If someone told me that I’d be referencing former Tennessee Senator Bill Frist in one of these columns, I’d have laughed pretty hard, or at least given a hearty “Da-WHAAA?” while jauntily tilting my head by let’s say 39 degrees. Never say never, I guess, because here I go.

Former Tennessee Senator Bill Frist was on TV recently expounding on the virtues of the filibuster, and how the obstructionist congressional procedure can be used to empower the minority in a political body by giving voice to the underrepresented. I oddly found myself thinking of Senator Frist and the filibuster while watching the beginning of the Nintendo presentation at this year’s E3, specifically during Shigeru Miyamoto’s demonstration of the new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword game. Allow me to explain.

I am a Zelda freak, plain and simple. I had a Nintendo Entertainment System growing up, and I bought the very first Zelda game, in all its gold-laminated cartridgey glory, pretty much when it first came out. Even more so than Super Mario Bros., it singlehandedly changed my view of what entertainment could be. I’ve played and finished just about every iteration of the game since, on all portable and home consoles. I even got hands on the execrable CD-i games, though thankfully only as an in-store demonstrator of the CD-i system. I agree very much with the wide assertion that Ocarina of Time, which came out more than a decade ago, is still one of the greatest video games ever made. As any Zelda fan will tell you, the combination of the simple but slick combat, the nifty devices, the exploration, the secrets, and the puzzle-solving come together in a way that satisfies the gaming itch like nothing else.

The one complaint that fans of the series have had, and that I agree with, is that the series doesn’t really innovate or change much beyond the overworld, dungeon, beat boss with new item, rinse and repeat formula. Twilight Princess did an okay job of deviating from the norm with the ability to go all Team Jacob, but beyond that it was merely the awesome tried-and-true dungeon hopping we’ve come to know and love.

When rumblings began to surface of a new Zelda title for the Wii, I was hopeful, but also skeptical. “Hope-tical,” if you will. Would this new title be something fresh and exciting, to reinvigorate the franchise, or would it be a typical Zelda game just with more flailing and waving the controllers around? Well, as of Tuesday’s presentation it seems we might have the answer. Skyward Sword is ostensibly a typical Zelda game with more flailing and waving the controllers around. You control your sword by swinging the Wiimote (fitted with the mandatory Motion Plus peripheral), and the shield with the Nunchuk. Um, yay? The milieu of the game is still forests and dungeons and plains, with graphics that don’t even look up to par with Twilight Princess.

This streamlining of the controls fits right in with Nintendo’s policy of adamantly shoehorning motion-control into almost every franchise in existence, with the intent of marketing to the omnipresent casual crowd. But this is completely understandable. It’s a business. This is how the Wii console has successfully brought a whole new demographic of gamers into the fold. Grandma and grandpa can’t deal with all these brightly colored buttons and triggers on a controller, but they sure understand the concept of swinging something to swing a golf club. Building on this model is how Nintendo has dominated the console market for years.

However, while I’m sure the game will still be typically excellent, this just isn’t what I was looking for in a new Zelda title. But it doesn’t matter, because as a hardcore fan, I am in the minority. This is why Bill Frist and the filibuster came to mind while watching the Nintendo presentation, because I wish we in the minority who want something much more radical could be heard. I wish there were some procedure by which we could weigh in on the developmental process other than kvetching about it on the web. Granted, there’s a lot we still don’t know about Skyward Sword, but all the footage thus far seems to lead is to the conclusion that it’s not going to be a great departure for the series.

I had an idea that will never happen, based on a business model from the world of comics. In the last few decades, the age demographic for comic books shot up from children and teens into the 20s and 30s for the majority of readers, where it still is. Not wanting to abandon the children (or their parent’s money), Marvel started the Marvel Adventures imprint aimed toward younger readers, but using their same popular characters, just removed from regular Marvel Universe continuity: Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Avengers, The Hulk, etc.

Why not import a similar concept to the world of video games? I think an analogous distinction could be made between hardcore and casual gamers. Why not create and market a Zelda that’s easy to pick up and play for casual gamers, but then also create a separate Zelda for the hardcore players that takes radical risks, and pushes the envelope? Imagine a whole Zelda game as challenging as the water temples. Instead of trees and rocks and dungeons, imagine if Link were somehow zapped into a futuristic, sci-fi world where he’s fighting robots and technological enemies with his sword and his arsenal of gadgets. That’s the kind of batshit crazy stuff I’d love to see: just something to mix it all up.

But, like I said, that will never happen. I’m sure there’s no way it would be cost effective, and the purists would cry bloody murder. But who listens to them, anyway. They’re an even smaller minority.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• The Legend of Zelda Has Continuity
• New Zelda Will Be … Easy?
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks — It Counts As Action … Shut Up!
• 3D Dot Game Heroes — If We Called It Zelda It Would Be Copyright Infringement
• Nintendo Says That Casual Games and Kids Games Are Not the Same Thing!
• Nintendo Fights Piracy By Asking You To Snitch