Exactyl one (1) Zelda game has been worth the wait for me.
I didn't really start thinking of myself as a Zelda fan until about 2004 (I'd played and loved the games but it was much more 'Oh hey, a new thingy game,' rather than 'HRURUNRER WHEN IS NEXT ZALDOO OUT WANT NOW!') so the first time I had to wait fro one was Twilight Princess. It's coming out in 2005! Now later in 2005! Now 2006! Have you heard of the Wii? Buy one and you can play later in 2006!
I was very hype because I was in the dark depths of my Nintendo Fanboy phase and I kept staring at this one screenshot of Link looking at some lava in the Goron Mines thinking 'This is the most beautiful image man has ever produced'. Eventually the game came out, I bought a Wii, and I loved it to death. Still do. Yeah, it's got problems, but what doesn't? Felt worth the wait, and when I eventually played it on the GameCube a few years later it was even better.
After that...
Phantom Hourglass felt like a really long wait, but I played the game once and remember basically nothing from it except that one puzzle that makes you close the DS. Very forgettable game. I was never interested in Spirit Tracks, and didn't even finish it when I bought it second-hand a few years ago.
Waiting for Skyward Sword was a weird one. On the one hand, I really wanted a new Zelda on Wii. On the other, I was no longer a Fanboy but a Grown Man With Dignity and my outlook was (and still is) 'I'm going to get the new Zelda, so I don't care at all about promotional material'. They'd already secured my business, so I didn't pay much attention to trailers or screenshots or pre-release info. I'd say I was excited, but I was far from hyped.
Even then it was still a huge disappointment. Initially I enjoyed it. Hey, it's that character I like, Link, and here's all these things that are somewhat familiar to me, and I've been waiting patiently for, like, three years so I want to like this. When I played it a second time and took it on its own merits and not the context I played it in, it totally fell apart. Three year wait to play a game that can genuinely spoil my mood just by thinking about it.
The only Zelda I've actually felt any specific excitement for since was Breath of the Wild. A Link Between Worlds was nice, as were the 3DS versions of Ocarina and Majora's, but there was no anticipation for them, they were just games I chose to play and enjoyed.
I was really hyped for BotW. Genuinely, for the first time since TP I was paying attention to trailers and interviews and footage and previews. Couldn't wait to play it, it looked like so much fun, I thought it looked great. Bought a Switch for it.
And this time I didn't even have the consolation of a 'honeymoon' run like I had with SS. BotW was great for about three hours. After that it was boring, repetitive, frustrating, bland, and hollow. Looking at my Switch was seriously having a detrimental effect to my mood. I became more withdrawn, more irritable, less sociable. I hated having it in my house, hated having this thing I'd invested so much emotion and money into that was a great big pile of nothing.
Exactly one (1) Zelda game has been worth the wait to me, and I honestly believe I will never feel that way again.
