How to play the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 2025

Let’s face it, Twilight Princess is one of the best Zelda games ever. With its dark tone, enthralling world, expansive dungeons, gripping story, and some of the most memorable and beloved versions of Link and Zelda, it’s no wonder that over 17 years later, fans are still obsessed with this LoZ instalment.

Many consider Twilight Princess a perfect combination of everything that made the classic Zelda experience great. So it’s fair to say it’s a big deal in the franchise.

Twilight Princess was a launch game used to promote the Wii, and we don’t think it’s a stretch to say this incredible iteration of Zelda helped put a Wii console in more homes than it otherwise would have landed in.

But, since the release of the groundbreaking Switch, there’s been one question on everyone’s lips – when will Twilight Princess be ported onto Nintendo’s handheld console?
 

Is Twilight Princess on the Switch?

The short answer is a big fat disappointing no. So you can stop wondering how to play Twilight Princess on the Switch, because it can’t be done.

And hey, we’re with you – why in the name of the Triforce would Nintendo not release a Switch version of this stupidly popular Zelda instalment? It’s madness!

It’s also the reality (though plenty of fans still hold out hope that 2024 might be the year!).

Well, in true Legend of Zelda style, let’s dig around a bit and see what else we find…
 

Twilight Princess HD remaster

It seems almost cruel that Nintendo released a high-def remaster, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, in 2016, for the Wii U… especially since, just one year later, the Switch entered our lives.

Still, it gave most of us a lingering hope that the fabled Twilight Princess was as close to the hearts of Nintendo’s devs as it is to ours. A Switch version of the game was surely on the cards, around the corner, and at the top of their plans.

Well… now it’s 2024… and we’re still waiting.

And given the nearly 6 years between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom… we may be waiting longer than a revenge-hungry mummified Ganondorf beneath Hyrule Castle at this rate…
 

The Twilight Princess Switch port rumors

Along with an updated version of the Gamecube’s Wind Waker, a Switch Twilight Princess has been rumored for so long now, the idea has practically slipped into legend.

Of course, since Nintendo has never actually said they were releasing this beloved Zelda game on the Switch, we only really have ourselves to blame for the anticipation.

Well, ourselves, and the various prediction peddlers who made it seem like a guarantee. Like in the since-deleted Tweet from Andy Robinson of VGC, where he said “Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are 100% coming this year”.

To be fair, Nintendo has released a bunch of other GameCube and Wii-era titles on the Switch, including the seminal Ocarina of Time, so we can be forgiven for expecting the same for Twilight Princess. It all makes for a rather sad story that’s just begging for a rewrite that no one’s stepping up to do…

Let your eyes roll in frustration, friend. Ours are.
 

How to play Twilight Princess in 2025

You’ve pretty much only got two ways to step into Link’s wolven paws and play Twilight Princess – the original Wii, or the Wii U.

And since the Wii U eShop closed down in March 2023, you can only play the HD remake if you can get your hands on a physical copy.

Will Twilight Princess ever come to the Switch?

Smart money says that if a port was ever going to happen, it’d have happened by now. Most people have given up hope that it’ll ever come to Switch.

It seems more likely at this eleventh hour to expect a remastered port of Twilight Princess (and possibly Wind Waker, too) on Nintendo’s next console.

But hey, don’t let that stop you from signing a petition to bring one of the greatest Zelda games of all time to Switch. Since Eiji Aonuma, Zelda’s Director/Producer since Ocarina of Time, has openly said “We aren't really concerned with our older games anymore. We prefer to look to the future”, a strong petition might be the only way we ever make a Twilight Princess Switch port happen.