No newer than I my friend. I remember trying a Zelda game at a friend's house some time around 1992 and being distinctly unimpressed but that kind of situation was hardly ideal (most of the time we played Street Fighter 2 or Micro-Machines, I seem to recall) so it wasn't until the Wii, my first Nintendo console, that I properly tried a Zelda game. I just figured that the Virtual Console releases were a less risky investment if I didn't like them, so that was why I plumped for Ocarina!

I actually wondered if my newness to the series and the fact that the characters were not a part of my childhood was contributory to my not caring but your experience would seem to disprove that. Maybe it's just the stereotypically cynical Brit in me hampering my enjoyment...

Not really. If anything, Link's lack of personality beyond a couple of games is a large reason why his personality is irrelevant to playing Zelda games. Even Skyward Sword, which has way more of it, is still largely irrelevant to me. Even the story itself is very secondary to the gameplay, which just adds to how unimportant it is. It could be a generic create a character and it would change little.

That strongly parallels my own experience. I just missed getting a NES when they came out. Had the cash, but they were all sold out so I spent my money elsewhere. I had a friend with one and he showed me Zelda, but I just didn't get the appeal. I was arcade-oriented all the way.

During the 16-bit era I played SNES and Genesis (I'm from the States originally) at friends houses, but it was pretty much all arcade ports including a lot of SFII versions!

I had an original Gameboy, but the Wii was also my first Nintendo console and my first console since my Playstation. I actually picked up Twilight Princess for the sole purpose of running the hack so I could play a Japanese mahjong game, but I decided to play it as long as I had it. I thought the gameplay was a bit annoying - too much back-tracking, but the story was great and in the end surprisingly moving (sentimental me). I didn't like the controls in Skyward Sword as well, but the story was nice and I thought moving around the game world and the progression was less annoying.

Man, the amount of time I spent in cold, damp, British arcades putting coins into machines (why, oh why did those place always keep the doors open even when the rain was lashing down?).

My Wii was my first console since the Megadrive! Although my ex-wife had a PS2 so I did play a few games on that while we were together. You sound like a very dedicated mahjong fan! My younger brother actually raved about Twilight Princess (his first Zelda, too) and I do plan on checking it out at some point. As for the controls in Skyward Sword, I completely agree. I really enjoyed Red Steel 2, which controlled great, and I just don't understand how Ubisoft were able to better implement controls on Nintendo's hardware than they were themselves. Then there's the constant need to recentre the pointer controls; why is that, out of all the games I've played, only necessary on one of the last Nintendo Wii games? None of it makes any sense to me but there you go...

After semi-bricking my Wii I ended up getting a Japanese Wii solely to play Mahjong Taikai Wii and Mr. Driller Drill Land (a Japanese GameCube game which was criminally never released outside of Japan - I actually did an NL review for it). In the course of a failed attempt to un-brick it I actually bought the Japanese Twilight Princess as well so briefly I had two copies of the game!

It's worth playing, though I did find it a slog after awhile and I can remember the water and sky dungeons really tried my patience and caused me to resort to FAQs. I did beat Ganon though, which felt satisfying. The final cinematic made all the rest worthwhile.

Well, I may get to it sooner rather than later. Either the main quest in Skyward Sword is a lot shorter than I imagined or I'm about to have a whole load of new dungeons appear. Maybe it just seems shorter after Darksiders 2, I don't know, but I remember Ocarina being a longer game.

Am I the only one who didn't have problems with SS controls? I thought they were awesome and mine worked perfectly. (Except for that one harp mini-game)

http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2010/217/b/f/__Wind_Wak...

The only time I had control issues was when I have to do that...finishing jump stab...attack thing. You know, that move that you have to use during the final battles? >.>
Dunno why, but half the time it does a shield thrust instead...it was irritating.

...Just play the song of time...

I loved the controls in Skyward Sword. I didn't have any problems.

Nope. I loved them. Other than the harp. Yeah, that could've been so much better.

I didn't care for the bamboo chop either but other then those two things the controls were great!

Yeah I had a decent amount of input confusion like that. I much preferred the Twilight Princess controls. When you get right down to it one-to-one motion for sword-fighting really isn't as brilliant as it sounds.

Again, though, I thought Red Steel 2 controlled really well.

I was pretty excited for Wind Waker when it came out on GCN. I even preordered it and got that Master Quest disc, but that has been made obsolete by the 3DS one IMO.
My top Zelda games probably have to be:
1. Majora's Mask
2. Wind Waker
3. Skward Sword
4. Minish Cap
6. Ocarina of Time
7. A Link to the Past
8. Four Swords Adventures
9. Links Awakening
10. The Legend of Zelda
11. Zelda II
12. The Oracle of Seasons/Ages
13. Phantom Hourglass
I haven't played or owned Spirit Tracks, because I didn't like Phantom Hourglass at all kinda. I have owned all of these, and I could explain why I like them in that order, but I'd probably be here for a while typing to no end.
I though SS had very good controls. I went back to TP the other day, and it seemed the game basically played like one blur IMO.
Every good game seems perfect when it first comes out, but whenever I go back to an older entry in the series, the improvements are too much to ignore.

I have never played the Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, but I have had great experiences with its sequels Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, so I am looking forward to this experience. Since I'm not a fan of the game's current blue shine, I was thinking about passing on this HD-make and going for the original game on the Gamecube. Then I found out it was +$100.

I bet the blue shine was due to environment lighting. The original version still has some amazing graphics. The most memorable for myself was experiencing the inside of the volcano for the first time. The lighting and embers passing by Links face were and still are beautiful to look at.

If you don't want to spend money on the original, you ought get a game fly account and rent wind waker that way!

nope, it all comes down to user error/inaccuracy or faulty motion+. At least in regards to sword fighting, the fact that many players had perfect success rate within registering motions, proves that it works. Hell there's a video of the final boss being beaten in 27 seconds. The problem is they thought every player could adapt to that system and refused to provide a traditional alternative, as well as refusing to give you the ability to skip dialogue boxes or turn off Fi. They keep treating players like imbeciles and refuse to give them choice, hence the backlash. Same story with DKCR, posters claiming the game is broken when the only motion control input is waggle, basically consisting in swapping flexing a finger with a flick of the wrist. The only way that breaks the game is if you have Parkinson's, but nevertheless all they needed to do to keep everyone happy, was include cc support.

Skyward sword was good but without a doubt WW is my favorite. Still looks great, plays perfect and the story is the most interesting in the Zelda series.

Things I would love see Nintendo do for Zelda is
Voices: Seriously it is time to atleast give NPC voices.
Finally let Link and Zelda get together. Imagine the possibilities on how the story could be expanded if they got married

I'm not sure if this is a great idea to get past the overdone "will they or won't they" for every adolescent japanese love story ever or would be a terrible idea because attempts at romance in a Nintendo game could be botched so easily (though to Nintendo's credit, Majora's Mask had a romance somehow more believable than most games...though that might be more of an insult to others...)