What's your favorite Zelda game? *spoilers*

[TheManWithNoName]

The Zelda series is probably my favorite video game franchise of all time. I was wondering, what's your favorite Zelda game? After voting in the poll, give a little blurb about each Zelda game you've played as well, as follows:

Zelda: The game that started it all. When it came out, it was truly groudbreaking. The music was catchy, and the save feature must've been a lifesaver at the time. I was not old enough to experience it when it first launched, but I have played and completed since.

Zelda II: Wow, I can't believe Nintendo had the balls to release THIS as a sequel to Zelda. In a time of such high demand and expectation for the next Zelda, I could picture a lot of people being pissed at this. That said, I really liked it. The side-scrolling gameplay, while not Zeldaish, was still very fun, and the RPG elements (magic, hp, level up) were cool.

Link to the Past: Amazing. Simply incredible. Dazzling graphics, and a badass soundtrack, backed up by incredible gameplay to boot. This game floored me as a kid, and still does to this day. The difficulty is just right, and the dungeon path is non-linear. The items kicked ass as well. A masterpiece.

Link's Awakening: A true gem for the gameboy. A great introduction to handheld Zelda games. I always remember stealing the bow and arrows from the shop, and being called thief. The Gameboy Color extras were a nice plus.

Cdi Zelda: Laughable trash. I can't believe Nintendo had the balls to make this one either.

Ocarina of Time: The first 3D Zelda. The damn game struck me as a truly mystical experience my first time through. Lots of dungeons, great characters, a killer soundtrack and an awesome story. I can see why it is commonly called the greatest game of all time.

Majora's Mask: This is my favorite Zelda, and my favorite game of all time. It took the basic gameplay of Ocarina of Time, and improved it. The darkest Zelda game to date as well - its atmosphere remains to be topped in any Zelda. The graphics were better than OoTs, and the mask system made Link quite the versatile little bastard. The dungeons were a step above OoT as well. That said, it's not for everyone. The clock system turned people off, and there were only four main dungeons. However, there were tons of sidequests to make up for that. I truly believe that this surpasses OoT.

Oracle of Ages/Seasons: Fun little romps for the GBC. Capcom did a pretty good job with these. The connected quest was a cool idea too.

Wind Waker: An amazing game. The cel-shading was beautiful. The combat was improved from the N64 Zeldas, and Link could utilize enemy weapons as well. Sailing did get boring sometimes, and the triforce hunt sucked. I still loved it though.

Twilight Princess: What a disappointment. After the incredible hype, I was completely let down. Better than OoT my ass. The game looked nice, but midi music took away from the atmosphere. The characters were bland, and the game was linear as hell. Items were flat out dumb (spinner? double clawshot?), and weren't usable outside of the dungeons. Some dungeons were cool (the ice one comes to mind), and the others were mediocre. The overall difficulty of the game was way too low - enemies hurt you nothing, and the game constantly shoved the answer to puzzles in your face - making the dungeons a breeze. Even the 50 floor Cave of Trials was joke - the enemies were pitiful, and to top it off, you could skip half of it!

The wolf was a completely terrible game mechanic. It was useless, and completely broke the flow of the game by forcing you to catch scents or hunt for spirits, neither of which was remotely fun. The Wii controls were laughable. They're way too unresponsive. Eventually, I just waggled my Wiimote randomly to slash, when an "A" button would've done the job quicker, and required way less effort. Aiming was nice when you got used to it though. Overall, a huge letdown.

[Bluewolf]

Cdi Zelda: Laughable trash. I can't believe Nintendo had the balls to make this one either.

Phillips had the right to several Zelda characters and stuff so they were the ones that made these games for the CDI, not Nintendo.

[TheManWithNoName]

Yes, you're right.

[Anarchist Bunny]

Wind Waker. The game gets a lot of un-due trashing for its cartoony design. Personally I loved the game, and think it is the most visually beautiful of the Zelda games. It was like you were playing plugged into a painting, and no increase of polygons was going to improve it. The combat of it was also I think one of the most enjoyable and diverse of the series. Link is the most aggressive in the game, with a wider range of moves, even finishing the game by driving the master sword into Ganon's face.

Twilight Princess tried to match it, but the moves felt so clunky compared to the smooth moves of Cel Link, that they were no where near as useful.

Also so far the game has been the most replayable of the Zelda games to me(barring Links Adventure which is excepted because it was the only Zelda game, and one of a few Gameboy games I had for a long time). I can't see myself playing through TP again, as well crafted of a game as I feel it is, I just don't see it ever getting a repeat visit, not all the way through at least. Same as OoT. I loved that game growing up, but I have not been able to push all the way through it again. Wind Waker I've played through 3 times on the other hand. Each time I started it up again i got lost in it and could follow it all the way through the finish.

