In rebuttal to Matt's recent editorial, I believe a sequel to Zelda: The Wind Waker is a great idea.  The foremost reason that Matt among other people attack Wind Waker is the graphics.  There are still a lot of people who dislike the idea of the cartoony graphics because they still prefer the realistic graphics that were in Ocarina of Time.  After playing Wind Waker I actually was hoping Nintendo would make at least one more Zelda game using the same style of Graphics.  The graphics may not have been incredibly realistic, but the cartoon look provided an atmosphere in the game that had been missing from Zelda games since a Link to the Past.  Ocarina of Time was the first game using fairly realistic graphics so it had a different feel than earlier games such as a Link to the Past.  The cartoon graphics provided Wind Waker with an atmosphere similar to the earlier Zelda games, and to me that's more important than the realisim of the graphics.

    Matt's next argument is that because Hyrule is flooded in Wind Waker it messes up the storyline because games that take place further along in the storyline are in Hyrule.  Well, yes, they are in Hyrule, but a different Hyrule.  If you've finished Wind Waker you know that the the King wishes for the Triforce to destroy Hyrule at the end.  At that point Link and Zelda sail off to start a new land, which becomes the new Hyrule.  If you haven't noticed, the landscape of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past are different, so this provides an explanation for that. 

    Another argument Matt uses from the storyline is that Wind Waker incorrectly states that a young boy in green clothing appeared and saved the land.  Well, that is true, Link was 10 when he started his quest and that would be young enough for him to be considered a young boy.  As adult Link he was 17, but he did make several accomplishments at the age of 10 that would warrant him as a hero, such as getting the Goron's Ruby from Dodongo's Cavern for the Gorons, and saving Princess Ruto from Jabu Jabu along with obtaining the Zora's Sapphire.  That and after Link defeats Ganon, he is returned to his youth, but he is still the Hero of Time, so he was still known as the Hero of Time, even at age 10.

    One thing I do agree with is the overworld.  I did like the idea of having some sea travel, but I think it was overdone.  There was a lot of sailing, but the game did lack in land exploration.  There were only a few islands of a decent size in the entire game, Outset Island, Dragon Roost Island, and Windfall island.  Even those were fairly small compared to some areas that could be explored in Ocarina of Time.  One of the few things that could have been done to improve Wind Waker would have been to increase the size of some of the islands in the game so that there could be more land exploration.

    I personally believe that Wind Waker is the second best game in the Zelda series, only behind a Link to the Past.  The storyline was excellent in my opinion, as was the gameplay.  I enjoyed having many enemies to fight in this game, which was something that was lacking in Ocarina of Time, which was more puzzle based.  That being said, my only complaint about Wind Waker aside from what was previously mentioned about the island size is that the game was far too easy.  There was definitely a good number of enemies to fight, but those enemies didn't do enough damage to Link to provide much of a challenge. 

    Some of the storyline twists in the game were great, such as Tetra being Princess Zelda, and Ganon being behind it all and everything.  Out of all the Zelda games, Wind Waker has one of the best stories in the entire series.  Being able to go to submerged Hyrule and retrieve the Master Sword was a nice touch, as was having to power up the sword after retrieving it because it had been sitting there for a while and obviously had lost some power.

    Although Wind Waker wasn't the best game in the Zelda series, I do think that using the same graphical style and tweaking a few minor problems with the game, the sequel to Wind Waker could easily become the best game in the Zelda series.  Nintendo takes their games seriously and they do what needs to be done to improve them.  If Nintendo learns from the few mistakes made in Wind Waker, the next game could very well be the best game in the series.