When first considering our month of nostalgia over our previous Legend of Zelda writings here, Twilight Princess leapt immediately into my mind. But it wasn’t because of the game itself; rather, it was because it made the number two spot on my Top 5 post from a few years ago called “Games Lowest on my Replay List.” Setting aside the fact that my grammar needs help after all this time (yeesh), the question stuck: if I remade that list today, would Twilight Princess still be on it?

Ten years ago, on this blog by different name, I documented my first ever complete playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. My first attempt with it on the Wii occurred when the game was way back in 2007/8. I made it through about ten hours before jettisoning it, because I strongly disliked its motion controls. Fast forward to 2016, and the notion playing something (anything, really) from my backlog crept into my head. I eventually unearthed Twilight Princess, which I had thought was no longer in my game library, and decided to go for it. Would it be fun? Would I grumble constantly at the motion controls, again? Would I actually complete it!?  I answered those questions and many more in my series.

In the end, yes, I completed Twilight Princess that year, and in my “final thoughts” post, I summed up the experience in these words:

I loved the game, but I never want to play it again.

And indeed, at the core of this notion was its motion controls. I did not enjoy them one bit. Again, to quote:

Why did it take me nine months to get through a 60-hour game? The motion controls.

Why did I nearly rage quit on several occasions? The motion controls.

Why did I not care one iota about finding all the Poes and hearts and bugs and whatever else? THE MOTION CONTROLS.

Aside: it’s not lost on me that in that very same year, 2016, Nintendo released Twilight Princess HD for the WiiU. Playing it instead of the original could have been a more pleasant time, surely, but what can I say? I still had a Wii and the game at my fingertips, so that was that.

Here in 2026, setting aside the ever-churning rumor mill regarding a Twilight Princess remake for the Switch 2, and speaking only to my Wii copy of the game, is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess still deserving of being sidelined to the “never again” section of my library?

I’m afraid so. I just cannot see myself drumming up enough patience in the present day to play this Wii version again. And y’know what? I think that would also extend to the GameCube version, the WiiU version, and any yet-to-be-made possibility.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the game, for it has an incredible story, one of the best and most compelling in the Zelda universe. It’s that I neither feel the need to play through that story again nor have I the desire to retread its passages. I know the ending; I know everyone’s fates; I know many of the game’s secrets, because I spent so much time with it ten years ago.  While many games beg replays, Twilight Princess doesn’t. The good memories I have of it – ahem, not including its blasted motion controls – are more than enough.

Lede image: screenshot from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD.