Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess is a Zelda game that I never beat despite starting it on at least five different occasions.  In the past the thing that pushed me away from the game was always the motion controls.  I know they were supposed to be a cool gimmick at the time but I never liked them.

To avoid that and give Twilight Princess a fair shake I decided to go with the HD remaster that released recently on Wii U.  That way I was able to play the game with a normal controller!

First off, this game looks really nice with the HD remaster.  The graphics are crisp and totally up to modern, if stylized, standards.  No complaints there.  The controls are also much better.  They're similar to the Wind Waker HD controls, which makes a lot of sense since they were both redesigned for Wii U.  I found the game much more playable as a result.  I still have negative feelings from the motion controls but I was able to let that go and dig in with the Wii U gamepad instead.

The thing that actually turned me off from this game is the pacing.  I had forgotten how horribly paced this game is.  The first few hours are boring fetch quests surrounded by walls of (often unskippable) dialogue.  It doesn't feel like Zelda, it feels like one never ending introduction and tutorial.  I absolutely hated it.

Here's the thing... I've tried to get into this game 6 times now and I've always stalled out.  I hoped this time would be different but it wasn't.  I actually stalled out sooner this time than any of the others.  I have much less tolerance for bad pacing than I used to.

It shouldn't surprise you that this game shows up in the bottom half of my rankings:

1. A Link to the Past (1991) 
2.  The Wind Waker (2002)
3.  Oracle of Seasons (2001)
4.  Oracle of Ages (2001)
5.  Majora's Mask (2000)
6.  Ocarina of Time (1998)
7.  The Legend of Zelda (1987)
8.  Twilight Princess (2006)
9.  Link's Awakening (1993)
10.  The Minish Cap (2004)
11.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988)