Nintendo released that teaser trailer of a realistic Zelda in an epic fight with Ganon and the world was anticipating that for years. But Nintendo realised competing with PlayStation was going to be a race to the bottom so they built the GameCube as budget hardware that could have never rendered that Ganon fight scene. And thus disappointing all the children who had become teenagers since the release of OoT.

Without that context however, the game is indisputably great. And the fact that they used vector graphics is a lucky win as it means the game renders crisply on modern TV's and monitors.

> Like Super Mario 2 hardly being anything like SM1.

I would not call that a design choice. It's a consequence of putting Mario branding on an unrelated game.

Ye I know the "Super Mario USA" story.

However, I still think it is a "design choice" to not just do the same thing again. The safe and boring bet.

I.e. releasing something like "the lost levels" as SM2.