Rol, I agree. As for the 3D graphics, I feel Nintendo would feel embarrassed pumping out 2D games against 3D competition, although, on the 3DS that would be less of a worry. Nintendo needs to stick to what they're best at doing, and telling stories isn't that. Even now Nintendo confuses me. They need to back to old Nintendo. Skyward Sword is good yes, but come on I'd love a 2D Zelda on the home console again. Imo, the 2D games have more potential.

I don't have enough experience with old-school Zelda so I won't comment that part.
About Metroid yes, that's how I would like it, but without the drawing map thing, I think it would slow down the game pace too much, aslo it may become annoying after a while. Just make large maps with lots of hidden items, and make it challenging as Rol said.
I think 3D may be also marginally useful to gameplay experience, even in a traditional 2D metroid, for example, sometimes in Super Metroid you run into walls only to discover there's an overshadowed hidden passage behind, in these cases depht perception may work as an hint, another more obvious use may be enemies and bosses (I think of Ridely) attacking you not only horizontally and vertically but also from the background to the foreground (ala DKCR)

You can't talk about NSMB on handhelds and on Wii as if it were seperate series. The two games have been developed by the same team, so you clearly have to take both games into account when you are talking about development cycles. It has only been two years since NSMBW was released, and on top of that, the team that develops those games is also developing the Pikmin games. These are the reasons why there is no new 2D Mario yet, it is not because Nintendo doesn't value that series as much as others.

Anyway, if you look at Nintendo's history, it is clear that the time it took between the releases two games of a series is in no way at all an indicator of the importance of that series, so your argument clearly isnt' valid.

For the Other M part, I'm really pretty sure there were sections where you could only move in two directions, but I'm too lazy to watch videos of the game to find that parts. I have an area in the fire section in mind where you had to run over a bridge, and I think there you could only move back and forth.

@nintendo_fanboy, yup! There were 2D only areas in Other M. Anyway, I did say I'd love something similar to Other M on the 3DS (I listed what aspects of Other M should be changed in my earlier post). And I personally don't mind whether the Zelda on 3DS is 2D or 3D (since WiiU's will definitely be 3D). All I care about is that they figure out which will work better on the 3DS and max out the potential. I've come to expect to be blown away each time I play Zelda and so far, every Zelda I've played has blown me away besides AllTP (that's what happens when ur first play through is in 2010 after having beaten OoT, MM and TP). I never got to enjoy what made this particular title great! Well, I haven't beaten it yet or even gotten my master sword, so maybe I'll still be blown away eventually!

agreed. Nintendo needs to make a true successor to A Link to the Past. Part of me wants to see it on the WiiU. I top down Zelda with lucsious graphics and expansive dungeons and overworld. With 2d they can focus more on puzzles and complex and interesting dungeon development. 3d Zelda are way more limited in the dungeon realm, the focus is on combat, and combat is more fun in 3d Zeldas. But they need to throw in a true console 2d dungeon crawler Zelda.

    The DS Zeldas focused so much on puzzles that the combat was too easy and too limited. If they did a top down Zelda on the 3DS or WiiU, what art style would you prefer? Give an answer for 3DS and an answer for WiiU.

While I don't dismiss the 3D Zelda/Metroid titles, I'd definitely buy up the 2D variants defined in Rol's OP. I especially like the map drawing feature.

However, I don't want it on a portable as I don't play portables and with WiiU just around the corner with a better and bigger screen, I'd rather see it on that.

On the WiiU I would like to see the same impressionist slyle used in SS, the the game would have a similar angle as ALttP, but maybe SLIGHTLY lower to help give a better impression of the environment. All of this would be in full HD of course. Link would be much more agile in WiiU Zelda than ALttP due to the analog stick. The game needs a major town that is central that would fill the needs what skyloft did in SS, a safe zone under little duress where link can go take part in fun mini games. There needs to be 2-3 more story oriented HUMAN towns/villages that link visits along the way, and a couple Zora/Goron, etc towns that may or may not play but a small role in the story. I dont need a Flying, boating, train, etc  gimmick in this one, maybe a horse, or maybe not even that in 2d stress is not on covering large swaths of territories, but more so of get the "sense" that world you are in is huge. ALttP is a good example of this being pulled off. The overworld in actuallity was smallish, but it FELT huge. The key is varied environments and multiple towns like I already mentioned.

For the 3ds I would prefer to see a game that is layed out like the Wind Waker(link himself should be closer to SS in design), slighly higher camera angle, but still considered 3d.  The game would be played with the analog and the touch screen would just be used to make up for a lack of buttons and for menus/maps/inventories to declutter the "game" screen. Being a hand held it needs to be more simple in mechanics for the most part. What I would like to see here story wise is HOW Hyrule was flooded, this game takes place while the world is flooding causing a constantly changing and dynamic world. The game end when Link wins and stop the flooding saving the land masses that exist in WW. The game would take about 25-30 hours to beat, but the real replay would be much higher, seeing as the world is flooding there will be points where you as link have to choose which dungeon to beat and which item to get (the other one you dont choose will be lost in the sea) obviously the choises you make will change the way you are forced to solve puzzles and defeated bosses in later dungeons (like you either get the Slingshot OR the Boomerang, or you get the Whip or Hookshot or something like that. This along with the fact the game is not massively long would go a huge incentive to beat it 2-3 times. They could also make it more "mature" because this could introduce moral dilema's to our hero Link (who do I save The Zoras and and beat the water temple and get the Boomerang or do I save the Goron village and beat the fire temple for the Bombs). Key thing here is to preserve the sense in Zelda of relaxation and pacing the flooded would be during scripted events and not on a timer a la Majora's Mask. I see the game having 9 dungeons in total, but only 7 being possible on any play through giving four different story lines that you can chooses as link.

Yes people would complain about having to beat the game twice in order to get use a bomb bag and a boomerang or whatever, or about never being able ti yse both (if created properly there would be say 2 piece of hearts that the bombs are needed to retrieve, but then there would be 2 you need the boomerang.... would it not be painful for Nintendo to dangle a PoH out there that you cannot retrieve due to you chose x choice, just to watch it get swallowed by the sea.... Of course it would not matter because you would be able to max your health without that piece of heart because of what I already explained.

the new zeldas need more groose

Good to see a proper thread from Rol. You always make a lot of sense.