Like I said, just about every AAA game out there has surpassed Zelda's exploration and sense of discovery, but you really only need to look at one dev team to see just how far behind the Zelda team is. Team ICO blew by team Zelda last generation when it comes to exploration and sense of discovery.

Bad gameplay mechanics in TWW and TP? Huh... how about having to use the Wind Waker every minute in TWW to change the wind or control your partner? Good gameplay mechanic: Press A button and switch back and forth between controlling your partner. Bad gameplay mechanic: pull out the Wind Waker, play a song, watch a mini cutscene. Good gameplay mechanic: Sail in any direction regardless of the wind. Bad gameplay mechanic: pull out the Wind Waker, play a song, watch a mini cutscene.The Wind Waker itself was quite useless, unless you think it's super innovative to change the wind direction to use your Deku Leaf to hover over to another little island (why not just use a Cucco? That's all the Deku Leaf really is, a portable Cucco). More bad gameplay mechanics? I've seen many new players get frustrated with the horrible stealth sequence early in the game. Also, I'm sorry, but TWW's sailing grid with copy-pasted islands and towers compared to the open continental worlds of Skies of Arcadia? LOL.

For Twilight Princess, the entire Twilight realm was a horrible idea with poor implementation. Collecting light seeds was dull, no matter how you try to spin it I can't recall many fans saying it was a fun, worthwhile task. It broke the flow of the game, it wasn't fun, it didn't offer any new and exciting gameplay mechanics, it was a scripted mess. The Twilight realm limits what the player can do and where they can explore, it also lead to a wholly linear experience until you're a good 15-20 hours into the game.

With regards to Mario, the Mario games have an an astounding amount of variety within them, each game has been quite different from it's predecessor, while still retaining the core gameplay mechanics. The 2-d Mario games are nothing alike, and the 3-d games are quite different too. The different power ups, FLUDD, the usage of gravity in Galaxy, the Wii pointer, etc. Not to mention that the Mario team has greatly improved gameplay, and provided a large amount of variety of it too. Galaxy levels are completely different from Mario 64 levels.

I only despise the direction Zelda has gone in, which is no direction. Overloading myself? Nope, I still regularly play every game before the Gamecube generation, and I still love them, it's only the newer games that I don't touch (other than Minish Cap, I love that game, very original and unique). I don't expect Zelda to be the best at everything it does, that's like expecting GTA to be the best at everything, but I do expect it to be a bit of a "jack of all trades" type of game, which it most certainly isn't, not anymore.

It's funny how you should mention that you believe OOT was a great game, but TP seems like the same old thing.

Nintendo released a couple of great Zelda games between OOT and TP.  They included Manjoras Mask and Wind Waker.  They had innovative and original concepts that really evolved the series as a whole.  The problem?  Many people didn't like it.  They scoffed at not being able to play as adult link in Manjoras Mask.  They criticized it's lack of dungeons (only 4) and the time traveling system was completely not what they were used to.  They laughed at Wind Waker's graphical style, and how the game took place on an ocean.  Btw: some of the islands in WW were bigger than the areas of OOT.

Basically what I am saying is that Nintendo delivered two amazing games between OOT and TP.  The fans complained, saying that they wanted to play as adult Link in an experience similar to OOT.  The fans wanted it, and Nintendo delivered.  What you recieved was an amazing game, but one that didn't do much different than it's predecessor.  Then, people criticized it for not doing much different than it's predecessor.

To summarize, people complain when things change.

He was a decent villain...in OoT.  I'd much rather have a new enemy instead of one I repeatedly stick my sword into the head of just to have him come back next game for another head prodding.

WW/TP do not have voice acting in a time in gaming where not having it is really outdated, imo.  I know some people think this is heretic talk wanting it but really if they enjoy a bunch of mutes with subtitles I see no reason why voice acting cannot be included with a sound option to silence chatter, plenty of games have such options.   It actually really puts me off games nowdays when they try and have these long dramatic scenes in total silence or with some gargled noise that is meant to be chatter.

Imagine if Transformers or something had silent chatter and just subtitles...

I totally agree with this. I actually said something similar in a different thread. People just love to complain. If TP is so terribly outdated and stale, why did it sell so much more than both MM and WW, two wholly fresh and innovative Zelda titles? Evidently it's not so bad as a LOT of people make it seem.

Also, I don't really get what they complain about concerning TP anyway, imo it is, on the whole, a much different game from OOT. It's much, much more elaborate and evolved than the foundation that OOT laid. If you compare the two, yes, there are of course similarities, durh, but TP feels like a much larger, more epic and more complete experience than OOT ever was. It does so much more so much better, people complaining and finding it far inferior to OOT are honestly just looking at the N64 game through rose-tinted glasses.

Of course, that's not to say I didn't love OOT. In fact, I love all Zelda games, and so far, I've found each and every installment to be fresh and exciting. Now if anyone wants to talk franchises gone stale, take a look at Pokémon, THERE's a franchise that's the textbook example of unoriginality. In fact, I could name a long, long list of franchises that fit that description, most of them popular 'core' HD games.

TWW is hugely open. Try it, it's the best Zelda IMO.