Has there ever been a better video game series than the Zelda series? Maybe the Super Mario, Castlevania, Metroid or Mega Man series, but after those, Zelda has no competition. The single factor that contributes towards a great gaming series is the amount of great games in the series. The same cannot be said for the Double Dragon series, for example, where it fell drastically in quality after Double Dragon 2. In the Zelda series though, as the games seemed to get better with each subsequent addition. This is rare for a video game series, and the Zelda series has been able to accomplish this with flying colors. Controversy will be heard in the sequencing of this list, but that only goes to show how strong each game in the series was.
5. Link’s Awakening
Who would have thought that Link’s Awakening would be as good as it was on the Gameboy? This game packed in as much information and detailed story line as any of the Zelda games for any of the other systems. The map was just as large, you had just as many tasks to accomplish, and the bosses matched the mettle of the bosses of Link to the Past. The only downside of this game was the black and white background, which would soon be forgotten once one was immersed in the journey given to them in the dream-like sequence of Link awakening on a beach. Don’t let the mere black and white background of the Gameboy fool you. The graphics were as detailed as Link to the Past and were made with the care known only to the Zelda series. Link’s Awakening was the same format as Zelda 1 and this was fine, considering how entertaining of a game Zelda 1 was. Gameboy’s best game? This will be answered in one of our future lists.
4. Zelda 2
The often overlooked Zelda 2 was an astonishing game when looking back at it. It was clever, entertaining, and subtly morbid in it’s content. The music was some of the best in the 8 bit Nintendo medium. Townspeople talked a diction that perfectly epitomized indigenous caricatures, and even sometimes turned into bats in a Dudleytownesque town in the bottom of the map. The down-thrust was one technique that would be used over and over again with how fun and pragmatic it was in many situations throughout the game. The bosses of Zelda 2 were also something to write home about. They weren’t easy, and required precision timing, like the boss in the water town who threw a ball and chain that took an excessive amount of damage from Link. There was something very mysterious about this game and sometimes misleading to the regular Zelda gamer, but this unique quality is championed by Old-Wizard because of the severity of its memorability.
3. Twilight Princess
When the Zelda series first went to the 3D medium, the avid Zelda fan questioned whether Zelda could make a successful transition into this new-age platform. While Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask were good games, its not until the release of Twilight Princess for the Gamecube and Nintendo Wii that there was a truly great Zelda game set in in three dimensional space. The map is large like every Zelda game before, and the storyline is far superior to most games to be released in the modern era. Solving expertly designed puzzles and traversing a wildly variable topography gives Twilight Princess it’s rightful place on this list. With Twilight Princess the Zelda series proves that it will be successful no matter which system it’s played on.
2. Zelda 1
Zelda 1 started the whole series. You were on a “flat screen” (or as some call it a “bird’s eye view”) platform walking on an absolutely massive world. This was the first of its kind. The amount of places you could visit in the game gave the gamer a freedom he never understood before. On top of this, you were given the freedom of not having to just play level-by-level in a sidescroller, but could choose where you wanted to go at any time, even into dungeons that would pulverize you because you were not ready for them. Having to conquer dungeons and the outside world to find the nefarious Ganon made for one of the greatest themes in video game history. The greatness of the Zelda series starts here.
1. Link to the Past
You know a video game series is great when one of it’s sequels was as good as Link to the Past. As many Old-Wizard readers know, Link to the Past was deemed the greatest game of all time in our “Top 100 greatest games of all time list”. The reasons why are numerous. Where to start? How about the whole light/dark world shifting that made you have to do something in one world to effect the other? How about the massive map that encompassed illustrious water worlds to radiant sand dunes? Let’s not forget the top left portion of the map where you were in the best and most mystical forest environment in the video game medium. The cloudy haze over the forest before Link captured his sword created one of the most distinct moods for any game before or after. There’s also the intricate and perfectly thought-out dungeons that required mental skill along with sheer power. It’s hard to imagine a game better than Link to the Past. It’s amazing to think that it was a game that was far down the line in an already massively successful series.
