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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Rank your favorite Zelda games!

 

What is your favorite Zelda? (sorry, only ten options!)

Breath of the Wild 22 32.35%
 
Ocarina of Time 14 20.59%
 
A Link to the Past 11 16.18%
 
Twilight Princess 6 8.82%
 
Majora's Mask 2 2.94%
 
Wind Waker 6 8.82%
 
Link's Awakening 0 0%
 
Skyward Sword 4 5.88%
 
Oracle of Ages/Seasons 1 1.47%
 
Other (see forum post) 2 2.94%
 
Total:68

Ah yes. Another opportunity to tell you guys what the only true ranking of Zelda games is. Zelda, factually the greatest gaming franchise of all time. Gaming? Maybe even all of media. Could very well be. I’ve shoved the following list down people’s throats here on VGC so many times now, that some of you may actually know it.

Anyway, I have all the games including the spinoffs in their original form and all their rereleases (except the CDi games, but someday, those’ll be mine as well), and completed all of them in their original form except for Four Swords Adventures, which I’ll leave off. I also won’t include the spinoffs;

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Link’s Awakening
3. Breath of the Wild
4. Twilight Princess
5. Majora’s Mask
6. A Link to the Past
7. Skyward Sword
8. The Wind Waker
9. A Link Between Worlds
10. Spirit Tracks
11. The Legend of Zelda NES
12. Oracle of Ages
13. Oracle of Seasons
14. Adventure of Link
15. Phantom Hourglass
16. The Minish Cap
17. Four Swords
18. Triforce Heroes

I assume Four Swords Adventures falls between The Minish Cap and Four Swords, I need to play it soon.

Ocarina of Time remains the greatest; the original was perfect, the remake is as well. Breath of the Wild rekindled the hope that new games can in fact again be good, it’s absolutely excellent. Th Wind Waker is the weakest of the 3D Zelda games, but still okay. It’s remaster actually made me look upon it more favorably, before it I ranked it below Spirit Tracks. The original NES game still holds up, and it and the other classic styled 2D games besides the exceptional A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are similarly good. From Phantom Hourglass down things become more sketchy. The Minish Cap is a mediocre Zelda game, multiplayer Zelda doesn’t work and Triforce Heroes is, even when not comparing to other Zelda games, is terrible.



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Something like this:

Twilight Princess
The Wind Waker
Ocarina of Time
Breath of the Wild
A Link to the Past
A Link Between Worlds
Majora's Mask
Link's Awakening
Skyward Sword
Minish Cap
Oracles games
The Legend of Zelda
Phantom Hourglass

Haven't really played enough:

Adventures of Link
Four Swords Adventure
Spirit Tracks
Triforce Heroes



1. Skyward Sword (Best dungeons in the series; Greatest game to ever make use of motion controls; Best Link & Zelda incarnations of the series; Ghirahim is an amazing villain and my personal favorite in the series; Skyloft is a pleasure to explore and beautiful to see. - But there are flaws. The biggest among them is the PADDING!)

2. Twilight Princess (2nd best dungeons in the series. Almost neck-and-neck with Skyward Sword's dungeons, but Lakebed Temple and City in the Sky are what bring them down for me, those places SUCKED; Love the Tolkien-esque, Lord of the Rings aesthetic, I think that style fits Zelda perfectly; Midna is the best companion in the entire franchise and it's not even close. Truly an epic and grand adventure that checks off all the check marks in the series. Definitely a Zelda fan's Zelda game.)

3. Breath of the Wild - (An absolutely, mind-blowing experience that completely shattered the bar on what the series can be and what it's capable of while still being true to what makes Zelda, Zelda.)

4. Majora's Mask - (The biggest oddball in the series, next to Zelda II; This is one of the games in the series that takes a more required taste to get into; The 3-Day Cycle can be understandably alienating, it was for me at first. But once I gave it time, got used to the game's mechanics, and started learning how to use the 3-Day Cycle to my advantage, I had an absolute blast traveling through Termina, which is still the best game world in a 3D Zelda game to date, in my opinion. Termina and the people you meet in it are a total joy, the side quests are the best in the series, and while there are only 4 dungeons, they are some of the most challenging, demanding, (and frustrating) the series has to offer. (Great Bay Temple, go fuck yourself!) While not my favorite on my list, out of the classic-styled 3D Zelda games, in my view, Majora's Mask is the best.)

