone I am also probably not in the majority. Also, I said firearms not guns :) Things like netguns and steam cannons could be interesting items for Zelda games. Nintendo wouldn't put traditional guns in their games and I wouldn't expect them to either.

Edit: BTW nice avatar. Such a good movie.

make a new one

Without specifics in watching my kids have some natalgic fun playing N64 games, it struck me how progressive Nintendo was at the time.   Mario 64 and Zelda:OoT, set a standard for the industry.   They were dynamically different than the Mario and Zelda's that came before.  There were others like FFVII (PSX) and Starfox too.

However since then it's mostly been more of the same gameplay with better graphics.   Not just for Nintendo either.   The last major game changer, that redefined how we played, I can think of was GTA3. 

Yes, yes  Wii did redefine how we played but only from a HW point of view, not really SW.

I'd like to see Nintendo create the same kind of game change that we saw from the SNES gen to the N64/PSX gen come the next gen.    I dunno how... Go 4D?  

Seriously a Pokemon MMO would be a good start.  It's perfect.  Animal Crossing should be Farmville  (should've been already, AC:CF was a major misstep and missed opportunity).   A SSB where the storyline is all online (offline too with CPU) where you pick one character and as you go through your individual story you run into other characters (played by other people) go through a battle, then split or stay together as each individual characters story dictates.   Sort of a linear Guild Wars experience.  As each characters storyline would differ somewhat the replay value would be immense.   I'd love to see Nintendo take the concept of Spore (minus evolution possibly) and run with it.

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but I never quite get this 'Nintendo never makes any new franchises, or doesn't make enough' thing that gets thrown around.  IMO, Nintendo should make less new IPs and focus more attention and marketing on each one.

Nintendo's 1st parties have brought us new IPs this gen such as: Nintendogs, Soma Bringer, Wii..., Xenoblade, Disaster,  Big Brain Acadamy, Eco Shooter, That walking device thingy, Cooking guide and probably some more I've forgotten.

Nintendo have also published and helped with many more games such as Endless Ocean, Bonsai Barber, Rooms, ASH, Hotel Dusk/Last Window, Captain Rainbow, Zangeki no Reinglev, Marionation Gear, Lonpos, etc.

well before any mod thinks i'm trolling i should clear this up.

wht i want them to do is dig into the largest catalog in the history of gaming and make something big happen. something new from the house that Mario built would be refreshing, but not more so then a Starfox  or something gamers keep asking for but Nintendo continues to refuse us so if Shigeru Miyamoto won't make something old new? he should make a new legend.