I criticized Twilight Princess for blatantly aping Ocarina of Time and not being innovative in the slightest. I love Skyward Sword because it adpots its own unique structure, pushes redesigned combat, is more puzzle-centric, and features a stronger narrative.
Plus, anyone complaining about backtracking and fetch quests really should replay Wind Waker.

The amount of soul a game has is subjective and not everyone will understand what we mean but I'm glad you get what I'm on about.

Mario Sunshine felt oddly empty and rushed. The camera angles were horrible (never a problem in Mario 64 or any Mario since) and WTF was all that water squirting about? Horrible game, I'd be surprised if anyone considered it a PROPER Mario game.

In fairness Wind Waker is a much older game and perhaps backtracking and fetch quests were more acceptable at that time before things had moved on a bit. Also, I remember there being a wider variety of environments to backtrack through, making it seem less arduous.

At the time I complained of the lengthiness of the sailing sections, but in hindsight that mode of travel did always hold the possibility of discovering hidden islands etc which felt quite exciting at the time.

It's all just a matter of personal taste I suppose, Skyward Sword looks great on paper, but the experience of playing it just hasn't satisfied my longing for a Zelda game. Even the music of SS is a disappointment - where have all the catchy tunes and memorably epic orchesteral bits gone?

I didn't mind the backtracking at all in Windwaker. I hardly noticed it because I got distracted all the time by a new island to explore, a new submarine to clear, a new race to complete, etc. In SS there's nothing else to do, just backtrack to fetch the current objective.
I didn't experience the strong narrative much in SS, and the puzzles and dungeones were all pretty easy. The only trouble I had in SS was with the motion controls regularly doing the opposite.

Really? Most of Wind Waker was nothing but ocean and some islands with similar styles. Only a few islands offered any sort of variety. Also, flying is a much faster and more involved affair than sailing, which was tediously slow and required little input beyond having to change the direction of the wind. Furthermore, one can warp to the sky from any outside bird statue, and once can skydive to any statue in a region from the corresponding portal. The only way travel in Skyward Sword could be more convienent would be if every bird statue doubled as a warp point, which would nearly defeat the entire point of backtracking - finding new things in revisited areas. Finally, how is the music disappointing? I could easliy name some epic orchestral themes, catchy tunes, and beautiful atmospheric pieces from Skyward Sword's soundtrack. Romance in the Air, The Sky, Fi's Theme, Lanayru Sand Sea, Ghirahim's Battle Theme, Ballad of the Goddess... seriously. I don't see where you're coming from.

As for what SvennoJ said, I've 100%'d Skyward Sword, and I can tell you that there are definitely things to do in the sky. Side-quests, minigames, Goddess Quests, hidden secrets... but I can see that compared to Wind Waker, it's pretty lacking. But that's to be expected. After all, the sky is really only one part of the entire game. The narrative got off to a great start (much faster than Twilight Princess did) by making Zelda a character well worth rescuing. Interesting plot twists reshape the player's perception of Link's journey and his relationship with Zelda, and the development of the main characters pays off in a satisfying finale. As for the puzzles... were we playing the same Zelda game? Were you not surprised by the design of the final dengeon, which was a difficult and satisfying puzzle by its own layout? Or did you not get even get far enough to see the Timeshift Stones in action?

I can't seem to comprehend why people are saying things about Skyward Sword that blatantly contradict my own experience.

Mario Sunshine is my favourite Mario game on par with 64, i dont understand where all the hate comes from, camera angles? REALLY?????
SS is an absolute masterpiece by the way..........

I loved Sunshine. It had unique gameplay ideas and (like the other 3D Mario games) was very fun to experiment with.

I am almost trough, and the last missions are pretty cool. But its still the worst Zelda ever

I found the narrative pretty boring in SS, just chasing after Zelda. It didn't help I gave up on the game twice before before finally deciding to trade it in after the third time. Over a period of 4 months the nuances of the story were lost on me.
I never saw the final dungeon. I stopped playing at the 2nd and 3rd battle with Thunderhead. I read in a walkthrough that there was only one dungeon left and revisiting Faron woods again for another collection quest (but now underwater, how original) and didn't bother to get through the tedious boss fights just for that.
It didn't grab me. The world and dungeons felt too small, the gameplay too predictable.

Yet who knows, maybe if I had played this 9 years ago and windwaker now it might be the other way around. I really don't think so since exploration is what is most rewarding to me. The empty overworld and re-used areas were the biggest disappointments to me. I can't be 100% sure though until windwaker gets a HD remake. I tried playing it again on a 52" lcd and tbh it just looks awful smeared out like that.

hmm..so Aonuma directed,

 Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess.

Edit: According to the interview, it seems Miyamoto was responsible for roughly 50 percent of Ocarina's and Majora's mask directional influence but not with Skyward Sword. So his influence is what was missing from Skyward Sword. That is probably why a lot of people are loosing interest on Zelda.