Quote: “TP was the best of those clones, case closed.”
I think I’ll correct my own remark after further scrutiny. IMO, WW could arguably be better than TP.
It had an awe inspiring art style, brilliant boss design, smooth exploration, satisfying characters, music and storyline, and a quirky, humorous, carefree charm to it. It felt like a fairy tale book come to life, or one of those disney cartoons – zelda style! Also, the Great Sea had more interactivity than TP’s hyrule field. It was a great pleasure to explore all those little islands whilst traversing a vast sea. Did I mention the graphics were luscious?
Since I played both WW and TP on the cube, I doubt TP would have been more satisying even if I played it with motion sensor. TP could be better than WW in terms of motion sensing, but WW takes the cake when it comes to creativity, and I think in the end, that is the biggest factor towards a worthwile experience. The only negative things about WW were: it was short – but very sweet (about 25hrs), easy (not as easy as TP though – another plus for WW) and had no fishing.
ATM, I have mixed feelings as to which is the better of the two, but I’m leaning towards WW as arguably being the better experience.
I still don’t get why people love MM so much. WW is obviously better than MM. If one of u have played any one of WW or TP, I would advise u to stay away from MM. It’s not worth experiencing. I’ve just about had it with Eiji Aonuma and his direction style. I wish Myamoto would come back as director, or some other talented figure. With Eiji at the helm, I don’t think zelda will go very far for now.
BTW, Old Wizard – you guys have terrible taste in gaming. I understand how u r attached to retro games (I grew up in the “golden age of gaming” too, and easily agree that the snes was king), but u have to let bygones be bygones when something better comes along. If u have the rationality in concluding that LTTP was better than it’s 8bit predecessors based on the 16bit experience u had (16 bit snes gaming blew everyone away at the time), then u can easily apply the same principle to OOT (3D zelda, 64 bit gaming that shook the world). The transition that was experienced from nes to snes, snes to n64 etc, were all mind blowing at the time – although 3D was even more mind blowing!. So I still fail to understand how LTTP could possibly be better than OOT based on that reasoning.
Windwaker better than Majoras Mask? What are you smoking?
When did you play MM? Was it AFTER WW? Because that could make sense. It also factors into when you first played OOT.
Ive heard arguments for MAYBE TP over MM, but still, when you played them when they first came out, and truly understood the gaming experience, the relevance, the new improvements, the vastly original and creative storyline, everything about the game, you would realize MM is superior.
That’s the thing, I never played MM. I only watched my brother and sister play it – and even they got bored and dismissed it! Therefore, I watched major parts of the game via youtube. TBH, I thought the game was for the more younger audience,and concluded that anything designed in that game would be targeted towards that mindset, i.e. no sophistication in design choice.
This was after I finished OOT, WW and TP, i.e. I skipped it in preference of WW and TP. Upon purchasing the game and reading the booklet, I realised that I had no immediate interest in this game and would not play it. Everyone knows not to judge a book by it’s cover, and naturally so, upon further observation, eg; reading reviews, watching others play it – even to the extent of spoilers, etc, it became conclusive that this game – IMHO – was not worth playing. In other words, if you’ve played Ocarina, then u may as well skip MM (unless your a die hard zelda fan).
Some points I would like to bring against MM:
You play as a kid throughout the whole game (even I as a teen, still hated that concept). It was unnacceptable. In every other zelda game, you play as an adult (except WW). In OOT, sure u play as a kid the 1st half, but that was the 1st time anyone saw link as a kid, and so it was a joyful experience.
In WW, it was forgivable, mainly because the graphics demanded for a cartoonish link. In the future, I hope they continue to stick to the traditional formula of link being an adult.
The bosses r really uninspiring. A mechanical bull? A fish monster (how predictable!)? The twin sand monsters of the desert (much like OOT’s witch sister’s)?
The only boss that was creative and interesting was majora’s incarnation. I admit that that was creepy. But that’s hardly worth spending 40hrs of my life for!
