18. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64 – 1998)
I know this may piss of a lot of people, but to me the Legend of Zelda series only truly came into its own, when it transitioned to 3D. That is not to say anything bad about the preceding four titles, the first of which even made my top 50, mainly due to the free nature and solid combat. But there is something about the puzzle solving, storytelling and the overworld exploration that just feels so much better in 3D. Maybe it is because when you enter a dungeon in 3D, it truly feels like stepping into a separate world, maybe it is because polygonal characters are inherently more relatable than sprites, even if the polygons are low-res and sort of rough to look at. It may also just be that Ocarina of Time is so exceptionally well designed, that the previous entries feel lesser, I don’t know. Whatever it is, Ocarina of Time is my favorite Zelda game, it wasn’t easy to reach that conclusion, but I think the dungeon design is up there with the best in the series, the story is minimalistic, but impactful and has subtext, the World is big enough to feel magnificent, but small enough to feel manageable, and the game does not overstay its welcome like other titles in the series.
