So The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD is officially coming to Wii U, and that means it’s time for an important reminder: This game did not suck. In fact, it was pretty awesome. That has been forgotten in the post-Wii era. But the game, which is coming to Wii U on March 4, 2016, more than deserves a revisit. No, seriously. That Wolf Link Amiibo is really awesome, but so is Twilight Princess… even though many of us have forgotten.
Why You Should Be Excited For The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
The news about Twilight Princess HD comes out of the new Nintendo Direct, and confirms several months of rumors, all of which were reasonably vague at best. I admit, I’m a little surprised… but pleased! The game is coming out in March, will be available in a special bundle including the Wolf Link Amiibo, and will have additional gameplay changes and features that have yet to be detailed.
It’s not a huge surprise that Nintendo would make Twilight Princess again. The game still looks decent—it was a late title for the GameCube and a launch title for the Wii—and a quick coat of paint can help out a lot. And it’s a game that’s hard to play now otherwise: The GameCube version won’t work on a Wii U, and the Wii version does work, but isn’t exactly going to be discovered by new players.
Twilight Princess is a product of its times… the mid-aughts tendency toward ‘dark’ games and media. This is the era of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, the height of ‘gritty, serious’ content. Twilight Princess is very much in this vein; tonally, it is darker than the other Zelda games, and more serious. This doesn’t necessarily apply to the storyline—the story of Wind Waker is pretty damn dark, but the game itself is tonally very bright and cheery.
But don’t judge Twilight Princess based on its tone alone. The game is like a melding of Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. It’s probably got the biggest world of any Legend of Zelda game, at least until Zelda Wii U comes out, and it has what I’d call the perfect controls—some motion controls, but not quite as much as Skyward Sword. The dungeons are great, and—unlike Wind Waker—it never feels like there are too few. Arbiter’s Grounds is one of the best Zelda Dungeons ever, in fact, and ends in a great way. Sure, Hyrule Field is a little sparse compared to open world games of today. But the game makes up for it in other ways.
I’m honestly, legitimately excited for Twilight Princess HD. I’ll buy it on Wii U on March 4, because I’m ready to return to the dark Zelda, the ‘realistic’ Zelda, the black sheep of the 3D era. You should be too. It’s better than you remember.
