Let's itemize Zelda games for fun.

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Michael Legault

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cloroxbb said:
Im sure people will disagree with me on a couple haha

1. Zelda II
2. Wind Waker
3. A Link to the Past
4. Majora's Mask
5. Oracle of Seasons
6. Oracle of Ages
7. Minish Cap
8. The Legend of Zelda
9. Link's Awakening
10. Ocarina of Time
11. Four Swords
12. Phantom Hourglass
13. Spirit Tracks
14. Skyward Sword

I pretty much loathe the last 3.
wow, I always feel like I'm the only one who likes Zelda II best, it's the most challenging I would say. And it's the first appearance of shadow link making for one of the most badass fights to be had on the nes, provided you don't ***** out and use the edge of screen trick. And the golden palace is an ordeal even if you know the right way


for me,

1. Zelda II
2. A Link to the Past
3. Zelda I
4. Link's Awakening
5. Ocarina of Time
6. Majora's Mask
7. Oracle of Seasons/Ages
8. Skyward Sword
9. Twilight Princess
10.Wind Waker
11.Minish Cap
12.Four Swords (only for it's difficulty to play multiplayer)
13.Spirit Tracks
14.Phantom Hourglass
 

EyeReaper

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Lesseee...

1. Twilight Princess
2. Oracle of Seasons
3. The Minish Cap
4. Oracle of Ages
5. A Link to the Past
6. Skyward sword
7. Original Legend of Zelda
8. OoT
I haven't yet played wind waker/majora's mask, but from what I've heard they'd probably be in the 3-5 range, bumping something else down. And yes, I will fully stand by my decision that Ocarina is a worse game than Skyward Sword.
 

HellsingerAngel

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1. The Legend of Zelda
2. Link to the Past
3. Twilight Princess
4. Majora's Mask
5. Link's Adventure
6. Ocarina of Time
7. Link's Awakening
8. Oracle of Ages
9. Oracle of Seasons
10. Wind Waker
11. Minish Cap
12. Four Swords Adventure
13. Oracles of Seasons
14. Oracle of Ages
15. Skyward Sword
16. Phantom Hourglass
17. Spirit Tracks
18. Four Swords
19. Wand of Gamelon
20. Faces of Evil
21. Zelda's Adventure

A very rough order. Anything #7 or higher change spots frequently. A lot of my choices are nostalgia driven, as well as not liking the art style in Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks pushing them down potential slots. My choices are also very gameplay driven before story/art/setting are considered.
 

Sheo_Dagana

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1. Majora's Mask
2. Wind Waker
3. Ocarina of Time
4. Link's Awakening
5. Minish Cap
6. Oracle of Seasons
7. Oracle of Ages
8. Link to the Past
9. Phantom Hour Glass
10. Skyward Sword
11. Four Sword Adventure
12. Twilight Princess
13. Zelda
14. Zelda II
15. Spirit Tracks

Basically my favorite Zelda games have a lot of side-questing/exploration and no motion controls. I could have gotten into Skyward Sword if it hadn't been for the motion controls, but as awesome as Midna was, she just wasn't enough for me to enjoy Twilight Princess even on the GameCube. Also the early Zelda games, exploration-heavy though they may be, just aren't fun to me as their stories are less engaging and Zelda II practically requires a walk through.

I think Spirit Tracks is the only Zelda game I've picked up once and put back down with no desire to ever touch it again.

*EDIT* I completely forgot about Four Swords, which I never really got into because my teammates could not be trusted to get on the same page as me. Every single play session of that game was nothing but them all killing each other and me.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Dec 25, 2010
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So much heresy against Ocarina of Time ITT...

Here's my list. (With explanations!)

1. Ocarina of Time: I think you saw this coming. Best items, grest story, great presentation, insane gameplay for its time, awesome music... Wasn't too fond of playing as a kid though. But even THAT wasn't half-bad. Besides that, I'm just going to save myself some breath and just say to name one thing and chances are I can tell you why that particular thing was awesome. Of course, I know some people here will beg to differ but hey, at least I got an armada of 10's [http://www.metacritic.com/game/nintendo-64/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time/critic-reviews] to back me up.

2. Twilight Princess: Before I start praising this game, let me be the first to say that this game has problems. Serious problems that cause it to trail somewhat distantly after OoT. It's like the developers were too scared to completely let go of some of the kiddiness inherent in the LoZ series. So they just half-assed it. And when you're making these kinds of games, (mature games) you can't half-ass it. You gotta go all the way or the maturity that you're working so hard to build is lost.

