The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is huge right now, bringing a large community back to the nearly 20-year-old classic, but a remaster of a different 2006 game would call my name more. Among the variety of games to secure 2006 GOTY titles, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is my favorite. One of the best Zelda games, Twilight Princess is an exceptionally well-rounded experience that stands out in a crowded year.

Unfortunately, the last remaster for Twilight Princess was released on the Wii U, Nintendo’s least successful console venture in the 21st century. It deserves an entirely new remaster like Oblivion, but hopes aren’t high. With the Switch 2 currently opting for a Switch Online version of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker rather than its HD remaster, the odds of a Twilight Princess port aren’t looking great. I have no interest in playing Oblivion Remastered, but I would pick up a Twilight Princess remaster in a heartbeat.

Twilight Princess Was Better Than Oblivion

Quality Over Quantity

The crowd at the LA Convention Center went wild when The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was revealed at E3 2004, and for good reason, as Nintendo finally gave a large portion of the fans what they wanted. Wind Waker was a great game, but the title was a bit of a commercial disappointment for Nintendo. With the popularity of Peter Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings films, fantasy worlds with realistic details were in vogue, so a cartoon-style Zelda game wasn’t what the general public was looking for.

Twilight Princess finally delivered a darker fantasy vibe, and the game was executed nearly flawlessly. Oblivion is certainly the larger game, and making such a stellar open-world RPG was a huge accomplishment for Bethesda at that point, but Twilight Princess delivers more consistently on everything it sets out to do. Twilight Princess nails all the important parts that make a great Zelda game.

Twilight Princess Is A Top-Tier Zelda Game

Easily In My Top Five

Zelda is great for many reasons, but a few of the core pillars that make the titles so good are the items, dungeons, and bosses. All three of those elements are fantastic in Twilight Princess. Some of Zelda‘s most fun items appear here. The Ball and Chain are fun to smack around with, the Spinner leads to incredibly enjoyable movement, and the Double Clawshot is an awesome addition to the item roster.

There’s not a single bad dungeon in this game, which is rare in a Zelda title.

Aside from the slightly generic first boss, Diababa, all of the bosses are great. The underwater boss fight, Morpheel, provides a particularly cool challenge, forcing Link to get up to its eye to inflict damage while it rides around. Stallord is one of the best boss fights in any Zelda game, thanks to its fun factor with the Spinner. The four-phase final boss also proves to be one of the most memorable final bosses in the series, and it feels epic in a way that represented a new peak for Zelda at that point.

The dungeons are equally stellar and arguably the best roster of dungeons in the series. There’s not a single bad dungeon in this game, which is rare in a Zelda title. The weakest would be the Palace of Twilight, but it isn’t too long, and the boss fight more than makes up for its shortcomings. Twilight Princess isn’t perfect, as it continues the annoying Zelda trend of overly long and boring opening moments, which was finally fixed in Breath of the Wild. Aside from this minor quibble, it’s a nearly perfect Zelda game that easily ranks among my top five.

There Desperately Needs A Remaster On Switch 2

Twilight Princess Deserves The Oblivion Treatment

Both The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Twilight Princess got an HD remaster on the Wii U, and with most Wii U games coming over to the Switch, Zelda fans eagerly awaited their arrival on the platform. However, these anticipated ports never came, and this Zelda problem will continue onto the Switch 2, at least for now.

Wind Waker will be playable on Switch 2’s launch day, but only in the form of the original GameCube version, which will be part of the GameCube Switch Online titles. There’s been no mention of Wind Waker HD or any version of Twilight Princess coming to the Switch 2.

Twilight Princess is so good that it deserves an entirely new remaster in the same vein as Oblivion Remastered. A visual update of a similar scale could capture that dark fantasy setting even more accurately and live up to memories of the original experience. With Twilight Princess‘s 20th anniversary coming next year, it’s the perfect time for a re-release of the best Zelda games of all time.