Last gen's Zelda games and similar action/adventures

[onelocust]

While I like all these games, I can't look back on them and have the same feelings I got from playing Shadow of the Colossus. Even if it doesn't fit the category, it trounces the other selections anyhow.

[Yoshi]

My wife loved BG&E. Nothing on this list does anything for me.

[elfneedsfood]

I would rank them in this order.

1. Beyond Good and Evil - This was a good game.
2. Wind Waker - The hunt at the end did suck. Despite this, I liked it better than Twilight Princess.
3. Twilight Princess - If I had never played Zelda before, I might like this better.
4. Shadow of the Colossus - I like the game, but it doesn't really belong on the list.
5. Okami - Not a fan.

[Shin Johnpv]

If I had to put them into an order of some sort I would go with this

1. Twilight Princess
2. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy/Beyond Good And Evil
3. Wind Waker/ Okami

all of them really are awesome games and IMHO you can't go wrong playing any of them.

[Salsashark]

Yeah, Shadow of the Colossus doesn't belong in that grouping at all.

I think it's pretty easy to see the connection, but yeah, it's definitely the odd one out. There's Ico too, but I guess most people would say that was more like Out of This World than Zelda?

Zelda TP and SotC are easily both in my top 5 games of all time. Wind Waker was two thirds fantastic, one third huge chore. I loved the design and theme of BG&E but it bored me--real bad--and I had to struggle to complete it. The hub world felt too contained and the dungeons just weren't exciting at all. Finally, Okami was fun-killingly easy and I know I'm in the minority on this one, but the design didn't win me over. I returned it after playing about 10 hours.

That's all from memory though. After enjoying TP so much I plan to go back and play WW again. Maybe BG&E too.

[frostwolf ex]

I really loved beyond good and evil, but i think if you are taking the totality of it vurses the totality of twilight princess, tp wins due to more involving combat and less(really no) stealth. the story and characterization is a major highlight of bg&e, and i really appreciated the nontraditional european feel to it. It didnt sell well, but given that it was mentioned by name as to why peter jackson wanted to work with them for king kong, you'd think they woudl do a sequel for the fans.

colossus is a beautiful game, that i wish i had played further to give an opinion on, but its hard to compare its very focused concept vurses a game that has become increasingly defined by its side quests. colossus is art, but i consider tp a better game.

okami is a little tougher because i havent gotten a chance to finish it, it has significant depth, and the art style is amazing, it reminds me a little of what i liked about the actraiser series.the godlike nature of your character. i will say that okami does get dinged for not having as good of a grasp of its controller, drawing with the ps2 pad was probably done the best way they could, but it felt hit and miss, and in some segments "missing" a drawing could really screw you.

as for wind waker vurses twilight princess, this one is harder for me than it will be for many, because i liked the sailing sections, it reminded me of morrowind, where getting somewhere was an investment of time(until you got the warp song). link in princess is fairly tough, whereas link in waker is a kid, so for empathy princess wins out. The items though were vastly superior in wind waker, the rope was a cool take on the hookshot, and it was fun to rob enemies with it. the leaf was far cooler than the wind boomerang, and the cannon in the boat was a lot of fun, particularly when seiging the pirate platforms. princess had the horrid spinner disc, the want of dominion felt forced, the lack of a true third sword, nor any two handers,and the generic arrows felt weak compared to the stuff in waker. The wolf form was a major step foreward, it basicly is a combination of the truesight lens, the shovel, and the minish form(for animal conversations), but the animations gave the wolf real menace, and i loved how when i got a final hit on a smaller enemy i shook them to finish them off. Final comparison, samurai gannon was cooler than sauron gannon, but zandt is twistedly cool, him and that bizzare shrieking effect when you saw him just made him so hellish, i loved it, by the time i offed him he deserved it more than most bad guys. Overall its tough but i give princess a slight nod, the atmosphere was amazing and really drew me in.

this is without a doubt my favorite genre of games, and this was a good gen for them, and any numerical rankings id give them would be arbitrary, we need another beyond good and evil, finish the story already.

[Geen]

From the games mentioned...
I really liked Wind Waker -- The new art style really made me smile, but the clever items and dungeons made me ecstatic. Some of the sailing felt a bit too redundant but I never felt bored by the game.
I felt Shadow was incredible (No chance of this playing smoother on a PS3, is there?) -- Although I agree it really doesn't belong here, Shadow is one of the few games I can see myself mentioning in a few years about the best games of PS2. The Ico team has also earned a place in my heart as being a system seller studio as I would put down the cash on a PS3 if I saw that they had something new coming out for it. Here's hoping for something incredible on the PSP soon.
Beyond Good and Evil I really enjoyed, although I got bored at about 7 hours in. I've heard that's basically the end of the game, so I probably should pick it up again soon....
Twilight Princess. ... I want to like it, but I really don't. I played up to the point where you keep getting your ass slammed off the mountain by that rolling Goron and, even though I know what I need to do, I really don't feel like it. If anything, Twilight Princess just feels like the last three Zelda games that I already played to death and I'm tired of doing the same crap over and over and over again.
...

Besides the above mentioned, I can't really think of many other top adventure games that have come out this particular gen.

[magnifiedplaid]

Twighlight Princess is quite possibly the best game in the Zelda franchise, and the only game better than it on the Gamecube is Metroid Prime.

Beyond Good and Evil is short but sweet as hell. Ubisoft should have made sequels to this game, instead of making half assed retreads of Prince of Persia every year.

Okami is a great game, but it gets boring after the 20 hour mark and doesn't really pick up again until the last 5 hours of the game. Its a solid 8/10 for me.

I'm not a fan of Shadow of the Colossus. I loved ICO, and I loved the graphical style of Shadow of the Colossus...it looks downright amazing. Ultimately though, I just found the controls to be too "quirky" and it detracted from the games fun factor for me.

Wind Waker = TRASH

Also, I may be in the minority on this one, but I think STAR FOX ADVENTURE is a fantastic game. Its one of the better Adventure games to be released on the gamecube, and its a hell of a lot better than Wind Waker.

[MarkRyan]

Colossus is among my top three games from last gen, and none of the others are (though I didn't play Beyond Good & Evil). Comparing Okami to Twilight Princess and Wind Waker is hard just 'cause of what you said, Neo--the Zeldas are quite arguably better games, but I don't feel the same affection as I do for the newer, fresher Okami. Five years from now, I'll more remember Okami.

[B-Ri]

I cant really rank these games. Theyre all great. Wind Waker was not very memorable in retrospect, and twilight princess was a near dissapointment. Maybe its just my never ending nostalgia for OoT but both console zeldas havent WOWed me like ive been wanting/expecting them to. But all in all i enjoyed playing them in one way or another, i didnt feel like i had to force myself through them.