5. A Link Between Worlds - (Or A Link to the Past 2.0 in a lot of ways; My favorite 2D Zelda game, this took A Link to the Past and made it smoother, crispier, and more refined while doing just enough to stick out on its own with the wall-paint mechanic and the item rental shop system with Ravio.)

6. Ocarina of Time - (The Zelda game everyone knew and viewed as the crown jewel of the franchise before Breath of the Wild came and took it; One of the pioneers of 3D gaming and a game that set a lot of standards in 1998 and one of the very few games from the PS1/N64 era that aged very well and is almost just as good today as it was back then. That is VERY hard to do and Ocarina of Time manages to do just that.)

7. Wind Waker - (Quite the divisive title when it first came out; Coming off of Ocarina of Time and the GameCube Tech Demo for Zelda, and that brief glimpse of Shiek in Melee's intro, fans were very eager and chomping at the bit to see what the first Zelda game for GameCube would look like... And then we got Wind Waker; Pretty damn hilarious to think about, but man was their backlash against the game and its art style when first revealed and it was enough to have people completely skip out on it; Damn shame too because Wind Waker was a very solid and great Zelda game; Triforce Hunt notwithstanding. And for all the shit the art style and cartoony direction received back then, that art style has actually aged very well. Look at Twilight Princess and Wind Waker on the GameCube and hold them up to today's standards and it's very different. Twilight Princess's graphics have not aged all that well. Meanwhile, Wind Waker still looks great.)

8. A Link to the Past - (An SNES classic that has also aged fairly well.)

9. Oracle of Seasons - (My personal favorite of the Oracle Games. Would love to see a 3rd Oracle game or remakes of these games in the future.)

10. Minish Cap - (Very solid game for the Game Boy Advance. I remember enjoyed the shrinking dynamic and the dungeons... And that's about it.)

11. Oracle of Ages - (While I preferred Seasons, this was still a solid 2D Zelda game.)

12. Link's Awakening - (I should specify that this is the original version of the game that I rank here. If I added the Remake for the Switch, it would be right between A Link to the Past and Oracle of Seasons. At its core was a great 2D game that was severely limited by being on the Game Boy.)

13. Legend of Zelda - (The one that started it all... And it has not aged well. What was amazing back in 1986 is now very archaic and dated. I won't be too hard on it because it WAS the first game in the series and it was very different from a lot of the games being made back then. It was revolutionary for its time. While it's well past the point where it can be considered a good game, it should be respected for what it did for gaming.)

14. Zelda II: Adventure of Link - (The biggest black sheep in the series and the hardest game in the franchise. Much like Zelda 1, this has not aged well and is very archaic and dated, but probably moreso than Zelda 1. If there are two games in the series that REALLY need and deserve a remake, it's the NES originals.)

I've never played the Four Swords games, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, or Triforce Heroes, so I can't rank those.

Last edited by PAOerfulone - on 10 October 2019

SanAndreasX said:
The_Liquid_Laser said:

My favorite is The Legend of Zelda (NES).  The fact that it isn't even on the poll is insulting.  The first one is actually a favorite of a lot of people, but it is definitely a generational thing.

Here is my list of the one's I've played:

1) The Legend of Zelda

2) Breath of the Wild

3) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Yeah, I really wish the polls would allow for more than ten choices, I just left off the original figuring that a lot of the users here were too young to have played the original in its heyday and would prefer the direction the series took later. My intent was to list every game. Hey, even the CD-i games must have at least one fan out there. The original came out when I was 10, so I've been with the series from the beginning and it's been my favorite since then. Always neat to find someone who appreciates the original and Zelda II, which was a marvel of a game when it made its debut and whose release progress I followed in Nintendo Power. Part of why I love Breath of the Wild is how it combines the best aspects of the 8-bit Zeldas with the QOL improvements the series has made over the years.

I know that you are trying to be nice, but this post is insulting too.  You are kind of equating Zelda 1 with a CD-i game.  Zelda 1 is not a niche game.  It is actually one of the most successful Zelda games.  In fact, in Japan it is still the best selling Zelda game of all time surpassing both Ocarina and Breath of the Wild.  That is why it is insulting to not even put it in the poll.  And now you are comparing it to a CD-i game.

