The Green Ghost of the Railways

[Crazy Penguin]

Twilight Princess had three great looking ones (guess which!)

The snow mansion, the Temple of Time, and the sky one? Maybe swap one of them out for the Twilight Realm, I dunno

Switch out Temple of Time for Twilight Realm. The dungeon entrance and ruins was utterly brilliant fan service though. Even the bit with the Master Sword being in the Lost Woods was an homage to A Link to the Past. However, the dungeon proper was a less damp re-run of Wind Waker's Tower of the Gods.

Also, isn't Ganon supposed to be the same person throughout all the games (unless he's two separate personalities in the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess timelines)?

Generally. The only game that doesn't seem to follow this rule is Four Swords Adventures, where Ganondorf seems to have a different origin to his Ocarina of Time version. In every other game he's clearly the same guy from Ocarina of Time.

The Links and Zeldas and Tingles and Malons and what-not are new people each generation, usually descendants and ancestors of each other, although Link himself is always left ambiguous.

Man, that sounds like a surefire way to make sure I'd never play another Zelda game ever again! More NPCs and sidequests? Next you're going to tell me you want more fishing!

Wind Waker had lots of side-quests and NPC interaction that were completely optional. If you didn't like that kind of stuff, generally you didn't have to do it. I think that's the right approach. Twilight Princess was greatly lacking in this respect, the few side quests it did have were mostly just collectathons.

Ideally I'd like a Zelda game to have dungeons like Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, side-quests like The Wind Waker, the quirkiness of Link's Awakening, a more original storyline and something new that makes the game stand out from the rest of the series without detracting from what makes Zelda Zelda. It kinda bothers me how we always see lots of Gorons and Zoras these days but not many new races of creatures. The Oracle games had the Subrosians and Tokays (?), I thought they were great additions.

It's subjective I suppose. I'm quite certain Ocarina's Bad Future timeline was reset once Link returned to the past for good; it would be pretty stupid otherwise.

No it wasn't. Hell, the timeline branches immediately after that one game: after the events of the bad future, give or take a few hundred years, Wind Waker happens. The whole flooding thing happened because Link had been erased from existance (adult Link turned back into a child, child Link went to Termina) and there was no one to stop Ganon. Meanwhile, after Link returns to his time, warns the king about Ganondorf and goes to the parallel universe right around the corner, the king orders Ganondorf's execution, which is ultimately botched and ends up with him stuck in the Twilight Realm. This sets up Twilight Princess, hundreds of years after the past timeline of Ocarina. This is no fanboy bull, it's been explained by the men behind the games themselves, Miyamoto and Aonuma.

The annoying part is that this doesn't take A Link to the Past into account. I mean, Ocarina of Time was explicitly created a as a prequel to A Link to the Past, and yet there doesn't seem to be a way to reconcile it with The Wind Waker or Twilight Princess.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Also remember that you could play as different characters in MM, which totally kicked ass. I still boot the game up to roll around in Termina field as a Goron.

That's not what you suggested. What you suggested was three different characters, each with their own gameplay style, levels, and exclusive items. That sounds like Sonic Adventure 2 to me.

Why is the edit time limit so sad? Hell, why is the edit time limit at all existant? Can't it be set to allow editing as long as it's the last post in a topic?

Different style in that they still adhere to the same core mechanics. Think S3&K, not SA2. Ganondorf would focus more on combat, zelda magic, and Link gadgets -- each would still have the everything just to a lesser extent.

Mind you these ideas are flights of fancy; I did not ponder these extensively. Perhaps I should take video games seriously, and at all times, hm?

[Wombatwarlord777]

Dr. BUGMAN wrote:
Different style in that they still adhere to the same core mechanics. Think S3&K, not SA2. Ganondorf would focus more on combat, zelda magic, and Link gadgets -- each would still have the everything just to a lesser extent.

I'm probably not thinking too creatively here, but I can't help but think that Link, Zelda and Ganon would play too similarly to each other. If combat, gadgets and magic were ever in the same Zelda game again, I'd like them all to be used by a highly versatile Link.

But what I would look forward to is a game staring Ganondorf. Because people's expectations of the game would be different from the more typical Zelda titles, Nintendo could get away with a lot of new, innovative stuff... I'm seeing him riding through a huge battles, while simultaneously directing his minions. And it would be nice to see how Ganon conquered Hyrule prior to the events of Wind Waker.

Knowing Nintendo would probably develop this, I think it's safe to say this hypothetical game won't be a Shadow the Hedgehog.

[Zeta]

But what I would look forward to is a game staring Ganondorf. Because people's expectations of the game would be different from the more typical Zelda titles, Nintendo could get away with a lot of new, innovative stuff... I'm seeing him riding through a huge battles, while simultaneously directing his minions. And it would be nice to see how Ganon conquered Hyrule prior to the events of Wind Waker.

So, Overlord but with a Zelda skin?

Personally, I'd rather see two portable titles in the vein of Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, one in which you control Zelda and the other in which you control whoever gets the Triforce of Power after Ganondorf lost it.

[Neo]

Different style in that they still adhere to the same core mechanics. Think S3&K, not SA2. Ganondorf would focus more on combat, zelda magic, and Link gadgets -- each would still have the everything just to a lesser extent.

Mind you these ideas are flights of fancy; I did not ponder these extensively. Perhaps I should take video games seriously, and at all times, hm?

But part (I'd actually say most) of the magic in S3&K was seeing how the different characters tackled the same levels. That's something they nailed right on the head in Sonic Adventure, but lost with Adventure 2. Besides, if you look closely, the characters are all the same except basic stats and their exclusive moves: Sonic's W Kaiten, Tails' flight, and Knuckles' glide & climb. What you suggested are three radically different gametypes (though still relying on the same action adventure basis) with exclusive levels and items. Again, this reminds, nay, this a description of Sonic Adventure 2.

I think you might have a good idea at heart, but you're not processing it correctly. I think different characters traversing the exact same world but with slightly different skills (imagine for instance, that the trio don their basic powers from Smash Bros.) might make for a great game, but it would probably be a turnoff for a lot of players.

[Crazy Penguin]

But part (I'd actually say most) of the magic in S3&K was seeing how the different characters tackled the same levels. That's something they nailed right on the head in Sonic Adventure, but lost with Adventure 2. Besides, if you look closely, the characters are all the same except basic stats and their exclusive moves: Sonic's W Kaiten, Tails' flight, and Knuckles' glide & climb.

I also enjoyed the subtle difference of Knuckles not being able to jump as high. Was there any speed difference? I've never been good at noticing that. Apparently there was in the Advance and Rush games?

[Majestic Joey]

I think there was a speed difference in S3&K. I think it was only really in the start up acceleration though, so like Sonic would pick up speed faster than Knuckles and Tails but when they got started I think they ran about the same speed.

[A Doubtful Sound]

Different style in that they still adhere to the same core mechanics. Think S3&K, not SA2. Ganondorf would focus more on combat, zelda magic, and Link gadgets -- each would still have the everything just to a lesser extent.

Mind you these ideas are flights of fancy; I did not ponder these extensively. Perhaps I should take video games seriously, and at all times, hm?

When I hear this, I'm reminded of Sly 2 and 3 more than any Sonic game. It uses the same division of playstyles, although I'm not exactly sure if they're as similar to each other as what you're looking for.