A DULL childish atmosphere prevails throughout – contrary to windwaker’s VIVID atmosphere
Tingle makes his debut – that guy deserves to be shot dead! What were they thinking?? His appearance taints any zelda game – even in WW it was loathsome to visit his tower (guess I forgot to mention that).
Deku link, goron link, zora link. What can I say? Is this creative? I thought it was desperation. Developer’s sitting at the office: “I know! How ’bout we turn link into something else, like a goron?”
Eiji: Brilliant! How ingenious! I’ll bet the KIDS will love that!
Don’t get me wrong. I loved wolf link. It was an elegant and dark concept, much befitting to links mysterious persona that we’ve all come to know from childhood. But the transformations in MM were just boring and uninspiring, adding nothing to character.
You do have a point when u say that playing the game @ the time it was released is an important factor. But that’s cheating. Cos when u get older, u realise that those games weren’t so special after all, and they don’t stand the test of time. That about ends my rant over MM.
A few more things:
Critics say that the story is even better than OOT, and the most darkest and saddest of all zelda’s. Wiki it and compare it’s story to TP, OOT and WW and see if that claim is true. What r they talking about, cos I’m confused. TP is yet the most darkest and saddest. That game was slightly disturbing!
I do agree that it’s story is original, but better? I don’t think so. Worth experiencing? Not at all.
It had only 4 dungeons. How insulting to the zelda enthusiast! At least a minimum of 5 is good enough.
I can’t believe they thought that sidequests would make up for it! Who wants to go around doing boring chores for 40hrs? I even omitted some of the side quests in OOT. They aren’t that crucial to a zelda game u know. Side quests r there only to take a break from the main adventure – not to steal the whole adventure!
And who cares about technical improvements? Games don’t shine on specs alone, but creativity.
U know what, it’s as if the developer’s didn’t care about MM. They knew it had big shoes to fill, and so they admitted defeat and served us a dumbed down clone.
Look at TP, and WW. Eiji admitted that he was more ambitious when developing those games because the technological improvements brought new horizons to a zelda game.
If u think otherwise, I’m very interested in hearing your opinion.
I think super smash bros brawl should be number 1 cos its got Zelda, Link and Ganondorf in it.
This list stinks.
OoT is easily the best… wtf is Zelda 2 doing in that list???
WTF is this shit list? Zelda 2? rofl that game blows ass.
5.Links awakining
4.Windwaker
3.Twilight Princess
2.Majoras Mask -(my personal favorate)
1.Orarina of Time
I mostly agree with your top 5. I would put A Link to the Past as number 4 and the Minish Cap was really good, beautiful, and underrated so i would put it in the 5 spot tied with WW. Links awakening is one of my favorite games but it is not a top 5 zelda. The list would be:
1: Ocarina of time
2. Majoras Mask
3: Twilight Princess
4: A link to the Past
5: Minish Cap
5.Oracle of seasons
4.Legend of Zelda
3.Majoras Mask
2.Ocarina of time
1.Twilight princess.
these are pretty much the only ones ive played. Aswell as A link to the pas, but i thought that sucked balls
To anon: you think just because wind waker is a newer game makes it better what are you fucking retarded you would rather sail around aimlessly than play an actual game also a lot of things from ww were ripped off of mm and other games of that sort so just shut the fuck up about things you know nothing about when I played wind waker I felt like I was a five year old the bosses were easy as in I didn’t die to them once and gannon was way to easy it was like a playable cutscene also you trash the side quests in mm but most of ww is side quests and wind waker has 1 more dungeon than majoras mask woopty fucking doo the dungeons in wind waker were simple enough said
I agree that those games were amazing, but this is mine. Forget the shitty excuse for Zelda games that were PH and ST.
5. Majora’s Mask
4. Minish Cap
3. Adventure of Link (I agree that it was severely underated. That game rocked.)
2. Twilight Princess
1. Ocarina of Time