After the dark fantasy worlds of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, Nintendo fans were supremely irritated when they discovered that The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was ditching the realistic art style of those games in favor of cel-shaded, cartoon graphics. They even began to mockingly refer to the game as “Celda”, and used it as ammo in the age old “Nintendo is only for kids” argument.
Like the other four games on this list, however, once gamers actually had a chance to play The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, that attitude seemed to shift quite considerably. Now, it is one of the most critically acclaimed Zelda games of all time.
While there may have been many vocal detractors before the game released, no one was complaining when Nintendo announced an HD remake of Wind Waker for the Wii U. As it stands, The Wind Waker is the prime example of a game that was unfairly hated before launch, but managed to blow away expectations and then some.