They took a few steps backward. Old school Zelda fans certainly loved the transition back to a bird's eye view. It made the game work on a handheld.

I still hold the opinion that it was dumbed down for handhelds.

Phantom Hourglass was birdseye?

Damn my not being able to adjust to tiny screens.

An excerpt from this interview: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/28/gdc09-joystiq-interviews-nintendos-denise-kaigler-about-ninten/

What percentage of games in development - currently in development - are core games?

Well -- but see, we don't -- we don't define it that way. I mean because would you call Animal Crossing a core game? Would you call Wii Music a core game? Would you call Wii Fit a core game? Wii Fit would never have reached the type of mass penetration had the core not been part of that audience. Never would have. But, when we first announced that game at E3, the core from what I understand was kind of not really sure, but the core is buying that game.

Which game?

Wii Fit.

Ok. (We were confused if she was trying to clump Wii Music in there).

Because it has to. The numbers are too big for it not to include part of what you guys call the "core," right? Would you agree with that?

We'd would need to ...

Let me ask you, have you played Wii Fit?

Of course.

Ok, so, you're core. I am sorry but I am going to label ... would you label yourself core?

Would have to say so.

I would guess that you would be! And do you own Wii Fit or have you tried it just different Nintendo events?

Actually do own it.

You have absolutely proven my case! Thank you for telling me that, by the way

[...................]

I want to get to something, so, just to give you another first party game, Punch-Out? Was that, would that not be a core game?

Yes, but ...

A title that the core would also find appealing?

But that's, that's become more the same thing we've seen from Wii, where ...

Oh now you've gotta put all these qualifiers on it! Don't call out qualifiers!
You asked me to name, give you some titles, I give you titles, you say well but, well but, well but...

How about original titles?

So, do you not want us to bring back some of the old school, fun franchises, that you guys have been wanting us to...

But there should...

So we cannot win! Oh my god, we can't win, you guys say "bring us some of your old franchises," we do that, "well, no, no we want new IP" come on, ah, oh my god, we can't satisfy, tell me that we can satisfy you guys?!

Of course it can't be satisfied, the core can never be satisfied.

That's what makes it fun, though, it makes it actually fun for both of us, I think.

You know, you get it from the buyers and everything like that, we get it from the commenters. There is no satisfaction.

Aha, there is, no, it's true, it's an insatiable appetite that core gamers have ... and that's what they love talking about, but we, you know what, it also energizes us, cause I think, we would be having a different conversation right now ... Nintendo would be in a different place in the market if we weren't always being, I suppose, challenged by the different gaming communities out there. But we are, we understand most at Nintendo, there's a huge population within Nintendo that are core gamers, obviously. But we're, we try, and I think we're we're giving you guys what you want by bringing back these franchises, continuing these franchise, I mean Rhythm Heaven? Rhythm Heaven?!

The core isn't satisfied because there aren't many traditional, content-oriented games that rank among the best on the console, or decidedly better than past gens. If you look at past "winning" consoles, they all have 8 or 10 different traditional, content-oriented series that are the biggest sales drivers, and were considered to be "game changers" or "bar raisers". The core wants to experience content, while most of the top games on Wii are oriented around a social experience, or starting with Wii Fit, a practical purpose.