Nintendo's release of the first game to begin the series, The Legend of Zelda, is overshadowed by the more recent games. Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess just to name a few. Certainly Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time have deeper plots (and in the case of Twilight Princess; better graphics), but The Legend of Zelda is truly hard to surpass. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Nintendo take a retro turn in the series, integrating the old school playing style. Anyone else share these thoughts?

Well. The thing that stands out to me is the openness of the original Legend of Zelda. You could do everything in basically whatever order you wanted. This openness is one the best features of the game. As you can have a unique experience nearly every time you go through the game. As the series progressed it moved away from being so open. This is an element well missed. But sadly since most of the series is not like this, we cannot call it Zelda.