What was Nintendo's golden decade?

[Koopaul]

I'm just saying what I've read Nintendo say. This is not what I personally think. This is what they think. Everything I said came from me reading interviews...

The way Skyward Sword was, is a conscious decision:

Aonuma requested that the system you use to choose the field you're adventuring in be simple, streamlined, and compact.

With this Zelda, we went back to the fundamentals. We thought about what sort of gameplay we really wanted to make. There were all these new features we wanted to implement, of course, but instead of shoehorning all of them in, we were looking for that solid core we needed in order to evolve the gameplay of Zelda.

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=166935

On trying to make Zelda a more approachable series for everyone:

"What is the most important element of Zelda if we were to try to make a Zelda game that a lot of people can play?” So we have a number of different experiments going on, and [when] we decide that we’ve found the right one of those to really help bring Zelda to a very big audience, then we’ll be happy to announce it.

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=178813

On ignoring what the fan's want:

I'll let Kondo-san talk about the music afterwards but from my perspective, and I feel kind of bad saying this, but I generally don't try to take into account the players expectations of what they want from a Zelda game when making a new one.

The reason for that is… players don't necessarily know what they want - we need to be able to surprise them.

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=166105

On how they decide series:

To put it in an extreme way, the ideal for me is to build the play structure up to a certain point, then decide whether to make it Zelda or Mario. It's like building up the engine and chassis, then deciding later what sort of car you want to use it on.

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=166441



This is not to say all people at Nintendo want to make games like this. Koizumi has the exact opposite approach. He is actually the "soul" of most of your favorite games. Without him, there wouldn't be a story in Zelda!

Read this interview:
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2007/12/interview-super/
It's very interesting and let's you know how much of the design process works over there, and how this guy wants to add some art to these games... And Miyamoto doesn't like that.