NoLegend of Zeldagame has a more divisive art direction thanThe Wind Waker. Its cartoonish style makes it stand out like a sore thumb among other games from the era, and indeed from any other Zelda title aside from its Nintendo DS successors. Whether you like it or not, however, you can’t help but admit it has aged like a fine bottle of Chateau Romani.
Every time I recall that this is a game from 2002 – some 23 years ago – I am awestruck. While modern games oftenlean towards hyperrealism, you could feasibly see a high budget indie releasing with this very same art style and execution in 2025. Something published by Devolver Digital, perhaps.
23 Years Young
If you look back at other games from 2002, they haven’t aged half as well. Morrowind looks tired, GTA: Vice City polygonised, and even Nintendo’s own Metroid Prime has some jarring textures. The only game that comes close to ageing as well as The Wind Waker is another controversial title, Super Mario Sunshine.
Sunshine is also brilliant, by the way.
Whether you were playing Nightfire or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 back in the day, loading up any 2002 game will immediately be met with revulsion, especially once you’ve taken those rose-tinted nostalgia goggles off. I’m not saying any of these were bad games, but if they released with that art direction now, they’d likely be met with derision.
That’s not to say The Wind Waker wouldn’t be in the same scenario. It was controversial 23 years ago and would be doubly so today. Publishers like Critical Reflex trade on those retro PS1 stylings as a point of pride, but you wouldn’t see a triple-A studio taking a risk on an art style like Arctic Eggs or Mouthwashing. But I could see Nintendo repeating the Wind Waker trick in the modern day. In fact, I believe it has already.
The Wind Waker’s Impact On Modern Zelda
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom take inspiration from The Wind Waker’s art style in more ways than you’d think. While they’re more modern in execution and more understated in their style, Nintendo’s pivot to cel-shading for the Switch titles is as much a stylistic choice as one enforced by console capabilities.
I don’t think any of us would expect a Zelda game - or any first-party Nintendo game, for that matter - to release looking like The Last of Us, this isn’t just because the Switch couldn’t handle it. Cyberpunk 2077’s successful launch on the Switch 2 proves that now more than ever, Nintendo could produce a hyperrealistic game of its own, if it so wanted.
But it doesn’t want to. This is a decision that predates The Wind Waker, but the oceanfaring Zelda title epitomises Nintendo’s approach to making games. The fun comes first. The gameplay, too, is important. But realism adds nothing.
Note I didn’t say that graphics add nothing. Because they’re important.Even Nintendo admits it. The Wind Waker’s graphics are as important as Breath of the Wild’s, or Cyberpunk 2077’s. They’re just trying to achieve different things. Cyberpunk’s realism suggests that its developers value immersion, for instance, whereas Wind Waker prioritises whimsy and the fairytale nature of Link’s journey.
Art direction is as important as the execution of that direction. With modern Zelda titles, Nintendo is harkening back to the days of The Wind Waker and eschewing industry norms in order to create games that truly stand on their own.
Breath of the Wild may play that style a bit safer than The Wind Waker did, but it still changed the game, as shown by the countless copycats and influencees that have aped it in the years since. Cel-shading wasn’t in vogue until Zelda did it.
When you’re loading up Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultimate Edition on your shiny new Switch 2, when you marvel at the Kingdom of Hyrule sprawling beneath your feet as you plummet from a sky archipelago, remember one thing: Wind Waker paved the way for this. Nintendo was willing to go out on a limb, to try something different, and it worked. And it’s still working today.
