Unfortunately, I've never played the old school Zelda games, on account of having never owned those gaming systems. ^^;; However, I did play The Minish Cap (on Gameboy Advanced SP), Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword (both on the Wii).
I liked both of the story lines pretty equally (for the Wii games). I found I liked the darker moods of Twilight Princess more visually appealing than Skyward Sword. But I think I liked The Minish Cap more overall, as far as playability, but maybe that's just because it was the first Zelda game I had played as a kid, so it has more sentimental value for me.
I do recall The Minish Cap getting pretty good. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were both fairly so so entries in the realise in my opinion.
But you have a point about sentimental value. It may largely come down to that.