With the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zeldakicking off this year, I’d imagine you probably want to go ahead and revisit as many Zelda games as you can. If so, this stunning fan-made Twilight Princess remaster needs to be on your radar.
A firm fan-favorite since it released for Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii way back in 2006, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a darker, more mature take on the classic Zelda formula, and a spiritual successor to Ocarina of Time following the more experimental approach of Majora’s Mask and the cartoony Wind Waker.
Celebrate Twilight Princess’ 20th Anniversary With This Remaster
Just in case you didn’t feel old yet
If you really want to feel old, 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Twilight Princess alongside the 40th anniversary of the franchise as a whole. I’d suggest that means an official Nintendo Switch 2 port or remaster is almost inevitable, but since we’re in January right now, and you probably just can’t wait, there’s an excellent texture pack for Twilight Princess that makes the classic adventure game look better than ever.
Created and showcased by Henriko Magnifico, a creator who’s made some pretty stunning Nintendo texture packs over the years, the Twlight Princess 4K Update is absolutely jaw dropping.
This is a massive visual overhaul to Twilight Princess that includes “over 1200 faithfully recreated 4K textures, an updated user interface, custom shaders, fully customizable tone mapping, quality of life improvements and crystal clear text for all messages in the game.”
Henriko also lists some other major features, including:
“Full support for both the European, Japanese and American versions of the game. This includes both the GameCube and Wii versions! The pack also supports many different platforms including Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android & iOS. The installation process is also incredibly simple with minimal effort required of the user to set it up and start playing. Enjoy!”
This is, of course, a completely unofficial pack, and you must make sure you legally own a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on GameCube or Wii if you plan on emulating it at all. If you have the knowledge to get something like this up and running, however, this could well be (current) the best way to play this game.
Zelda’s 40th Anniversary Is This Year
Can you wait for the real deal?
With that said, I should reiterate that this year marks the 40th anniversary of Zelda. As such, I’d be stunned if Nintendo didn’t choose to mark the occasion by finally bringing The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HDand Twilight Princess HD over from the Wii U to Nintendo Switch systems. It might actually be worth just waiting for the real thing.
If you really don’t think you can do that, though (or if you just really love emulation), this incredible texture pack is probably the ultimate way to revisit one of the most popular Zeldagames of all time. Just don’t do anything illegal, please.