[Guardsman Bass]

Twilight Princess, but it's a close call with Wind Waker not far behind.

Twilight Princess: What a disappointment. After the incredible hype, I was completely let down. Better than OoT my ass. The game looked nice, but midi music took away from the atmosphere. The characters were bland, and the game was linear as hell. Items were flat out dumb (spinner? double clawshot?), and weren't usable outside of the dungeons. Some dungeons were cool (the ice one comes to mind), and the others were mediocre. The overall difficulty of the game was way too low - enemies hurt you nothing, and the game constantly shoved the answer to puzzles in your face - making the dungeons a breeze. Even the 50 floor Cave of Trials was joke - the enemies were pitiful, and to top it off, you could skip half of it!

That's bullshit; for example, you could use the spinner outside of the dungeon, and it was fun as hell to use in-dungeon (the boss you fight with it was the most fun in the entire game). As for the puzzles, that's your opinion - virtually everyone else I've talked to said that the puzzles were cool in that while they looked very tricky at first, once you figured them out, it was like "oh, duhh!"

The wolf was a completely terrible game mechanic. It was useless, and completely broke the flow of the game by forcing you to catch scents or hunt for spirits, neither of which was remotely fun. The Wii controls were laughable. They're way too unresponsive. Eventually, I just waggled my Wiimote randomly to slash, when an "A" button would've done the job quicker, and required way less effort. Aiming was nice when you got used to it though. Overall, a huge letdown.

The wolf was excellent for killing enemies, since it could do that multiple targeting thing - and it was fast. I also thought the plot was actually well done, and sneaky; remember the part where you go to the trouble of finding all three pieces of the Twili artifact . . . only to turn around and see Zant, who then knocks the crap out of you with one strike?

Overall, I'd have to say Twilight Princess was my favorite, followed closely by Wind Waker. I loved the controls, the plot, and the characters - the only disappointment was in how easy the bosses were until you ran into Ganon (who was hard).

Wind Waker had many awesome parts about it, including the sailing (not everybody hates it; I actually think it looks pretty cool), the different islands, the plot, and the characters (including Ganon, who is more complex than his usual cackling-evil persona). I also liked how Wind Waker had a sense of finality to it in the way Link beats Ganondorf.

[LMSx]

After playing Twilight Princess I definitely started appreciating Wind Waker more. The only thing off about WW (besides the missing dungeon(s?) cut for time and the replacement fetch quests) was the world design; instead of a bland 7x7 grid of little islands the archipelago design should have been more like, say, Chrono Cross. I know that might have been asking too much for the GameCube, but that's why I'd be totally enthused for a spiritual sequel to Wind Waker: as a secondary/tertiary mode of transport, the boat is a great idea.

That said, my favorite is Majora's Mask. I love the world, and the 3 day repetitions. Plus, I guess I'm a little weird but I really dig landmarks, and details of a continuous world. Things as obvious as the Moon in Majora's Mask being visible wherever you went tied it together, or the mountains visible from the Ocean, or the Tower of the Gods, or the lighthouse at Windfall Island. If you blew those details up to an Australia-sized island I'd probably just float for hours on the sea staring at things. To think some people play Zelda games for the puzzles!

When it came to that, Twilight Princess felt a little too much like a Super NES game with GameCube graphics. I was completely surprised when the makers never added dialogue from people in Kakariko, for example, wondering why there was a Giant Shimmering Curtain easily visible that cut the Kingdom in half, or anybody in Hyrule Castle Town wondering at the takeover by Zant or the Giant Diamond sealing off the castle/government. These are minor details to be sure, but ones that make the world feel complete: this is actually a Kingdom cut in half. I know, the base gameplay is solid and they give you a lot of dungeons and puzzles, but that makes the difference personally for me when it comes to ranking the favorite Zelda.

[Qwerty 42]

I thought a lot about this, more than I probably should have, and I was surprised to find myself in the majority. To put it bluntly, from a purely artistic standpoint, none of the other games can compete with Wind Waker. And I don't just mean that graphically: the thrill of sailing out to sea appealed to me at a far deeper level than Epona did. The plot of Wind Waker is almost without compare within the series, its only competitor being Twilight Princess. I've lamented on it on numerous occasions before, but the ending of TP was disheartening. For a game with such a tragic build-up, it failed to deliver. From the moment where Midna says Spoiler

There's a chance to save Zelda!

the plot goes downhill. When, ultimately, the most tragic thing that happens is Spoiler

Midna's departure and the destruction of the Mirror of Twilight

, it's plain to see that TP failed to deliver on its dramatic elements.

