Link's Awakening or Link to the Past with the original Zelda very close behind.
Link's Awakening or Link to the Past with the original Zelda very close behind.
I love Zelda threads, because everyone has completely different favorites. Of the console Zeldas, I would put them like this...
1. Majora's Mask
2. Ocarina of Time
3. Link to the Past
4. Wind Waker
5. Legend of Zelda
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6. Zelda 2
7. Twilight Princess
1-5 are close. Every single game in 1-5 is a fantastic game, definitely worth playing. 6 & 7 are so far below... I wouldn't even put them in the "like" category.
I LOVED Majora's Mask. It was derivative of OOT for sure, but then expanded on it with a completely different take on game mechanics and universe. Incredible experience. The music, the atmosphere, everything... nailed it.
As far as handhelds go... I'll just say this. Phantom Hourglass is the ONLY Zelda game I started but have not finished. I HATED Twilight Princess... but I finished it.
-Dobie
NES, SNES, & Gameboy Collector
1. Link to the Past
2. Link's Awakening
3. Wind Waker
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Minish Cap
6. Majora's Mask
7. Original (NES)
8. Twilight Princess
I actually enjoyed Twilight Princess quite a bit but the others above it were just more enjoyable. I didn't put the DS Zeldas on here because I hate them. I'd have to rank Phantom Hourglass above Spirit Tracks but I'd probably have to put non-Zelda games in the list to get low enough to even include them at all.
Also, I've played through the Wii version of Twilight Princess and half way through the GC version and I think a lot of people hate TP because of the Wii controls. It's a solid game on the GC in my opinion.
Collection list (work in progress): http://vgcollect.com/darko
Haven't really played any of the 3D Zelda games, and I suppose I would blame Wind Waker for that, thought it was boring as hell. Only makes me think of this song. http://youtu.be/sm-Vh3j8sys
1. The Legend of Zelda
2. A Link to the Past
3. Zelda II
4. Link's Awakening
5. Ocarina of Time
The Bad
6. The Faces of Evil
7. The Wand of Gamelon
8. Zelda's Adventure
9. Wind Waker (I like to call it Zelda: The Wind Breaker)
I liked the Wind Waker. It really surprised me with just how good it was after being so skeptical of it prior to release. I especially was suprised that I ended up liking the graphics so much, at least where the environments were concerned.
That said, it's pretty far down in my list. I hated the character designs, I didn't care for all the fetch quest, I didn't like having to use that wand so much (And the unskipable animation of it), the difficulty was pitifully low (I never died, not even once), there weren't enough dungeons, the lack of any significant land mass (Even the biggest islands are on the small side) and probably several other issues I could think of it I thought about it a bit more.
Great game, but it had several significant areas that it was deficient in. Doesn't approach games like Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Link's Awakening, Minish Cap, Legend of Zelda, etc.
Last edited by Leo_A; 08-18-2011 at 12:52 PM.
I thought Wind Waker was OK. I never quite finished it, but I enjoyed it alright. The sailing could get boring sometimes, but overall I enjoyed that aspect of it. I could see how it's not everyone's cup of tea - long periods where you move around the world and don't experience anything unique (as one does in most of the 2D Zelda games).
My favorite Zeldas are probably the Minish Cap / Oracle of Ages/Seasons games, followed closely by Link to the Past, their progenitor. I really did like Spirit Tracks, but heard bad things about Hourglass and probably won't pick it up or play it.
The only Zelda I absolutely hated was Majora's Mask. I'm with Robocop2 and, I suppose, kupomogli. I'll admit that the game possibly improved after the first half hour or so and I didn't give it a chance, but the fact that that initial sequence REQUIRED a FAQ / walkthrough (or have to watch 10 minutes of pointless cutscenes over and over again as you trial-and-error your way through the "correct" sequence of moves to get the Ocarina) was frustrating. They gave you a glut of stuff in that initial day, and if you didn't happen to pick the right rabbit trails to follow, you'd be screwed and have to re-play the beginning of the game. Stupid, and not fun.
