There is a double standard, Nintendo makes games while Others make "Computer Entertainment." You don't need a compelling story in a game right? You do need it in "Computer Entertainment" though.

If playing Shadows of The Colossus has taught me anything, it is that a lack of story can be the best choice, especially if the gameplay speaks for itself like Shadows did.

The "Nintendo" games speak for themselves in gameplay. Do we need to explain the origin of every boss Link fights? Nope.

Some games take their stories too seriously, or claim it is the best part of the game, hence why it points are docked when it sucks.

Have you seen the story they added on Sonic (yes pointing out sonic like everyone else has for being bad but it has showed us how bad stories can be), in Sonic 1, 2, 3 I barely learned any story behind sonic, I just ran through the stages and went WOOOO AWESOME.

All the story I need in Mario is- Go save the princess or in Zelda- Go save the princess and I'm set. Please don't create another Sonic, these games like Mario are fine the way they are.

RolStoppable: I wasn't including RPGs in this argument. Nintendo made the excellent paper mario series (the first two anyway) whose stories gave me nothing to complain about.

SaviorX: You have a very good point. Which is why I noted, has Nintendo earned this double standard via outstanding gameplay?

Double standards exist in all facets of life.

Depends on how you look at game design. Are you trying to tell a story or pull the player into being part of the story. If your telling a story then you want a very well developed and played out scenes and dialog. If your trying to pull the player into the game world then you only use story scenes at critical moments and let the players flesh out the rest.

Other games have to lean on what are usually poor (compared to books/films) stories anyway due to the rest of the game being sub-par... so if that story has a problem or is extremely sub par writing then it doesn't recieve a high score.

And I don't see how Zelda games have any less story than your average Action adventure.

Just because you dont' remember something doesn't mean its not there.

*Spoilers For Twilight Princess*  From what I get out of the story. Zant is rejected by his people as king, because of his lust for power. He ends up finding out about Ganondorf who trickes Zant into beleive he is a god. Then Zant uses Ganondorfs power to take over the twilght realm and curses the princess of the Twilight Realm Midna(which I was quite surprised to find out about). Ganondorf then sets his plans for Hyrule and uses Zant as his tool. Then there is Zelda who is feeling pretty crappy for surrendering to Zant as you see in the one cutscene. We see charcter developement in three characters so far Midna, Zelda, and Zant. You could see that at the end of twilight princess that Zant truly accepts that ganondorf isn't a god when he doesn't revive him. Midna turns back to normal, and her and Link have trouble parting(even more character developement on Midna and Links side). Link in most of the story is either trying to help illia(h/e you spell it) by finding her or trying to return her memory. You see a connection between those two, and of course the little kids who get captured as well. 

So here is a little summary.

Zant- Denied by people. Seeks ganondorfs power. Not really evil rather than a doll for Ganondorf. Midna feels that he is a traitor and shows utter discust in him and even kills him as you see.

Midna- Who feels she failed her people, and is suffering under her curse and great pain. She makes  a bond with link, and Zelda as well. Even so much that she shares her energy with Zelda after zelda saves her live. YOu also see this bond when she leaves Hyrule. She feels that Zant has betrayed her people, and has hatred toward Ganondorf.

Zelda- She feels powerless, for the first time in her life. She had a  tough decision and is still quarrying wether she chose the right one. She feels insecure about this and seems to worry. She forms a bond with Midna as well and that bond grows through the story. I suspect there is a bond with link as well, but there isn't evidence in the game to say so.

Link- He is trying to save those three kids(forgot their names) and illia. Then he has to bring illia's memory back. He has alot of pressure in doing this as well. He has a deep bond with Midna. Evidence of this is when you see the expression on his face after Midna transformed to her normal self, and when she broke the mirror. While most people would say him being mute hurts the story, it really doesn't when you coudl see the emotion in his actions and facial features.

Those are the four main characters of the game. I'm pretty sure that character developement is evident. That really isn't the point of Zelda games though. They are mostly about the morals and lessons learnt in the game. For example Majora's Masks lesson if you haven't played the game yet is to trust your freinds, and cherish the ones you already have. This is fitting because in the beginning of the game Link is looking for somebody. (Navi most likely). Then at the end he seems to made the decision to return to hyrule and be with Zelda. The stories in Zelda games are hidden and only there for the people who look hard enough. This allows other people who dont' care about the stories to ignore it, but the ones who do to actually be surprised, and find great morals and such. I could go on about how Twilight Princess' story was on par or even better than most Action-Adventures, but I feel it is pretty pointless. As for Metroid I could say the same thing about the story. If you played super metriod I could describe that in detail as well. The story in Metroid isn't too good for and Action-Adventure game, but its still there and Metroid was never about the story, but about the atmosphere.  /Big text wall

Edit: I also forgot to mention that the way the story is presented is important as well. For example if you knew Midna was a twilight princess from the start you wouldn't find it to be as important as much as its mentioned later on in the game as a twist. The same about Ganon being presented. (I know he was confirmed he was in the game before it was released, but if it wasn't it would have been a great twist).

 It might be. I said in the topic this wasn't scientific, I was just going by feel. I simply asked if you guys also though this was true, or if Nintendo earned it via great gameplay.

I never played those 3 games, and for all I know shitty gameplay cost them 95% of the points they lost. That is absolutely correct.

*edit for sc94597* ok that is a lot more than I remembered, but it never drew me in; I was all about collecting things like hearts and weapons. You have to admit, the Zelda series has a ton of untapped potential in terms of story. What one Link does can end up as lore in another game, etc. The same for Metroid too, just doing the scans in Prime and learning about the Chozo, etc, I wanted to know so much more. Yeah, the focus may have been on atmosphere, but there was sooo much untapped potential in terms of story. Instead they just make you scan artifacts to piece together this narrative.

We're talking about games here right?