Besides that, there are other rather small problems as well like some of the items being useless outside of their respective dungeons, a couple of the visual designs on different objects looked a little dumb, the whole world feeling rather empty and a little small compared to Ocarina of Time and Zant, when you face him in the end, is such a letdown.

HOWEVER, besides all that nonsense, the game in every other aspect is something truly ambitious and worthy of praise. A lot of the dungeons were actually better than OoT's even. It's a game that I feel deserves a revisit in some way. A LoZ game that had SERIOUS potential.

3. Majora's Mask: Man, where to start with this game? On one hand, it's dark undercurrents are very intriguing and it had some very innovative gameplay as well. Not to mention it expanded upon a couple things in OoT and the items were pretty awesome.

On the other hand though... It's so RANDOM sometimes. Almost too chaotic. It can't really fix on a mood or a theme. One minute it's as gritty as Gears of War and the next, it's Wind Waker levels of cartoony. And the story is so loose and all over the place that there are about 5 billion fan theories for this game as well. I don't know, maybe the creator just wanted it to be that loose and for the story to be taken at face value and nothing more but I think he could have done a little better in that regard.

All in all, a great game. Just a really chaotic one.

-

14. Wind Waker: Alright, I know that the reason I put this so low on this list is because of pure opinion but... I just hate it too much for me to put this any higher. I was NEVER a fan of kid Link (can't connect with him at all and his appearance looks stupid) and was never a fan of cartoony, cell-shaded graphics (really feel it doesn't go with LoZ) and Wind Waker has all this in SPADES. I kid you not, from the FIRST moment I saw this game, I didn't like it. Even further, it started the whole tradition of cell-shaded, kid Link LoZ's and I hate it for that. So yeah, it goes straight to the bottom of the pile.

Now I'm ready for your rage. Come at me, bros!
 

Ushiromiya Battler

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1.Minish Cap(don't judge me)
2.Ocarina of Time
3.Twilight Princess
4.Oracle of Ages
5.A Link to the Past
5.Majora's Mask
6.Link's Awakening
7.Phantom Hourglass
8.Wind Waker
9.The Legend of Zelda
10.Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland(does this count?)
11.Zelda II
13.Spirit Tracks

I remember buying the DS just for Spirit Tracks, worst decision of my life, so I traded it for a PSP.
 

renegade7

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1.)Link to the Past
2.)Skyward Sword
3.)Oracle of Ages
4.)Oracle of Seasons
5.)Twilight Princes
6.)Adventure of Link
7.)Wind Waker
8.)Minish Cap
9.)Majora's Mask
10.)Link's Awakening (It gets a bump up the list purely for nostalgia, being one of the first games I ever played)
11.)Ocarina of Time
12.)Four Swords Adventures
13.)Spirit Tracks
14.)Phantom Hourglass
15.)The Legend of Zelda. It's still a great game, but time has not treated it as well as some of the other titles.

That's not to say that any of them are bad in any way, of course. Just that I like some a little better. I still play all of them. I know Zelda 2 isn't the most popular of the games in the series, but I really liked the action-platformer style and difficulty.
 

FPLOON

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IPunchWithMyFists said:
EDIT: You can also put Okami in there just to piss people off. I didn't because I haven't finished it yet, but you get the idea.
But, Okami was the best Zelda game that I have ever played that had noting to do with Zelda... with 3D Dot Game Hero taking the Number 3 spot, of course...

OT (Edited):
0. Okami
1. Wind Waker
2. Majora's Mask
3. Link's Awakening
4. Link to the Past
5. Ocarina of Time
6. Oracle of Ages/Seasons
7. Four Swords Adventure
8. Skyward Sword
9. The Minish Cap
10. The Legend of Zelda
11. The Adventure of Link
...
14. 3D Dot Game Hero

To be honest, I can't really agree on this list for a long period of time, though... Most of these choices were due to suggestions on which ones I have played being the best... The only ones I have beaten on this list (that's not Okami) is Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time, and the original Legend of Zelda...[footnote]I still have that promotional GameCube disk with those games on it which had a teaser for Wind Waker for the GameCube... Only the original game was not played and/or beaten on that disk...[/footnote] I'm currently trying to beat Four Swords since I'm digging the whole feel of it... (The Adventure of Link can still suck my power glove... and the only reason why 3D Dot Game Hero's on this list is because I choose to create my own Link basically...)
 