I'm not much of a fan of deconstruction, "I appreciate it on a deeper level than you!," or "zomg this flower means femininity but it's held by a man, LITERARY FAIL!," but I think a different sort of criticism can be leveled at Twilight Princess for its failure to come through as a tragedy. People die, come close to death, and your efforts for the first half of the game are literally swatted away, and I can't help but think that Spoiler

handwaving it all away at the end

cheapens the value of the thing. Meanwhile, Wind Waker bears no theme of failure or tragedy. WYSIWYG: no pretense is ever made that Link will fail on his journey, you know from the outset that it will terminate with Ganondorf's death by the Master Sword, although his character development is a nice plus. Spoiler

Compare to Twilight Princess, where one of Midna's key lines is something to the effect of "Isn't it so sad that you'll be forced to toil away here in obscurity... forever?"

If Twilight Princess had kept its themes, I might have enjoyed its plot more, but oh well.

In terms of gameplay, I don't think that WW can compare to the grittiness of combat in the Wii TP. However, in a more encompassing sense, it's a very sharp distinction between the overworld-based WW and the dungeon-based TP. Assuming, for the moment, that we can't have both, I'd personally rather take the overworld.

[Vendetta]

I thought a lot about this, more than I probably should have, and I was surprised to find myself in the majority. To put it bluntly, from a purely artistic standpoint, none of the other games can compete with Wind Waker. And I don't just mean that graphically: the thrill of sailing out to sea appealed to me at a far deeper level than Epona did.

Whilst the dramatic appeal of the sailing is certainly strong, it was way overused and ended up harming the game more than it helped it.

Also, I disagree that Wind Waker is necessarily artistically better than Twilight Princess. The twilight sections of TP are stunning, and it's sound design is great, with the unnatural sounds that the twilight monsters make as well in contrast with the inevitably high quality of a Zelda soundtrack.

In the end though Twilight Princess simply has more to do than previous Zelda games, with a larger and more varied world, and more ways to interact with it like the spinner.

[DaveJB]

From best/worst:

Link to the Past
Twilight Princess
Legend of Zelda (original)
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
Wind Waker
Zelda II

The only one that I wasn't especially keen on was Zelda II, although in that case it was more because I found it frustrating rather than an actually bad game. Haven't played any of the Game Boy or CD-I games.

[Dooey Jo]

Zelda II: Wow, I can't believe Nintendo had the balls to release THIS as a sequel to Zelda. In a time of such high demand and expectation for the next Zelda, I could picture a lot of people being pissed at this. That said, I really liked it. The side-scrolling gameplay, while not Zeldaish, was still very fun, and the RPG elements (magic, hp, level up) were cool.

I'm pretty sure the hating on Zelda II is mostly fans being upset that it isn't a clone of the first game, which seem to be the same reason many people today don't like Super Mario Bros. 2. It's even more interesting in light of the fact that people seem to forget (or did they even play it?) that the first Zelda had a number of simply retarded "puzzles", such as those screens you have to walk in a certain pattern to get by (with no clues at all what that pattern is, or even that you must do this), or the game critical areas hidden in bushes and rocks you have to bomb or set fire to in order to find (that sure was fun back in the days when strategy guides hadn't been invented yet). Its so acclaimed music is also just the one tune; the overworld theme and its intro variation. The only other tune you're likely to hear without cheating, the dungeon tune, is just depressing, repetitive and boring.

Meanwhile, Zelda II is full of great music; from the intro to the ending. It also does away with the elements that would otherwise require psychic powers by adding useful NPCs with clues that actually make sense. The mindless wandering of the first game is made less mindless by actual roads and more recognisable features (which subsequent games all have had the good taste to copy). By no means is Zelda II perfect (goddamn floating eye ghosts), but saying that it's bad, while Zelda I is the greatest ever in all respects (especially sound) is just ludicrous.

[Zixinus]

Its a bit tough between Link to the Past and Ocerana of Time, but I think I liked Link to the Past better. Colour me biased, but somehow the simple overview nature is a bit more appealing to me.

I haven't played anything past Mayora'sa Mask.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Hmm, I've played pretty much all of those, outside of the CD-i ones... (Which were rare enough to not really tarnish the series as a whole.)

I had to vote for Link's Awakening, simply because it was, in my opinion, everything Link to the Past was, but also portable and with a few interesting side quests.

