I've always liked the Stalfos from The Legend of Zelda because they're understandable; you could tell very easily they were animated human skeletons, no matter the pixel count. The Stalfos in Twilight Princess strayed too far from this for my liking—they look like they were monsters even before death, and their gear was entirely too fetishistic of skulls (see: Arthas). Personally, I'd prefer to take it back to a more subtle form, as though they were the reanimated corpses of a defeated invading kingdom's knights. They sport similar but slightly different heraldry than Hyrule to hint at a disastrous desire for power.
Stalfos Knight
in Sketchbook