Joby Baumann

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Oracle of Seasons/Ages
Wind Waker
Link To The Past
Ocarina of Time
Minish Cap
Majoras Mask
Legend Of Zelda
Skyward Sword
Link's Awakening
Twilight Princess
Zelda II
 

the_great_cessation

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God Tier
1. Twilight Princess
2. Ocarina of Time
3. Majora's Mask
4. A Link to the Past
5. Wind Waker

Great Tier
6. The Minish Cap
7. Link's Awakening
8. The Legend of Zelda

Good Tier
9. Skyward Sword
10. Phantom Hourglass
11. Oracle of Ages
12. Oracle of Seasons

"Meh" Tier
13. Four Swords Adventures
14. Spirit Tracks

Adventure of Link tier
15. Adventure of Link
 

Hero of Lime

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Johnny Novgorod said:
I've never played a Zelda game except for a few minutes of the original SNES title (can't even remember the name). If I wanted to get into the franchise would it be too late? Do those "best Zelda games" hold up in time, or is it just nostalgia talking?
In answer to your questions in order Johhny, no, yes, and maybe.

Getting into the series is the one of the easiest things to do as they rarely have any continuity. I would say the old ones hold up very well. Nostalgia? Maybe a little, but some of the older games still feel great even to newer players as far as I've heard and seen.

I'll make my gargantuan post soon, I wanted to trim it down by making this a separate post.
 

ThreeName

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1. Majora's Mask
2. Wind Waker
3. Ocarina of Time
4. Link's Awakening
5. Original NES

They're the only ones I've really played. I played Phantom Hourglass and Link to the Past but got really bored.
 

CrystalShadow

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OK, why not. This list only contains games I've actually finished. This excludes the two NES games (Legend of zelda and adventure of link) since I've never finished either, as well as all the DS games, the CD-I games, and a few others.
(Not sure where I'd put these)

1. Ocarina of Time
2. A link to the past
3. Majora's mask
4. Twilight Princess
5. Skyward Sword
6. Wind Waker
7. Oracle of Ages
8. The Minish Cap
9. Link's Awakening


That's not saying much, because I like all of them, but if I had to put them in order...
(Before you ask about wind waker, being that low down, it... Ends in the middle of nowhere. It really feels like half a game that ends abruptly in a strange place. - and then uses an awkward fetch quest to stall for time. Other than that it's pretty good. The minish cap is as bad for length, but feels less like it just ends in an odd place.

Speaking of which, it's a bad habit they got into... (which wind waker seems to have started, but isn't so bad with overall itself). Twilight princess contains repeated sections that are clearly just padding / stalling for time, and the last dungeon feels like an unfinished afterthought.
Skyward sword doesn't feel unfinished or like any of it was an afterthought, but it repeats many of the stalling tactics of Twilight princess. - Collecting 20 of something for no real reason, and not being allowed to continue with anything else until you do is not fun... It just feels like something tacked on for the sole purpose of making the game take longer...

Ahem. Sorry. Went off on a tangent there, didn't I?
 

Hero of Lime

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This is the kind of thread a die hard fan like me waits for. I was actually planning to make a thread like this after A Link Between Worlds had been out for a bit. Anyhow...be prepared for a long essay!

1. Ocarina of Time: It's my favorite, do I think it's one of the best games ever? Yup, but that's my opinion. It holds up well, easily accessible since every home console since the N64 has some way of playing it. Feels rewarding and fun, introduced a lot of great ideas, items, and characters to the series, and the obvious one, 3D. It's a fun, complete game an it's still a joy to play today.

2. Twilight Princess: It's practically another Ocarina of Time and Zelda fan service, why wouldn't I like it? The art style is great, the world may be a bit empty, but huge and fun to explore. Has lots of great content, like loads of great dungeons, enemies, items, and side quests. Midna's story really added something to the game's narrative.

3. Majora's Mask: I'm happy this game finally got the attention and love it deserves. I remember when Majora's Mask was considered the black sheep of the Zelda franchise, now it's one of the most loved in the series. The 3 day mechanic is innovative and give the game a unique feel. The npc's all have a story to tell, and usually have an interesting side quest for you. It has a dark and serious tone, yet never loses that Zelda charm.

4. Wind Waker: As a side note, the HD version made an already amazing game even better. An excellent art style(yes I actually liked what I saw when it was first shown off.) Loads of fun side quests, quirky characters, and a big world to explore. Sailing takes a while(unless you have the swift sail), but it never ruined the game for me. It has a lot of heart and charm to it in general you won't find in many games.

