The Top 9 Games From The Legend Of Zelda
Since 1986, people everywhere have been visiting the land of Hyrule to save Princess Zelda from the clutches of evil. From the original release on the Nintendo home console (NES) to the upcoming title for the Wii U, the Legend of Zelda franchise has become one of the most beloved and recognizable icons of the video game world. Link’s green cap, shield, and sword are just as much pop culture as anything else.
With over 17 titles, the Legend of Zelda has gone through numerous art designs, gameplay styles, and even protagonists. But which games are the best? Which titles capture the true essence of the land of Hyrule?
Here are our picks for The Top 9 Games From The Legend Of Zelda!
9. Link’s Awakening – (1993) Gameboy
Arguably one of the strangest entries in the series, Link’s Awakening started off as a pet project of one of the game designers at Nintendo. After seeing it being played for fun, the higher-ups at the Japanese company decided to green-light the project as a standalone title.
After being marooned on the island of Koholint, Link awakens (ha, pun) to an strange land guarded by the mysterious Wind Fish. In order to escape from the island and get back home to Hyrule, Link must defeat monsters and solve puzzles on his quest for 8 magical instruments that will allow him to awaken the island’s protector.
With a strange and dream-like premise, odd enemies, and a cast of characters completely unique to the game, Link’s Awakening cracks the top of our list as one of the more refreshing and enjoyable adventures of Link.
The Top 9 Games From The Legend Of Zelda
8. Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages – (2001) Gameboy Color
Although this is entry is technically two titles, they both were released by the same developer, the same year, for the same system, and are nearly identical in art design and playing style. While Oracle of Seasons focused more on puzzle-solving, Oracle of Ages was more action-packed. Both sold incredibly well and are still commonly sold in video game stores today.
Oracle of Seasons takes place in the land of Holodrum, a world rocked by the General of Darkness, Onox. Link must harness the power of the Rod of Seasons and save a young and powerful girl named Din.
Oracle of Ages isn’t set in Hyrule either. Taking Link to the land of Labrynna, this game relies on the Harp of Ages in order to travel back and forth through time to save Nayru from the evil sorceress, Veran.
After completing both adventures, the player could even play a separate game using a special password. This adventure returns our hero to the titular Princess Zelda and requires him to save her from Twinrova and its plans to return the infamous dark lord Ganon to the realm of Hyrule.
7. A Link Between Worlds – (2013) Nintendo 3DS
As the most recent release of an original Legend of Zelda title, A Link Between Worlds serves as a sequel to the mega-hit entry, A Link To The Past.
With additions like the power to flatten Link into a piece of artwork and slip between cracks in walls and operate in 2D in an otherwise 3D world, this game brought fans back to a familiar world layout but with a new twist.
Using the full power of the Nintendo 3DS and an incredibly innovative and new way to obtain items, this game kept seasoned players happy while also bringing in an entirely new generation to the world of Hyrule.
6. The Wind Waker – (2002) Gamecube
After the incredible critical and commercial successes with the N64 releases of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, many gamers were left drooling at the thought of what Nintendo would do with the Legend of Zelda series in the coming years. A new system, that we now know as the Gamecube, was in the process of being designed and extremely realistic sword-fighting footage from what fans thought would be the new game was premiered at video game conventions all over the world.
Then the unthinkable happened. Instead of the realistic, gritty, and polished hero of the prior year’s demo, a cuter and more kid-like version of Link popped up in new advertisements and tech presentations. Using cell-shading and bright colors, this Legend of Zelda game looked nothing like what anyone expected and, understandably, many fans were less than happy to say the least.
Even after all of this, the game sold extremely well when finally released on the Gamecube as The Wind Waker, and new elements like open-world sea travel and a more cartoonish design style eventually won gamers over. Today, The Wind Waker is considered one of the more memorable and fun entries into the series.
5. Twilight Princess – (2006) Gamecube/Wii
After the release of The Wind Waker, many fans waited eagerly for the next installment of a console-based Legend of Zelda game. This would eventually come in the form of the much more realistic and stylistic successor to games like The Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Instead of playing with elements of time travel or alternate universes, this newest entry in the series introduced the Twilight realm that exists inside the world of Hyrule. It contained an entire race of beings and a host of monsters and enemies that, until this game, had never been part of the LOZ universe. On top of this, the game also introduced the ability for Link to turn into a wolf-like creature.
With the motion controls made possible by the Wii, better horseback riding and combat, and a darker and more realistic art style, Twilight Princess was a major financial and critical success that still retains its replay value.
4. The Legend of Zelda – (1986) NES
The game that started it all!
Based upon the childhood memories of famed Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto, The Legend of Zelda was released as a more open-world and nonlinear option for NES gamers than was previously available in games like Super Mario Brothers.
With very little explanatory dialogue, almost no tutorial or instructions, and an extremely loose plot structure, players fell in love with the adventure that they could set the hero, Link, on.
While it was a mere framework for the future of the series that was to come, the original game did introduce elements like the Triforce, Ganon, Impa, temples/puzzles, boss battles, and many, many other things we cannot imagine not being associated with the Legend of Zelda series as we know it today.
3. A Link to The Past – (1991) SNES
The last game to be made before Link made his jump to the 3D world of gaming, A Link To The Past is seen by some to be the blueprint for the best received game so far, its successor, Ocarina of Time.
With the enhanced graphics and memory capability of the SNES, A Link To The Past was able to render more enemies and more detail to the world of Hyrule and truly breathed life and storytelling into the tale of Link, Zelda, and Ganon. It was the first of the games in the series to feature a now prominent game element, two distinct playable environments that Link can travel between.
As one of the most commonly played and most fondly remembered Legend of Zelda titles, A Link To The Past has received great praise and is still commonly downloaded from both the Virtual Console emulators and the Nintendo DS online store.
2. Ocarina of Time – (1998) Nintendo 64
Often cited as the best-made game of all time, The Ocarina of Time was released for the N64 in late 1998 to the delight of eager gamers everywhere. It had been a little over 7 years since the last major home console release of a Legend of Zelda game and many fans were scared the wait might have set the bar too high for the team at Nintendo to beat. It turns out they were wrong.
In The Ocarina of Time, the Legend of Zelda was officially revealed to the world in 3-D and the vast world of Hyrule was able to explore as a real place for the first time. Gamers were blown away by the grand scale, creative music, and engaging story that Nintendo had managed to pack into one title. Combining the sense of adventure from previous titles and the innovative combat system (complete with Z-targeting), Ocarina of Time would set the standard for all video games to come and would go on to score near universal praise and attention from the gaming world.
1. Majora’s Mask – (2000) Nintendo 64
And so we finally arrive at the end of our journey…you’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?
These chilling words of the Happy Mask Salesman are creepy as hell now—and they were creepy as hell wayyyyyy back in 2000, too.
The darkest game in the Legend of Zelda series to date, Majora’s Mask introduced children and teenagers who had enjoyed The Ocarina of Time to mature themes that hadn’t really been explored in that game—like death, mourning, desperation, and corruption. At first glance, this might seem a little bit inappropriate for a game that is meant for children, but Majora’s Mask did it in an extremely intelligent and thoughtful way.
With its transformative masks, creepy music and atmosphere, and an intense and emotional storyline, for many gamers, Majora’s Mask helped ease them away from the more lighthearted themes of the 1st game into a more realistic game with real consequences.
Although it was notably lacking in its number of temples, especially in comparison to previous titles, the land of Termina was inhabited by extremely likable characters and fraught with danger and excitement. Because of its popularity, Nintendo even released a 3DS remake of the game in early 2015 allowing players to save the world of Termina any time they would like to revisit it!
