I'm not trying to 'convert' anyone into believing what I say is true but ever since Aonuma took the reigns of the franchise gameplay quality has been in considerable decline and so have sales. Twilight Princess' sales in Japan are a clear sign of this. I'm sure the masses will be happy to see a Zelda Wii but I'm afraid of the gameplay more than anything. I think Nintendo will show off the game to some extent at E3 but only to gauge peoples responses and it garners enough positive feedback than Nintendo might release it within that year or early 2011. But if it's not then this gives Miyamoto the chance to "upend the tea table" and that delay the game until late Q4 2011. I think I want this Zelda to fail so Miyamoto can take hold of the franchise once more and correct the mistakes of Aonuma, if not all is lost from my POV. I can tell you this that Zelda Wii is going to be one expensive game for Nintendo to make. There in 'hardcore' territory on this one. You might see it as upgraded launch title for the 'New Wii'.

Back to not being sure I get it.

Zelda's sales haven't been in decline - the general trend has actually been upward. Ocarina of Time was a momentary spike, like the original was and like Twilight Princess was, and Miyamoto wasn't actually the primary gameplay designer in that game - he came up with some important concepts, yes, but the primary 3-D design (including dungeon design and scenario design) was ofen in Aonuma's lap even in that game. To clarify again: Aonuma was the guy who made OoT's dungeons work as well as they did.

To get into sales more deeply, you'll notice that the sales of the series spike about every ten years or so - the first game was enormous, made the next three look bad in comparison (until Link's Awakening's re-release with the DX version), then Ocarina cause another spike tha made Majora and Wind Waker look small in comparison (even though Wind Waker was roughly the same size as Link to the Past), and Twilight Princess, with both versions combined, is actually as big as the original, and is clawing its way slowly toward the same numbers as the original release of Ocarina of Time. Consumer feedback, in general, has been constant rather than declining. Don't forget that Majora's Mask was the only game in the series that required something like the RAM pack (and did not come packaged with it, as I remember), necessarily limiting thee number of people that it could sell to. Lower sales are not indicative of a lower consumer appeal in that case because of the barrier to entry in playing it.

I don't really understand what your problem with Aonuma or his games is. You've yet to cite a way in which the series has weakened under his direction.

Back to not being sure I get it.

Zelda's sales haven't been in decline - the general trend has actually been upward. Ocarina of Time was a momentary spike, like the original was and like Twilight Princess was, and Miyamoto wasn't actually the primary gameplay designer in that game - he came up with some important concepts, yes, but the primary 3-D design (including dungeon design and scenario design) was ofen in Aonuma's lap even in that game. To clarify again: Aonuma was the guy who made OoT's dungeons work as well as they did.

To get into sales more deeply, you'll notice that the sales of the series spike about every ten years or so - the first game was enormous, made the next three look bad in comparison (until Link's Awakening's re-release with the DX version), then Ocarina cause another spike tha made Majora and Wind Waker look small in comparison (even though Wind Waker was roughly the same size as Link to the Past), and Twilight Princess, with both versions combined, is actually as big as the original, and is clawing its way slowly toward the same numbers as the original release of Ocarina of Time. Consumer feedback, in general, has been constant rather than declining. Don't forget that Majora's Mask was the only game in the series that required something like the RAM pack (and did not come packaged with it, as I remember), necessarily limiting thee number of people that it could sell to. Lower sales are not indicative of a lower consumer appeal in that case because of the barrier to entry in playing it.

I don't really understand what your problem with Aonuma or his games is. You've yet to cite a way in which the series has weakened under his direction.