I think some people's problem with Darksiders is the transcription was quite literal (right down the hookshot)
Sometimes you look at something and go "Oh, A Zelda clone" and sometimes you go "Oh! this is sort of Zelda-inspired in some way!"
I think Darksiders was often the former...
Well they did have a boomerang (dressed as a giant shuriken), and the horse, plus other things that follow the general style.
And on an unrelated note, they totally copied the portal gun, even down to the color of the portals.
Still, I think the quality of implementation should trump whether it's derivative.