You are startled by a grim snarl. Before you, you see 1 Red dragon. Will your stalwart band choose to (F)ight or (R)un?
The time in Majora's Mask is an aspect of the game, but not the rule of the game. It makes you deal with it at first so once you're intimately familiar with it (and it's aggravations), you'd then eventually you get the right items to manipulate it where it pretty much becomes a non-issue. It's like complaining about how you can't get past a certain obstacle in LTTP.. Well, you simply don't have the right item yet.
But yes.. it's difficult to get into. I had to force myself to get into it, and I eventually did.
I had given up on Zelda. Phantom Hourglass brought be back. I played Wind Waker afterwards. It was amazing. My daughter also loved watching me play.
I made the mistake of playing Twilight Princess later. It's… not so good.
I played through the first three Zelda games a couple months ago. Fabulous.
I'd personally rate the first game as #1, with Wind Waker right behind.
I thought this game had a lot going for it. Fantastic storytelling, particularly near the end, and iconic reinventions of classic enemies. The game had character. The sailing was tedious, yes, but once you got on dry land I found the gameplay to be right up there with any other Zelda game.
In fact thinking about it now, I think I might understand what they were trying to accomplish with the sailing aspect of it. Once you reach a certain point in the game, you realize that every map square has something in it - some bit of land of lesser or greater importance, but still worth exploring for one reason or another.
It seems like they were trying to recreate the sort of self-contained screen by screen grid style overworld of LoZ in an open 3d context. Whether it was successful or not is arguable at best, and maybe this was already common knowledge, but I hadn't thought of it that way until now.
For myself i love windwaker the most, it's just so beautiful to look at even now. The sense of exploration when out at sea was amazing i love the fact you could see a speck in the distance & travel to it & discover a new island. It was like playing a living cartoon, there was so much hidden stuff too. I still have yet to complete the figure island rooms but it's fun hunting the people down & adding them to the collection.
I'm not a huge Zelda nut. I like the series, I've played a lot of the games since the original, but not every one. That said I really enjoyed Wind Waker. There were some slow parts, but overall it was a great game. Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda, surprisingly. I thought it has absolutely everything going for it and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Every dungeon was brilliant, it looked gorgeous, controlled great - as expected - and had some great characters. The original Zelda is great, too, and I can definitely see myself going back to replay it at some point.
I've tried several times but for some reason I could never get myself to finish Ocarina of Time or LttP. Both are great and most people pick one of them as their favorite, but for some reason I stopped playing each halfway through and never came back. I restarted each one later and the same thing happened.
Last edited by BydoEmpire; 08-18-2011 at 05:27 PM.
If you can't do it with 8 bits, you don't need to do it!
I've liked every Zelda game I've played so far (although I have mixed feelings towards Adventures of Link), only ones I've never been able to play are the CDI games (no real loss there) and the ones for the DS. I had no problem with Wind Waker and enjoyed my time playing it, only annoying aspect I can recall was the sailing, but it was more of a "I have to sail all the way over there?!" annoyance that almost every open world game has. I also liked Majora's Mask after taking the time to understand how the game works, but I can understand why people get scared off by the time limit aspect, even tho it's not as bad as people make it seem.
I really hope Wind Waker gets some sort of upgrade or remake.
It has great art direction and the dungeons are fun, but there's too much time wasted on fetch quests.
It would be nice if the games overworld wasn't a mile wide and an inch deep. You can barely interact with the water, whereas in older Zelda games you could fish and swim and explore underwater.
OoT - totally awesome.
Majora's Mask - needs a guide but otherwise is good.
Wind Waker - oh great, tons of sailing and a childish looking Link...
Phantom Hourglass - no, I don't find the stylus usage "innovative"
Twilight Princess - oh hey fuck yeh I can dig this.
Best is still OoT easily.
I fix things. You name it, I'll work on it. Want something modded? Recapped?