5. Skyward Sword: I will admit it has problems, fighting the imprisoned three times is literally torture, and the sky was empty. However, I like the motion controls, I wish there was a left-handed model to give me a 1 to 1 swordplay experience, but I'll let it slide since the controls still worked for me. While there wasn't as much exploration in the game as others, the environments were well done and feel fun to run around in, especially Faron Woods. The story was fairly important to the overall narrative of the franchise, and framed a lot of important details the other games.

6. A Link to the Past: It began the (in)famous Zelda formula, and vastly improved on the original in every way possible. Two great over worlds, lots of secrets, and a great challenge in terms of combat it is my favorite of the 2D Zelda games. The game feels great even today, has lots of things you can do in the game. Introduced lots of items that are still commonplace in the series today. Definitely on of the best games on the SNES.

7. Minish Cap: They went a little overboard with the sidequests and collectibles, and bless them for doing that! Has some importance to the Zelda series as it sets up the Four Sword saga, by giving you a back story to the creation to the aforementioned cloning sword and Vatti. Features awesome characters like Ezlo, and explains where Link got his cap, even if Skyward Sword also did that. Great dungeons and enemies, lots of secrets, great game overall.

8. Link's Awakening: This game bleeds charm like nobody's business! The first Zelda game to take place outside Hyrule, it is very unconventional as far as the series goes. Characters that really pop out despite being little Gameboy sprites with weird dialogue and 4th wall breaking tendencies. Has lots of fun dungeons, great puzzles, and interesting bosses.

9. Oracle of Seasons: This game along with Ages has a lot of the charm(and art assets) of Link's Awakening, yet really distinguishes itself very well. Has excellent dungeons, cool items like the magnetic gloves and roc's cape. Has two very different overworlds like ALttP and Ages, and some cool sidequests thrown in for good measure.

10. Oracle of Ages: Definitely more puzzle and story oriented than Seasons. Ages gives you very challenging dungeons that will make you beg for a strategy guide on your first playthrough. The story is a bit more involved than Seasons, with more integral characters, and there is a sense of urgency along with the narrative.

11. Spirit Tracks: A lot of people will call this one terrible, I respectfully disagree. The train amy be unconventional, but it never not feels like Zelda when you're running around a dungeon fighting enemies and solving puzzles. The dungeons are challenging for the most part, and the Spirit Tower dungeon you have to return to multiple times, puts you in different areas so you don't have to do the same stuff over and over again like Phantom Hourglass.
Zelda as Link's partner works very well, and the Link/Phantom mechanic is well implemented.

12. Adventure of Link: I know lots of people hate this game, but I love it. It's hard, and incredibly unforgiving, but it's beatable, you just have to treat it like an RPG as opposed to a normal Zelda game. The dungeon layouts are challenging labyrinths, the combat is intuitive(and hard) and the boss fights are intense. Once you beat the game, you get a new impression of it, I used to hate it too, but once you sit down and make it your mission to beat it, it's worth the trouble.

13. The Legend of Zelda: The original awesome game. Like Zelda II, it's hard and cryptic like many NES games were. It's still fun to play, and despite feeling stiff, never feels unfair. Being able to challenge any dungeon in any order give the player incredible freedom to decide what to do next.

14. Phantom Hourglass: Another one lots of people seem to hate. Though I still like it a lot, I can understand the complaints. Revisiting the Temple of the Ocean King several times is a dumb idea I won't defend, but I still like the game. The dungeons are nice, not the best. The all touch control scheme is well implemented and easy to master. It's still fun, but a lower tier Zelda game to be sure.

15. Four Swords Adventures: A fun game, but not the best Zelda game. The dungeons, puzzle solving and combat are there, but the feeling of adventure despite being in the title, isn't really there. It's all composed of levels, which isn't really the best structure for Zelda. I call it Zelda's greatest hits, very fun, but you could do better.

16. Four Swords: The only Zelda game I would call meh, or even bad. Of course it was made to be a small add on to the GBA remake of A Link to the Past, so I can't complain too much. It's the bare minimum of what a Zelda game should be, still a little fun, but very dull.

Whoo, that's a long post. Let it be known when I start talking(or typing) about Zelda, it's hard to get me to stop. :D
 

NerfedFalcon

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1. Twilight Princess (yes really)
2. The original game
3. Minish Cap
4. Oracle Saga
5. Link to the Past
6. Adventure of Link (yes really)
7. Ocarina of Time + Majora's Mask (tied)
8. Phantom Hourglass

They're all at least 'good' except the last one (yes really), which sucks, but I honestly really liked Twilight Princess. It's the only one where I managed to actually care about any of the characters even slightly, besides the amount you have to care about a protagonist's life to keep playing the game.
 

