10 Times Video Games "Did Right By The Fans" (And Pissed Everyone Off)

Those who witnessed the first reveal of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker will surely remember the immediate vitriolic backlash to the game's cartoonish, cel-shaded art-style, with some vocal quarters of the Internet insisting that Nintendo had "kiddified" the beloved action-adventure franchise.

The Wind Waker was ultimately rapturously received regardless, and in the decades that followed, its art-style has been held up as one of its most defining qualities, while having aged impressively well.

Yet the criticism at the time was deafening, enough that Nintendo decided to radically pivot for The Wind Waker's successor, Twilight Princess.

Nintendo decided to ditch the cel-shaded style, which they felt held back The Wind Waker's sales by presenting it as a game "for children," opting instead for a more "realistic" aesthetic defined by muddy, earthy greens and browns, while also adopting a more serious-minded narrative tone.

Though critically acclaimed, Twilight Princess proved decidedly more divisive with fans, many of whom decried its lack of personality and whimsy compared to The Wind Waker, and that its world felt overly barren and oppressive.

It marked a blatant attempt by Nintendo to "apologise" for The Wind Waker's bold aesthetic shift, but in turn alienated the millions who actually loved that game.