Usually too busy ranking the series' games in order from best to worst, yelling at each other trying to prove their timeline order or dropping a request in any one of the thousands of signature shops across the Internet, the knucklehead-ridden Legend of Zelda fan community can occasionally forget just how important and influential their obsession really is. Luckily, we've got online journalists across the world to keep us in check. We've seen the original Legend of Zelda recognized for its innovative gameplay structure in the past, and today, the always controversial Wind Waker slid its way into GamesRadar's 20 most important games of the decade. Taking the 20th spot just behind BioShock, the staff cited the cel-shaded adventure "more original than just about anything anyone was doing at the time, including Nintendo." Catch the full list here. And yes, GTA III took the top spot.
Categories: Zelda News
Woah. What a sucky list. Brain age and Wii Sports over Wind Waker? Not a single Mario Game? [Insert more rant here]
@ZeldaBlue:
The article is about the most influential games. And WiiSports was definitely one of the most influential games in the last decade, more influential than any Zelda game ever will be. It gave video gaming a new direction, inspired millions of people to start playing video games and it easily deserves the high spot. Probably should have taken the first place, but that would have pissed off all the "hardcore gamers" reading the site.
All the Zelda games in the last decade including The Wind Waker just simply sustained what Ocarina of Time and the other Zelda classics have created. The most innovative things going on with Zelda were probably the touchscreen controls made for the NDS Zeldas, which inspired multiple other NDS games to feature similar controls. That's it.
The same goes even more for Mario Games. We just got more 2D and more 3D Mario games. And while most of them were awesome, they weren't really innovative, it was just more of the same old good.
Well, Zelda Wii might have the chance to be that influential game again that Ocarina of Time once was. Real good MotionPlus controls are the key here, combined with some changes to the Zelda formula, which has become a little stale lately. The best motion controlled game is still WiiSports (Resort) and we have yet to get a gaming experience like Zelda to make extensive use of motion controls. If it's done right, Zelda Wii could be the next big thing.
Ah yes, sorry about that. Still...why list 10 FPS that all look the same then? Why not Dance Dance Rev or something? xP
Well Tourian, to be fair, Mario Galaxy itself was very innovative for the 3D mario series. However, mario is a platformer, galaxy was really proof that 3D mario can be good and feel fresh again. The Wind Waker did a lot of things right, including several things that have't been in Zelda since. The pronlem is, how influential is it really when it hasn't even influenced it's own series?
Anyways, it was a good list. Wii Sports is high deserving. Did Wii Fit make the list? That was a big one too.
@ZeldaBlue:
Good question, probably because it's one of those gaming websites... you know. The kind of website that praises Modern Warfare 2 as the best game ever made. Nathan already pointed out, that WiiFit isn't on the list. And he's right, the game should be there.
@Nathan:
Yeah, you're right. I forgot to mention Galaxy, it really brought 3D Mario into the next level. But how did it influence gaming in general? Probably not much.
FOOK YEAR