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

I initially dismissed the Wid Waker’s cartoonish visuals as juvenile. But now I try to carry the game’s sense of joy into all aspects of my life I had a complicated relationship with video games when I was a teenager. I had straightforwardly, wholeheartedly loved the Nintendo games that I’d grown up with, tumbling around primary-coloured dreamscapes in Super Mario 64 and having the time of my life. But as I grew into a pretentious young adult in the early 00s, I started to want more from game...

By Keza MacDonald