I'm glad to hear that Wind Waker HD has fan support like this. It was always a bummer to me that the best versions of Wind Waker and Skyward Sword were trapped on the Wii U, given the incredible preservation that Dolphin provides for their original versions.

Edit: I own a Wii U, I'm not trying to be a hater. For years, it really was the ultimate Zelda box.

I found the Wii U joystick too springy to win OOT or even play much of Twilight Princess. I was able to compensate for the springiness until the penultimate fight with Ganondorf at the top of the castle in OOT, at which point it got too annoying and I just gave up, but with Twilight Princess, I hit that threshold in the fire temple's boss fight. Possibly even just a miniboss.

It's possible I just had a Wii U with an unusually tight joystick or something.

> given the incredible preservation that Dolphin provides for their original versions.

Does cemu not provide comparable preservation for the HD versions? I played through both WW:HD and TP:HD on my Steam Deck using cemu and found it a great experience.

I slightly disagree, but only because Skyward Sword HD on the Switch is a pretty big improvement.

The Wii U was indeed a fantastic Zelda box though.

I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to play the Wind Waker. It's so amazing that only one generation after OoT they released a Zelda that not only is arguably as good or even better than OoT, but it holds up over 20 years later. You can play Wind Waker today and not realize it's not a new game, the graphics and the gameplay are just perfect.

I’ve played most Zalda games but life was busy when Windwaker came out and I just completely skipped it on accident. Should really grab a copy after hearing your praise.

Oh dear, do it! It is my favorite Zelda game by a wide margin. And GP is completely correct in how it holds up, especially with the HD version.

I was really disappointed at the time due to the "childish" graphics. But now I think it is interesting that they made such a daring design choice. Like Super Mario 2 hardly being anything like SM1.

It would be fun to play Windwaker someday with my kids. I never played it.

Nintendo released that teaser trailer of a realistic Zelda in an epic fight with Ganon and the world was anticipating that for years. But Nintendo realised competing with PlayStation was going to be a race to the bottom so they built the GameCube as budget hardware that could have never rendered that Ganon fight scene. And thus disappointing all the children who had become teenagers since the release of OoT.

Without that context however, the game is indisputably great. And the fact that they used vector graphics is a lucky win as it means the game renders crisply on modern TV's and monitors.

> Like Super Mario 2 hardly being anything like SM1.

I would not call that a design choice. It's a consequence of putting Mario branding on an unrelated game.

Ye I know the "Super Mario USA" story.

However, I still think it is a "design choice" to not just do the same thing again. The safe and boring bet.

I.e. releasing something like "the lost levels" as SM2.