This is a lot like asking, "What is the greatest band of all time" and then not even putting the Beatles in the poll.  



1. Breath of the Wild
2. Twilight Princess
3. Ocarina of Time
4. A Link Between Worlds
5. Majora's Mask 3D

6. Wind Waker
7. Minish Cap
8. A Link to the Past
9. Oracle of Seasons
10. Link's Awakening

11. Legend of Zelda
12. Skyward Sword
13. Oracle of Ages
14. Phantom Hourglass
15. Spirit Tracks

I listed all the ones I played. Going off the originals except for Majora for which I've only played the remake.



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SanAndreasX said:
The_Liquid_Laser said:

My favorite is The Legend of Zelda (NES).  The fact that it isn't even on the poll is insulting.  The first one is actually a favorite of a lot of people, but it is definitely a generational thing.

Here is my list of the one's I've played:

1) The Legend of Zelda

2) Breath of the Wild

3) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Yeah, I really wish the polls would allow for more than ten choices, I just left off the original figuring that a lot of the users here were too young to have played the original in its heyday and would prefer the direction the series took later. My intent was to list every game. Hey, even the CD-i games must have at least one fan out there. The original came out when I was 10, so I've been with the series from the beginning and it's been my favorite since then. Always neat to find someone who appreciates the original and Zelda II, which was a marvel of a game when it made its debut and whose release progress I followed in Nintendo Power. Part of why I love Breath of the Wild is how it combines the best aspects of the 8-bit Zeldas with the QOL improvements the series has made over the years.

Maybe make a poll specifically for those of us old enough to remember the NES era.

For me, Adventure of Link appealed more to me than the original Zelda, largely because of the number of towns and RPG elements (despite how frustrating they could be). I liked the idea of the original Legend of Zelda, it was an awe-inspiring game at the time, but it always kicked my ass; particularly in the dungeons with rooms where there were like 5 or 6 of those knights.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

PAOerfulone said:

1. Skyward Sword (Best dungeons in the series; Greatest game to ever make use of motion controls; Best Link & Zelda incarnations of the series; Ghirahim is an amazing villain and my personal favorite in the series; Skyloft is a pleasure to explore and beautiful to see. - But there are flaws. The biggest among them is the PADDING!)


Happy to see the Skyward Sword love!



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile


Jumpin said:

Maybe make a poll specifically for those of us old enough to remember the NES era.

For me, Adventure of Link appealed more to me than the original Zelda, largely because of the number of towns and RPG elements (despite how frustrating they could be). I liked the idea of the original Legend of Zelda, it was an awe-inspiring game at the time, but it always kicked my ass; particularly in the dungeons with rooms where there were like 5 or 6 of those knights.

I remember playing Adventure of Link back in the 1980s. The world seemed so freakin' huge. I loved it. 



Created an account for this:

My order for all the games I have played in the series:

1) Ocarina of Time
2) Breath of the Wild
3) Wind Waker
4) Spirit Tracks
5) Phantom Hourglass
6) Majora's Mask
7) Twilight Princess
8) A Link to the Past
9) The Adventure of Link
10) Link's Awakening
11) The Legend of Zelda

I think Ocarina trumps BoTW purely based on nostalgia and the effect it had on me as a kid. I don't think any game could surpass that experience. I love BoTW but it is missing a couple of key things for me to push Ocarina of the top spot.

Games not included because i have not played them yet:

A Link Between Worlds
Four Swords
Minish Cap
Oracle of Seasons
Oracle of Ages
Skyward Sword
Triforce Heroes



Bri5ol said:
Created an account for this:

My order for all the games I have played in the series:

1) Ocarina of Time
2) Breath of the Wild
3) Wind Waker
4) Spirit Tracks
5) Phantom Hourglass
6) Majora's Mask
7) Twilight Princess
8) A Link to the Past
9) The Adventure of Link
10) Link's Awakening
11) The Legend of Zelda

I think Ocarina trumps BoTW purely based on nostalgia and the effect it had on me as a kid. I don't think any game could surpass that experience. I love BoTW but it is missing a couple of key things for me to push Ocarina of the top spot.

Games not included because i have not played them yet:

A Link Between Worlds
Four Swords
Minish Cap
Oracle of Seasons
Oracle of Ages
Skyward Sword
Triforce Heroes

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