LegendaryVKickr

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1. Majora's Mask
2. LttP
3. Ocarina of Time
4. Wind Waker
5. Twilight Princess
6. Minish Cap
7. Legend of Zelda
8. Ages/Seasons
9. Adventures of Link
10. Skyward Sword

I would probably be willing to replay any of these except for 10. I will never touch that game again. Easily the worst Zelda I've played (I have not played CD-I, nor do I count them as Zelda games)

Also 1-4 are all kinda high up enough it's hard to play favorites, it's more or less a tie between those as the cream of the crop.
 

2xDouble

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Ah, a Zelda thread! Lovely.

Listing purely in terms of "amount of fun I had with it":

1. Link's Awakening. Love the musical theme; Ballad of the Wind Fish is an awesome song, when the instruments synch properly. Pet Chain Chomp! DX version has awesome bonus dungeon. Only Zelda game where you can (and must, at times) unequip the Sword.

2. A Link to the Past. Dem magicks! Learned to read Hylian... by going to the library, no less. Link first learns to play the Ocarina (well). "Horrible" curses! Fun with green, electric monsters and magic powder. Riding a punching kangaroo...

3. Legend of Zelda. I liked the emphasis on puzzle-solving EVERYTHING. Only Zelda game where dungeons can be completed out of order.

4. Ocarina of Time. I'll give it its due, Ocarina was an awesome game and I'll not say ill of it.

5. Oracle of Ages/Seasons. Count these as one game, as you must play through both to get the "real ending". A marketing ploy, to be sure, but a fun one. Really clever how they incorporated abilities from each into the other's dungeon paths for secrets.

6. Twilight Princess. Admittedly, this one I had a lot of fun with because I played through with my niece, who absolutely loved the werewolf mechanic. Great game, easily on par with Ocarina, also giant space/sky cannons. Loses some points for nipple chickens.

7. Wind Waker. Another lovely musical theme. Playing Battleship with the bemused french guy. Sneaking up on bokoblins, super-sneaky-like. Awesome.

7. Majora's Mask. I have to say, I was pretty "meh" about this one. I do loves me some "nonlinear time" storytelling, but I just had more fun with it in Oracle of Ages and Ocarina of Time (and Link to the Past, in a way).
 

lord.jeff

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1. Majora's Mask (So many reasons to love this game and easily finds itself somewhere in my top ten list of gaming)
2. Link to the Past (Love this game so much and well I like Majora's Mask better this game defines Zelda)
3. Wind Waker (The best and worse of the series is in this game, if it wasn't for the overly annoying pieces of Triforce hunting that this game has you go through to beat it it would be on top)
4. Twilight Princess(Wins out over Ocarina of Time only becuase you can play as a wolf and Midna is better then Navi)
5. Ocarina of Time (I feel this game, Twilight Princess and most the portables to be almost clones of Link to the past but never capturing the same charm that game had.)
6. Zelda (I love this game but it is easily the most frustrating to play with no directions I spent hours between each dungeon going in circles)
7. Link's Awakening
8. Skyward Sword (I enjoyed this game though I can never look past it's faults bad controls, flying in Skyloft is like sailing in Wind Waker if you removed all the fun things to discover, and a world that never felt like a world.)
9. Oracle of Ages (Not sure why but I just can't get into this one)
10. Phantom Hourglass (Played for an hour maybe and couldn't get over how horrible controlling everything with the stylus was, it's unplayable to me)
 

lord.jeff

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2xDouble said:
3. Legend of Zelda. I liked the emphasis on puzzle-solving EVERYTHING. Only Zelda game where dungeons can be completed out of order.
Dark World dungeons in Link to the Past and future dungeons in Ocarina could be done out of order.
 

Artina89

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My own personal list is:

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Majora's mask
3. A link to the past
4. Windwaker
5. Twilight Princess
6. Oracle of seasons
7. Oracle of ages
8. Phantom hourglass

They are the ones I have played through to the end. I absolutely love Ocarina of time and it was the game that got me to buy a Nintendo 3DS (alongside Luigi's mansion 2, Kid Icarus and the upcoming Pokemon games) so I can play the 3DS version of the game. I am looking forward to the upcoming A link between two worlds game.