SS Zelda is the best one. Not a princess, but above it.

I agree. I loved how she was just a regular girl (Well, kinda :P) and I actually cared about saving her in that game.

1. OOT - best dungeons

2. WW - great sense of adventure hated the dungeons :(

3. LTTP - almost perfect game but it just wasnt mindblowing for me as the 2 above

1. Breath of the wild
Maybe premature after only 70 hours, and it certainly has flaws, but 70 amazing hours already and I'm not even halfway.

2. Windwaker
Freedom to explore with great dungeons to solve, beautiful and so much charm

3. OOT
The first one I played, pure magic, and luckily improved on.

4. Twilight princess
Good but the shadow world got on my nerves, I never got as immersed in it as the others.

5. Skyward sword
Sand sea was awesome, motion controls sucked.

Yep. In fact, the first part is why I like SS so much. You are in wild uncharted lands looking after her, even in the middle of dungeons, with only one purpose: seeking Zelda, to discover then that she is in her own quest.

I have to admit that even though I own several Zelda games (Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword) I could never bring myself to finish any of them. The one I played the most was OoT on 3DS. Somehow BoTW feels different, more organic, intuitive and very compelling. I'm just addicted to this game, I can't get enough of it.

I haven't finished BotW yet, so I haven't finalized it's placement in my list yet, but as it stands, it goes as this:

1. Wind Waker - favourite game of all time. Love pretty much everything about it, even the sailing and Triforce Quest.
2. Twilight Princess - 2nd favourite game of all time. Has my favourite dungeon selection, including my favourite dungeon in the series (Snowpeak Ruins), Midna is the best sidekick, excellent combat. Only things that bring it below WW is its slow start and I don't think its look has aged nearly as well.
3. Ocarina of Time - 4th favourite game of all time. Got me into gaming. 2nd best dungeon selection. Most replayed game. Still love it to this day. Deserves all the praise it gets.
4. Skyward Sword - Very slow start has delayed me from replaying it, but everything else is wonderful. Great dungeon selection, motion controls work well, best version of Zelda next to Tetra, fun sidequests.
5. Link’s Awakening - my favourite 2D entry. It's simple, but elegant. World design is great, dungeons are fun and inventive, fantastic music.
6. A Link Between Worlds - best 3DS game. Love the open ended structure of it in the 2nd half, dungeons are mostly great, looks good. Thought I was gonna hate it after hearing about the painting mechanic, but ended up really liking it. Need to get around to replaying it.
7. Breath of the Wild - 7th place seems right for me. Best adventure aspect in the series, lots and lots to do, but dungeons bring it down for me. Not a fan of the voice acting either.
8. Minish Cap - Unique hook, great art style, fun dungeons. Overall, very good.
9. Phantom Hourglass -Has its fair share of problems (namely Temple of the Ocean King), but still enjoyed it, especially as its a sequel to WW. Linebeck is a fantastic character too.
10. A Link to the Past - one of the first games I ever played. Not quite in love with it as other people are. Objectively, one of the best in the series, but subjectively, don't see it as a highly. Still, wonderful music and graphics, dungeons still mostly well designed (hate the ice one though), great evolution of the series.
11. Oracle of Seasons - consider this the description for both Ages and Seasons. Both really good for the GBC. I liked Seasons' mechanic a bit more, and enjoyed its focus on combat more. Jabu Jabu from Ages annoyed me a lot too.
12. Oracle of Ages - see above
13. Majora’s Mask - similar to Link to the Past in that don't like it as much as most. Dungeons ultimately made me not like it as much, as I only really enjoyed Stone Tower, and actively despise everything about the Great Bay Temple. Didn't really do many sidequests, which probably didn't help.
14. Four Swords Adventures - played only in single player. Still decent fun, but really weird.
15. The Legend of Zelda - Great start for the series, but as someone who didn't grow up with it, later games just did everything so much better, namely dungeon design.
16. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - hard as hell, never really got into it. Still admire it for what it did.
17. Spirit Tracks - my least favourite core entry. Hate the ghost Zelda mechanic, the train, while decently fun, kinda ruins the adventuring aspect, flute irritated me to no end, dungeons all forgettable. Just not much I really like about it.
18. Four Swords - it's fine, but I only ever played the 3DS version since it allowed single player. Too short, kinda repetitive, nothing particularly "fun" about it

1. Skyward Sword-- Such a grandiose game from its story to its music. I don't care what people have to say, I still to this day never have had a problem with the motion controls. Best dungeons period.

2. Breath of the Wild-- I've freed 3/4 of the divine beasts so I don't know how far that puts me in the story. This may change by the time I end up beating it.

3. Twilight Princess-- First Zelda game I had any experience with. I loved playing as the wolf and Midna is one of the greatest characters in the whole series. Dungeons are also great in this game

4. Wind Waker-- The art style is timeless. The HD version gets rid of all annoyances in the original.

5. Ocarina of Time-- Overrated as hell, but still one of the best games of all time.

Haven't played Majora's Mask yet, but I have a sealed copy of the 3ds remake

1. A Link Between Worlds
2-3. A Link to the Past or Breath of the Wild
4. Wind Waker HD
5. Majora's Mask
6. The Legend of Zelda
7. Ocarina of Time

I can't really rank Breath of the Wild, A Link Between Worlds, Four Swords, Triforce Heroes or Spirit Tracks as I haven't finished them yet. Its also been so long since I played Ages/Seasons and Minish Cap so although I know I enjoyed them I can't recall them very well. I really enjoy most Zelda games so separating them is difficult but here goes,

1. Twilight Princess, it took everything I loved in Ocarina, carried over some nice things from Wind Waker and added a lot more. It looks fantastic and I love playing that game.

2. Ocarina of Time, even 19 years later I still enjoy playing this.

3. Wind Waker, built on the formula started with Ocarina of Time but falls slightly short. Still a really good game though.

4. Link's Awakening, this is my favorite 2D game as far as I can remember, I feel like Minish Cap and Ages/Seasons were probably better but I already explained why they're not here.

5. Skyward Sword, despite a gimmicky control system the game is well crafted and I enjoyed everything aside from control frustration and the stamina gauge.

6. Majora's Mask, although I enjoy some aspects of the repeating 3 day cycle I feel its also the source of the game's weakest points. A good game but I don't replay this one much.

7. A Link to the Past, a fine game to be sure and at its time was by far the best Zelda game. Many of the things I love about Zelda are present here but I think everything has been done better since.

8. Phantom Hourglass, another good Zelda game that unfortunately suffers from a poor control system, although it works it only detracts from an otherwise fairly solid game. There are a few other flaws but I enjoyed this for the most part.

9. The Legend of Zelda, takes a while to really get good but when it does its one of the best games from Nintendo on the NES. Plenty of flaws but it was the first and the good still outweighs the bad.

10. Zelda 2, maybe the only Zelda (not including CDi, Game and Watch or Tiger electronics) that I don't like or see any redeeming features in.

I really need to finish a few games or revisit them but I think this is how I'd rank the series. Since I'm currently a good way into Breath of the Wild I think it may eventually place at number 4 behind Wind Waker, I'll have to see though as sometimes i think it may be a bit better and other times I think its really quite a bit worse and several places lower. I still enjoy it for now though.