HEY! I had a 2600, a Colecovision, and an original NES! :P The first Metroid game was my bitch! Well it was right up until you had the timed escape. I always fucked that up and missed a platform right as I got the top, of course falling all the way back to the bottom.

Regarding your question about the 3DS.

Does your 3DS come with a second control stick (a small circle above the 4 right buttons?)

Well, the best places to start are surely A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, in order to find out if you like only the 2D Zeldas, or the 3D ones, or both.

I played A Link to the Past first and hated it. Years later I tried Ocarina of Time and really enjoyed it. So it's important to try out both types.

P.S.: Don't start with Twilight Princess. The tutorials are terribly drawn out and the game takes forever to get going. Go back to it later if you wish, but it shouldn't be your introduction to the franchise.

Nope.

We're gonna have to "agree to disagree" on those points. :P

On repeated playthroughs you can definitely get good enough to beat OoT and the others without dying, i'm talking more about first time plays. I died twice maybe three times in TP the first time through and one of those was because of a dumb screw-up in the bridge jousting battle.

As for the dungeons, they have a problem of either being less complex than the other games or complex in a tedious way. Now I did like the Sky Temple, but the problem with it is that there's so few enemies. I felt like that one was mostly hookshot.

TP is not a bad Zelda game, but it's nowhere near the best imo.
This is another problem I have with Twilight Princess.

One more thing, if you go with Ocarina then enjoy the Water Temple. *rubs hands in evil manner* :P

Then you should have gotten this:

https://www.nintendo.com/images/page/3ds/new-nintendo-3ds/hardware-blank.png

He already has a 3DS. Why are you going to rub on his face that there's a newer version? That's a real douchebag thing to do.

But playing Majora's Mask with the camara control stick feels so much better :(

Then say that a Circle Pad Pro might improve his gaming experience. Not "you bought the wrong thing".

Well... no. Link's Awakening was definitely a sequel to aLttP. OoT was definitely a prequel to the series so far and MM was definitely a sequel to that. The first point where there is any ambiguity is the Oracle games, although it was generally assumed that they fit in between aLttP and LA as at the end Link is seen setting off on the sea voyage that gets shipwrecked.

It's not until WW that anything gets confusing and they had to start explaining it away with multiple timelines. So I completely disagree that there wasn't a timeline at the beginning. Far from it, there was a timeline that made sense for the first 6+ games and it was only the 9th game where things definitely stopped making sense.

However, the timeline has definitely always been 'optional'. Nearly all the games stand on their own absolutely fine, the lore is just there for people who are geeky enough to look for it (e.g. me).

The Wii version is definitely the worst. The motion controls were shoehorned in at the last second as it was developed as a Gamecube game but then ported to the Wii as a launch title. Unfortunately the motion controls are obligatory in the Wii version. There's a reason the Wii U version reverts to the GC version's controls and doesn't even have an option for 'waggle' despite the Wii U supporting Wiimotes.

Just in case you think I'm simply opposed to motion controls, I thought the next game (Skyward Sword) had excellent motion controls. I don't hate motion controls in general, but Twilight Princess's motion controls were pointless and awful.

The Wii U version also undoes the mirroring that was applied to the Wii version. They wanted to make Link right handed for the Wii version after developing the entire game for the Gamecube with him left handed and decided the best (cheapest) way to do so was to mirror the entire game.

So... unless you have a Gamecube and the opportunity to buy the GC version I would recommend the Wii U version for the controls alone.
There are two generations of 3DS systems:

1: 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS

2: New 3DS, New 3DS XL

The second generation systems are more powerful and there are a few games that only work on them and some that just run better and make use of the C-stick and extra buttons. SNES games are available on the 3DS eShop, but only for New 3DS (/XL) because it requires the additional processing power. This will be why Elmofongo was asking.

I don't think the Circle Pad Pro is supported any more. The New 3DS c-stick supports Circle Pad Pro games, but not the other way around. Smash Bros for 3DS supports the c-stick but not CPP.

o__O!