Flashback to 2008. I was only 7 years old, and I'd never played a video game, but what I did have was mostly unsupervised internet access. Most of my time browsing was spent on Youtube, watching YTPs and no-commentary walkthrough videos of Nintendo games. Of all of these videos, I loved watching Zelda games the most - particularly Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. To my young mind, the prospect of going on a big adventure, cutting up monsters with a sword, finding new things, being the hero - all the stuff that Zelda games typically entail - was the coolest. Hell, I still think that stuff is cool. It's what shaped my love for fantasy and the JRPG genre. So, when I saw ads for Phantom Hourglass on TV, I begged my parents to get me a DS and the game. They caved, and Phantom Hourglass became my first video game. I didn't finish it until years later because I got scared of the Temple of the Ocean King, but I did spend many hours running around amassing rupees and ocassionally using an Action Replay to bypass having to go to the aforementioned temple as much as possible. I saw a good chunk of the game's dungeons personally, but ultimately reached a roadblock. We'd eventually get a Wii with Super Smash Bros. Brawl just because I saw Link in the ads. I bought Link's Crossbow training, Spirit Tracks and Skyward sword on release. To say Zelda was my favourite franchise growing up is an understatement. I even asked my parents if I could get a sword, shield and green tunic so I could "be like Link".

I was obsessed.

Note how I didn't mention getting Wind Waker or Twilight Princess, though. That's because...I didn't. I distinctly remember seeing Twilight Princess in the store one time, and clamoured my parents for it, but went home empty handed. I would play Wind Waker some years later, but left Twilight Princess totally untouched.

In light of Twilight Princess HD being conspicuously absent from the Switch's list of ports and ToTK's continuation of a style of Zelda that I'm not a huge fan of, I set up Dolphin, CRT-royale, kept the game in 4:3 with no upscaling or visual enhancements, and did everything I could to emulate (haha, ha, ha....sorry) what a childhood Twilight Experience would've been like for me.

And to be honest? It was totally magical, and I 100%ed the game in a week.

Twilight Princess had totally enthralled me. I don't know if it's fair or accurate to say that I think the game is stunning on a CRT considering I used a filter and not, y'know, an actual CRT display, but the game looks utterly gorgeous at the very least in the context that I played it in. Maybe I'm the one person on the planet who actually likes bloom, but I really dig Twilight Princess' visuals and art direction. As good as Wind Waker still looks in any context, its response at the time was a bit less than positive. TP's visuals are a direct response to that backlash, forgoing the bright, cel-shaded, cartoony charm and donning a somber, melancholy, atmospheric mix of light and dark - befitting of twilight itself. The oversaturated colours of the twilight realm really help accentuate its ethereal, foreign nature, but also provide an air of serenity and beauty. Even looking at TPHD, which tones down the bloom and improves the textures without improving the models, the strengths of Twilight Princess' art direction remain visible. Yeah, some NPCs look weird and a bit ugly, but I'll take newly modelled, distinct scrimblo bimblo NPCs over just using what is literally just mii maker or an in-engine character creator any day of the week.

Enough about how the game looks on 20 year old displays (sorta, not really) though. How well does Twilight Princess actually play?

The best any Zelda game ever has, and ever will do, honestly. Don't get me wrong; I actually like Skyward Sword a lot, and that includes how it plays, but Twilight Princess plays immaculately. Hidden skills make Link a joy to control, far more so than Wind Waker, and I love how you're given so many different options and mixups for combat encounters. Opting to make the combat less reaction-based and more about just pure player control definitely worked here, and it's the most apparent when fighting minibosses. Fighting darknuts feels especially good; blades clash, and you're tasked with outsmarting an opponent who can anticipate your offensive maneuvers. They're trained, capable swordsmen with two layers of armour, towering over Link and capable of knocking him off his feet with any direct blow they may land. The key is to remain passive; looking for and exploiting openings, then totally wailing on them with hidden skills. It's probably not too dissimilar to how encounters between swordsmen played out hundreds of years ago - both parties sizing up eachother and striking whenever opportune. All of this is mirrored in the final boss fight, and it adds a very nice cinematic feel to its already superb, foreboding atmosphere.

Twilight Princess' dungeons snowball in quality. The first two are your typical forest and fire dungeons, and lakebed marks a pretty big leap, being a cool combination of the raising water level and redirecting water currents mechanics from OoT and MMs respective water dungeons, but as soon as you hit the fourth...man. Another review described it perfectly: "There isn't a stronger set of successive dungeons in any Zelda game"; and I'm very inclined to agree. Arbiter's Grounds, Snowpeak Ruins, Temple of Time and City in the Sky back-to-back-to-back-to back is such an insane line-up of first-class dungeon design and it sucks that we went from this, to Skyward Sword, which was also home to some fantastic, incredibly creative dungeons, to uh, Breath of the Wild's samey divine beasts and shrines. TotK apparently has actual distinct dungeons now, but I haven't heard much more than "they're good, I guess". Regardless, TP made me realise how much I'd taken traditional Zelda dungeon design for granted, and I'm so glad I got to experience the feeling of going blind into a dungeon; getting far enough into it to get its specific item, and using said item to clear any remaining puzzles and challenges; for possibly the last time. Temple of Time is not only one of many awesome OoT callbacks in Twilight Princess, but now my favourite dungeon in the whole franchise. Having you go back through a dungeon and recontextualising all the puzzles while making full use of the dungeon item is actually peak dungeon design. You also get to smash up all those annoying little spider enemies with it, which is a plus.

As for the narrative; I like it! But it's nothing groundbreaking. Where Zelda games have excelled isn't their stories, but individual characters, themes, subtext, and the adventure itself. Twilight Princess is linear, but is still pretty grand. Link being cooped up in Ordon his whole life, going about menial tasks juxtaposed by getting flung into another dimension, becoming a furry and getting pulled across Hyrule by Midna is probably the biggest wake up call for any of Link's incarnations. Midna's awesome, by the way; though that's an ice-cold take. Love how she starts off sassy and antagonistic but actually develops and changes after an important story beat. A cool and easy to miss change in her attitude towards Link after this is how she responds to being called. Before this, she'll say: "Hmm? What is it?". After, she'll say: "What is it, Link?". I dunno, the fact she's actually addressing Link now shows the respect she's gained for him and that she doesn't just view him as a tool to satisfy her own goals anymore. I'm basically waffling by talking about this, but I just thought it was a sweet little touch. There's also a lot of stuff that's actually really personal to Link that I really like, too. Seeing Colin, a character who looks up to and idolizes Link, going from the village punching bag to someone who selflessly shields his detractors from danger really made me smile. Also seeing him in the credits all geared up was actually a highlight of the game for me, and the fact that a TP sequel with him all grown up was planned and cancelled is criminal.

Peak Zelda. Not as thematically poignant and evokative as Majora's Mask, but still a memorable, personal journey across Hyrule that plays better than the rest.