Top 5 Legend of Zelda Games

So, on this Wii U it looks like one can get all the classics (NES, SNES, N64), the GCs Wind Waker is a Wii U game, and the system is backwards compatible to the Wii games. I've played Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and have Skyward Sword (thanks, jeb!).

Anyway, never really considered myself a big Zelda fan, but it seems like I have played a few.

How would you rate your top 5 in the series?

1) A Link to the Past
2) Wind Waker
3) Majora's Mask
4) A Link Between Worlds
5) Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda is quite possibly my favorite franchise in all of videogames. So ask and you shall receive!

1 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Not only is this the greatest of the LoZ games...it is one of the greatest videogames ever made. For a long time it held my personal top spot. The game has a great sense of exploration and the dungeons are like a master level course in level design. Not too easy, not too hard. Perfect. There is so much to discover. For a SNES game in the 1990s it felt like a living breathing world. I play through this game once every couple of years.

2. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - This game was always underrated due to the fan backlash over the simple cel shaded graphics. It was also perceived as too kiddy for similar reasons. It wasn't until the recent Wii U remake that this game finally got heralded as the classic it always deserved to be. Fantastic levels, deeper swordplay, cool items, tons to explore...plus the pirate theme and ocean exploration was always appealing to me. This one is great.

3. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - This is like that weird experimental album that your favorite band comes out with. Most people hate it and even you don't like it at first. But you dig deeper into it and suddenly realize, holy shit...this is amazing. Majora's Mask is very different and not for everyone. If you fall under it's spell, be prepared for a fucking awesome game.

4. Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time - Whaaaat? It's 4th? Yeah it is. OoT is bloody fantastic. It's took the tried and true Zelda formula and successfully brought it to 3D. I personally think Zelda games always play best in 2D, but OoT proved that the formula could work just fine in 3D. The story, the music, the characters...for many people this is the ultimate Zelda game. It was mind blowing in the 1998, but over time it's lost some of it's luster.

5. The Legend of Zelda - It's hard to not include this classic in the top five. Sure it's got that typical cryptic NES bullshit, but with the internet that's not a big deal. This one holds up over time and is still fun to play through. Just be prepared to look up which bush to burn or where to drop a bomb to find a hidden location...

I can only go with my favorites, more than the "best."

1. Windwaker
2. Link to the Past
3. Twilight Princess
4. Minish Cap
5. Link's Awakening

I think Legend of Zelda is also my favorite game franchise but I've only played 3 of them, so I guess I'm not a huge video gamer though I do love them. Having said that, Skyward Sword is my favorite video game period. I know I need to play a bunch of the others but my top 3 Zelda games are...

1. Skyward Sword
2. A Link to the Past
3. Link's Awakening

1. A Link to the Past
2. Legend of Zelda (original)
3. Windwaker
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Phantom Hourglass

Disclaimer: I've never played any Gameboy, Wii, or WiiU games, and I don't have enough experience with Majora's Mask to rate it. I hated Twilight Princess.

Have never played any of them.

1. Ocarina of Time - This is my brain talking, not my heart. This is the game that sort of perfected the adventure genre. I'm actually not a huge fan but I can't deny what this game is. It's to Zelda what Super Mario 64 is to Mario.

2. Twilight Princess - this one NEVER gets any love. It's also my brain talking over my heart here but I played this start to finish twice I think. I really enjoyed it.

3. The Wind Waker - if my heart got to pick, this is BY FAR my favourite. The exploration of the game alone was totally magical. I love this game. It's the only one I'd ever want to reply. That little sister too.... way to give Link some actual motivation when playing.

i haven't really played much of the others except for the first two. I hear Skyward Sword is great

Barney is right about Twilight Princess. It doesn't get much love. I recently played through it again last winter and was amazed at how it's held up. It's very much a reaction game though. As in Nintendo made it for fans based on the backlash of Wind Waker. It's darker and more "mature" than all of the other games (cept maybe Majora's Mask). It's basically OoT 2.0. That's also it's biggest fault. It feels like Nintendo was playing it safe making a game the fans thought they wanted. That being said, it is still an impressive and fun game to play through.

1. Original
The first Zelda still is one of the very few to give you the authentic sense of a "what the hell do I do now?" adventure. You are given little information on where to go and your sense of exploration is paramount. There is little linearity to the game, you can beat most of the dungeons out of order if you are lucky. Ive beaten it in every permutation I have found except 3 hearts no sword. I can do either or, but both is just too hard.

2. Link to the Past
Copy paste Egg Shens response minus the first line. It is damn near perfect, I just hate the linearity it forces on you. That and the foot soldiers look like Marvin the Martian.

3. Windwaker
The first Zelda game since the original that allowed you to free explore the world. The boat mechanic, while hated by most, was my favorite part. It made the world feel gigantic and the random battles with the cannon were amazing. It has my favorite soundtrack, and the final battle was the best in the series.

4. Four Swords Adventure
Stage based story mode is a detraction, but if you can play this four player, you will not forget it. The story is soso, but the teamwork and random bouts of animosity are what makes this game amazing. The vs mode is the only one I have ever found to surpass Saturn Bomberman in popularity. I have a acquired a five Gamecube setup that I use to travel to conventions with to show this game off .

5. Link Between Worlds
Up until last fall, this was OOTs spot, but LBTW is one of the most solid games to be released in the last decade. By taking traditional concepts and turning them sideways you brought a whole new spin on puzzles. Revisiting the LTTP world was not a selling point for me actually, I liked how they blended the concepts of all the modern Zeldas into a new style.


Twilight Princess is a very polarizing and I have found that alot of it comes down to how you played it. It is a soso Wii game, and I thought very poorly of it. Then I played the Gamecube version and loved it.

fastbilly1 wrote: Twilight Princess is a very polarizing and I have found that alot of it comes down to how you played it. It is a soso Wii game, and I thought very poorly of it. Then I played the Gamecube version and loved it.

I feel the same way. My original experience was with the Wii version. While I liked it, I didn't love the control scheme. When I recently played it again I tracked down the Gamecube version. That is the way the game was meant to be played.

ah this explains the disconnect. I never played it on the Wii (obv). Only the GC

I never played either version, but it seems to have gotten fantastic reviews:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zeld...ght_Princess#Reviews

I was thinking about picking it up (to play on a Wii U) as it seems to go for around $20 new.

Twilight Princess is one of the ugliest looking games I've ever played: muted and muddy greys and browns, for the most part. And the enemies/story felt very non-Zelda. And I absolutely hated the controls while playing as a wolf (on GC, never tried Wii version). I can remember several frustrating moments of being locked into a section while going through the awkward wolf-combat.

It's pretty much OoT but worse in every conceivable way.

I have not played 5 of them, so here are the ones I have played, in order of preference:

1. The Legend of Zelda
2. Wind Waker
3. Adventures of Link

There is a WIDE gulf between #2 and #3.