Wind Waker, Wind Waker, Wind Waker. The phrase has lost all meaning.

Fact is, if one were to look at any of my past posts featuring The Legend of Zelda games, either directly or indirectly, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has made plenty of appearances. According to the “me” of pre-Breath of the Wild days, it’s my top favorite game of the series. It stands out as the only Zelda game I’ve played more than once, back when it was released on the GameCube. And yet, when its HD version was released on the Wii U…crickets. The game was mildly on my radar, at least, as mention of it popped up in a cheeky, meta interview I did with “2013 in gaming” to celebrate our site’s fifth birthday, but actually buying it never really crossed my mind.

And did I know that it was added to the Switch’s Nintendo Classics lineup last year? I didn’t until I looked up the game just now. How nice for it.

Replayability is a funny and very subjective thing. And for some reason, it’s stranger still when it comes to me and Nintendo’s first-party titles. My most replayed game across multiple consoles and versions is Super Mario 64. Closely behind it is Super Metroid. (At this point, I could almost play both these titles with my eyes closed! Almost.) Believe it or not, playing Wind Waker just a few times puts it in third. I still have a Wii U, so heck, if I wanted to dole out money for Wind Waker HD, I could, but…

…but what? Do I think that I might not enjoy the game if I were to play it today? Do I not care to revisit my old memories of it? Is it not actually my favorite Zelda game?

No, no, and, no. Even with the grandiose open-world Zelda games at my disposal, along with the likes of the Link’s Awakening remake, Wind Waker still stands above them all as my favorite adventure involving Link and Zelda. From its sea-faring shenanigans to its oddball stylings, I remember Wind Waker as nothing less than a fully enjoyable game from start to finish. Better than the Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask (the only other games from the series I had played up to those heady circa 2004 Wind Waker days), and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’d be a blast to play again. But doing so, well, it’s just not that much of a priority, I guess.

Is that just it then? Is it that the Zelda games are no longer “must-haves” for my library? Well, yes…but it’s more accurate to say that I’ve tread enough in the likes of Wind Waker’s waters that revisiting the game is superfluous. That’s to say, I won’t get anything more out of it than I did the first several times I played it.

Of course, now that I’ve written that down, some doubt has crept in. Because, if I liked Wind Waker so much, why haven’t I played it again?

Good question.

Lede image take from igdb.com presskit for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (© Nintendo).