Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)
After taking on a toon-like appearance in The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess saw Link return for a darker, more adult adventure. Players were again sent to Hyrule, and the story followed the same formula fans knew from A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. Familiar characters returned, but many were new to the series. Midna became Link’s new assistant – such an important character that she even made an appearance in the spin-off Hyrule Warriors – and Zant was the new enemy in the lead up to Ganondorf. The most important new addition, though, was Wolf Link; the ability to transform into beast and thus teleport to the Twilight Realm was an interesting and unique element of the gameplay, although Minish Cap and Majora’s Mask had played with different Link-forms before.
The mechanics with the temperamental Wii remote were frustrating at times, and there’s an argument for it not being the best Zelda game to date (it has a lot of competition, after all), but its sombre atmosphere and original take on Link’s story made it a great game to play. It enjoyed just under 6 million copies sold on the Wii compared to 1.3 million on the GameCube, together making it the best-selling title in the series.
