Starcraft 2, not Soul Calibur 2. You guys already seem to be having totally different conversations, I figure I should point that out before you guys start talking past each other yet again.
Ahh, we were on Zelda & Gamecube and guess who makes an appearance in that game.
I feel like playing LA again too. It's such a great game. LoZ/LoZ2 were standard Nintendo-hard, lots of enemies with poor control. LttP was the revamp to the series that many people take for granted. It focused less on quantity of combat, such as Master Quest of LoZ giving you room after room after room of enemies to clear, and gave us the puzzle style of play. It is the foundation of the Zelda iconic of a boss weakness to the new item obtained but also of map traversing items should serve a purpose in combat too. LA was a refinement of LttP and was expanded on to create the Oracles while LttP would serve as copypasta for LbW. OoT may have the public eye as #1, but it got there after LttP/LA defined the franchise's concepts beyond the top down view exploration LoZ introduced.
In recent years OoT is being less-favourably viewed in lieu of its "sequel" Majora's Mask, that was less afraid to travel unknown territory and deliver a Zelda story Without a princess Zelda. Other titles in the franchise are also being given more credit. OOT has the distinction of being the first 3D Zelda, so, it will always have a place in gamer's hearts, including mine (I 100%'d the game at least 20 times).
But OOT was released in the early stages of gaming, as it were. It gave us something few had up until that point, but many others have matched it since, and even exceeded it.
If somehow OOT was re-released today, with modern graphics and in a modern engine, and people magically forgot all about Zelda games, it would probably get mediocre reviews. It would still be a good or even a great game by any standard, but not stellar enough to amass almost universal praise. The dungeons are relatively small and simplistic, and even an unskilled player can usually complete the game in under 10~12 hours. The story is extremely clichéd, and the orchestral score isn't anything special by today's standard. The combat, as well, is extremely underwhelming by today standards, with enemies having very preset abilities, and with almost no variety in weapons.
Majora's Mask, under the same conditions, would fare much, much better. Its story is very original, with its blend of happy and sad. The mechanic of constantly operating under a clock, but one that you can rewind, is interesting. The different masks give it a depth to combat OOT lacks, and the creepy factor in a "kid's" game is also something really interesting.
All in all, i think much of the fanfare surrounding OoT is that it has the distinction of being "first" in several aspects, while also being really good at all of those things it was first at. It was revolutionary and set a new, much higher bar, for anything that came after it. That is why it is such an amazing game for all of us, none of us had played anything quite like it when it was released. It was an achievement, a masterpiece. And it gave us all of that in a very pretty real 3D shell.