Zelda taught me the importance of play and has helped me deal with work, parenting and grief

"As I grew into a pretentious young adult in the early 00s, I started to want more from games, and I wasn't finding it. So many of them were mindless, or juvenile, or needlessly violent. So few seemed to have anything to say."

"I had judged it to be childish. I had based this purely on its art style. Where the blocky, early-3D Zelda games of my childhood had gone for a semi-serious fantasy look, Wind Waker was unveiled as a living cartoon."

"At this time, there was a shift towards graphical realism and mature themes in games: grimdark titles such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto were Xbox and PlayStation flagships. Nintendo's boisterous cartoon inspired ridicule from self-declared serious gamers."

"Play is important in and of itself, not something you have to justify or intellectualize. The enjoyment and creativity found in games like The Wind Waker can be profound and life-shaping."

A complicated relationship with video games evolved from childhood love for Nintendo to a search for depth in gaming. The shift towards realism and mature themes led to a dismissal of games like The Wind Waker, perceived as childish. However, a realization emerged that play holds intrinsic value, regardless of artistic style or thematic seriousness. This perspective reshaped the understanding of gaming, emphasizing the importance of enjoyment and creativity over societal judgments about maturity in video games.

Read at www.theguardian.com