The whole cel-shaded Zelda thing is a double sided coin.
On the one hand, it has not fared well in terms of asthetic popularity. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." is something that has not been applied here it seems. However, if Nintendo provides an extremley succesful international marketing campaign, they may yet swing back the nay-sayers. Winter 2002 has the potential to be like Winter 1998: A Christmas in which other formats have no killer titles, where as Nintendo has a cavalcade of AAA software. If Nintendo can achive this every year, then we might see SONY re-evaluated as the industry leader.
On the other side, it may be videogame art at it's purest: Made for gamers, not consumers. It is a pity that the "realistic" Zelda asthetic was abandoned, but it may be that the folly of Miyamoto is the oddesey of the art of videogames that we have been crying out for since we completed The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time: The greatest videogame created to date.
Whatever happens, I'm going to be hacking and slashing in the equivelant of The Great Deku Tree on December 25. I hope that many others will join me.
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