9: Link’s Awakening
Link’s Awakening scoops a higher slot than either of the Oracle games thanks to a somewhat better gameplay and design balance. The overall alchemy that is map design, mechanics, narrative and difficulty create a final product with none of the gristle remaining. While you’re still held back by the two-button control interface, the whole world orbits this restriction with admirable grace. Plus, the story is both unusual and emotionally impactful. It’s a rare find in Zelda titles, doubly so in Gameboy games.
8: The Minish Cap
A portable greatest hits tour of the mid 2000’s, The Minish Cap borrows elements from a ton of of different Zelda games. The result is somehow greater than the sum of its parts, in spite of its mostly forgotten status among fans. You’ve got the Link ‘hup-roll,’ music from all the biggest games, Wind Waker’s character designs, the portable two-button control scheme, and yet another unique traversal gimmick. Not to mention the pixel art is astounding. The amount of detail in those shrunk down sections! Truly inspiring stuff.
7: Majora’s Mask
Majora’s Mask is another contested favorite. While a lot of people were thrown off by the three-day restriction, it’s a red herring. Once you unlock the time loop mechanic, the world expands into something almost endless. Nintendo took the raw material that was Ocarina of Time and made something weird, something compelling. Every character has a strange, sad backstory, one that you can affect if you choose. There’s so much game here, if you’ve got the time and the inclination to seek it out.
6: Twilight Princess
To be clear, Twilight Princess climbs this high in the ranks based on the GameCube version. The motion controls in the Wii version are borderline unplayable, serving only to make an enormous game feel even longer. Which it doesn’t need! Thankfully, the Wii U re-release made it infinitely easier to play this game the way it was meant to be played. Acting as a sort of violent pendulum swing away from Wind Waker, Twilight Princess feels darker and moodier than almost any other game in the series. The downside is that there’s a bit of gameplay padding where none was needed, but the actual story is exceptional.
5: A Link Between Worlds
A Link Between Worlds is as good as the portable games get, partially because you’ve got more than two buttons to work with. The other major factor is the Link To The Past DNA threaded through every part of this game. Nintendo made one Very Good Thing out of another, and they did it without the end result feeling cheap! While the item system kind of breaks the game, it was also very much meant to do that. What better way to encourage players to choose their own path forward? This game came as a breath of fresh air after the heavy hand-holding of the last few titles. You get a sword, the dungeon is that way, good luck! You’re killing bats and finding keys inside of ten minutes. Truly refreshing stuff.
4: Ocarina of Time
Yes, Ocarina changed the 3D game forever when it introduced z-targeting. And yes, all 3D Zelda games going forward have a little bit of this game in their spines. But oh jeez, those graphics are muddy now. New players have likely only seen the cleaned-up 3DS version with the better controls. You don’t know the agony involved in using that N64 controller. Truly, no control system has aged worse than that one. That music, though? The Song of Storms? The Bolero of Fire? Zelda’s Lullaby? The Song of Time? Timeless bangers, one and all. Regardless of how it’s aged, Ocarina of Time still stands as one of the greats.
3: The Wind Waker
I remember how everyone reacted when Wind Waker was first announced. Cartoon graphics, in this day and age? What is this, a Zelda game for babies? God, the humble pie you losers ate when this game was finally released. Just fat mouthfuls of crow from dawn until dusk. Link has never been more expressive, more lively, more energized, than he was in this game. Also, it turns out that clean lines and pure colors they went with are more or less timeless. When Nintendo released the Wii U version, I could hardly tell the difference. How could they possibly improve on perfection? Excellent graphics, tight controls, a compelling story, an awesome boss fight, and a haunting ending. Aside from a slightly bloated last quarter (which they fixed!), Wind Waker is a real five-star Zelda game.
2: Breath of The Wild
Breath of The Wild makes good on the promises of every Zelda game released before it. You can go anywhere, climb anything, and play the game however you want. Feel like skipping ninety percent of it to go straight to the boss? You can do that? Think clothes are for losers? Then you never have to wear them! That opening panoramic shot, the one that comes when you step out of the cave and onto that ridge? Games are going to be copying that for decades. Every other open world game feels insufficient once you’ve played Breath of The Wild. Every game that doesn’t come with a paraglider feels like it’s missing something. The rhythm, the flow of this game, is unparalleled. People became gamers thanks to this game. Spouses, siblings, and friends were all converted to video game people after playing this one time. Whatever Nintendo does with the franchise next is doomed, because it can’t possible live up to Breath of The Wild. And yet, it’s not number one!
1: A Link to The Past
That honor goes to A Link to The Past, without question. The first two games feel like prototypes in comparison. This game, this Super Nintendo title, is the true progenitor for every single Zelda game that followed. Even Breath of The Wild borrows boss and dungeon designs from this game. This is Zelda distilled to its purest essence. People have played and played this game so much that you can find remixes and randomized versions of it online. Retro games are coming out to this day, in 2021, that are built on the bones of A Link to The Past. Almost no other Super Nintendo game holds up this well. Heck, no other Zelda game holds up this well! If you’ve somehow never played it, the game is available on basically every Nintendo platform. They re-release it once every couple of years, and it always sells. More than any other title, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past is the platonic ideal of Zelda games.
That’s the list! We hashed this out on the most recent episode of Press X to Podcast, which you can check out here. This of course isn’t definitive, or objective, but I stand by our decisions. Are we wrong? Crazy? Crazy wrong? Let us know!