Missed this, Circle Pad Pro LL/XL exists now.

[A Black Falcon]

If you've fought the big guys and still didn't really "get" it, I can understand that. I played the demo, killed two things, then stopped, still not getting it. Now I do, and I've been doing the REALLY fun thing, playing the game with friends. Solo was fun, multi is more fun. I really don't know how to describe what "clicked" but it did. Maybe it won't for you, and that's fine.

I didn't play it enough to get to that point, I got bored and quit pretty early. The game has tiny areas, for one thing. It's like Phantasy Star Online sized... the FIRST PSO. And that was made up for with the larger areas in episodes II and IV. The areas are way too small! And the way that they connect via those long paths that are just load times is kind of silly, too. The graphics are great, but that's the only strong point...

*(It is the long standing "tutorial problem" in modern games. They don't trust us enough to figure things out on our own these days. Link to the Past still sets the bar for natural introduction to game mechanics for me, having the perfect balance of teaching players the basics, getting right into the game, and making sure that the tutorial doesn't feel like a "break" but instead flows naturally with the game. For example, want to know what a button does? Pause the game and they simply group every single item in the game under which button you press. It doesn't get much easier to understand than that. When you first get an item, it gives a basic and quick description without telling you everything, leaving you with discovering how it works in real time by experimenting right there in the room you got it from. Yes, Link to the Past is still one of the greatest games of all time.

I'm not going to repeat old arguments, but yeah, you probably will remember that i don't agree with that point much at all... LttP is dated, doesn't tell you things you need to know, and it's annoying. It IS a great game, but it's nowhere near the best 2d Zelda game, and it is overrated.

I know I've always been a critic of LttP, and I do like it more than I once did, but still, it's a flawed game in comparison to later titles in the series.

Link's Awakening is also absolutely incredible, but as far as game tutorials, it actually seems to be the very start of the "heavy handed" style of teaching. It isn't really that bad, but there's only so many times I can find out that "This compass has a new feature!". It would have been better to simply find out what that beep meant on my own.

LA is pretty much perfect. Maybe it could repeat stuff a little less, but otherwise, impeccable design.

By Skyward Sword, tutorials in Zelda have gotten out of hand. The game isn't too easy like Wind Waker, and the puzzles are still tough, but wow that early hand holding is one of the few flaws in what is otherwise the best Zelda game in years

Heh... yeah, that is true. It was probably worst in TP (I love the game, but up until the second dungeon, it's not so great...), but SS does have too much of it early on too...