Followed closely by Wind Waker. The sailing was kinda fun, even as it got old you eventually were able to get the warp tunes, which let you get to all the important locations, and lessened the sailing to other places a great deal. I liked the treasure maps. Though for the triforce I'd rather have had a few more dungeons we had to hunt for than just hauling 8 chunks up. Especially as it would make Tingle's extortion somewhat more tolerable... I seriously hope he's gone for good...

I dunno... Personally, I think OoT is the FF7 of the Nintendo franchises. Its a solid game to be sure, but I think too many people have too much nostalgia surrounding it. (Though, I played the Master Quest version of it, and it's got some very hard moments. EG: the Spiked log in the deku tree is just high enough that you can shield duck under it, and until you figure this out, you're stuck. Next moment happens in the lava chamber of the final dungeon, there's on silver rupee just outta reach, and it's only collectable through careful back flipping...)

[Mobius]

I'm pretty sure the hating on Zelda II is mostly fans being upset that it isn't a clone of the first game, which seem to be the same reason many people today don't like Super Mario Bros. 2

i'm sure you meant Doki Doki Panic

Otherwise: Link to the Past

[Darkdrium]

You know I've never understood why LttP is regarded as untouchable by the rest of the series by so many. It's a very good game sure enough, but half the difficulty comes from the controls not being halfway adequate to survive the traps in the dungeons (moving floor AND spikes everywhere? Hah!). I didn't find it very engrossing and found very little incentive to go from one dungeon to the next. To this day I never got past Misery Mire. That and going through those dungeons felt more like a chore than anything.

I'd just like to know how it's supposed to be superior to more modern titles.

[DaveJB]

You know I've never understood why LttP is regarded as untouchable by the rest of the series by so many. It's a very good game sure enough, but half the difficulty comes from the controls not being halfway adequate to survive the traps in the dungeons (moving floor AND spikes everywhere? Hah!). I didn't find it very engrossing and found very little incentive to go from one dungeon to the next. To this day I never got past Misery Mire. That and going through those dungeons felt more like a chore than anything.

I'd just like to know how it's supposed to be superior to more modern titles.

I never had any problem with the controls, even when I was a kid.

Best way I can explain it is that Link to the Past struck about the right balance between feeling epic and yet also easy to pick up, play and get your head around. The post-Ocarina games by comparison aren't exactly hard, but they require quite a bit more practice and dedication in my experience, especially in the combat (so does Zelda II, although that one genuinely is hard).

[Zixinus]

I wonder whether Nintendo was as well-versed in the practise of beating a dead horse as it is now. That might be an actual influencing factor, that they genuinely wanted at least one of their flagships to work.

[Schuyler Colfax]

I've been more partial to TP, seeing how I've only played that and OoT when it comes to console Zeldas.

As for the handhelds, Minish Cap is my favorite (for some reason its not an option). The only Zelda handhelds that I've played were PH, OoS, and MC. Though I haven't finished PH (I'm in the ice dungeon), it feels like a bit of a let down. I figured they would want PH to feel more like a console Zelda, but it took a step back from the Gameboy Zeldas in terms of content.

[DaveJB]

I wonder whether Nintendo was as well-versed in the practise of beating a dead horse as it is now. That might be an actual influencing factor, that they genuinely wanted at least one of their flagships to work.

You think Nintendo are the ones flogging dead horses? They've pretty much had a "one game in each major series per system" policy since the SNES era (with the odd exception such as two Zelda games on the N64 and GC, and two Metroid games on the GC), compared to the likes of EA and Eidos who think nothing of releasing five or six games from the same series on one system.

[TheManWithNoName]

Ok, I knew I forgetting some. I left out Phantom Hourglass and Minish Cap.

Phantom Hourglass: I wasn't too fond of this one. Touch screen-only controls weren't that good. The option to use a traditional control scheme would've been nice. The whole game seemed like a watered down Zelda experience. Puzzles were annoying... Most of the time, I was left with a "I didn't even know you could do that!" feeling upon their completion. Going back to that Temple of the Ocean King so often was really annoying as well.

Minish Cap: A solid Zelda experience. I liked it. I don't have much else to say about it.

[Oscar Wilde]

Oracle of Seasons and Ages were inventive with the dual quest, but I'd have to say OoT. One of the first games I ever beat and quite possibly the reason I became a gamer.

[Schuyler Colfax]

I've yet to actually beat Oracle of Season. I try to get into it every now and then, but I'm stuck in this one place, and the guides aren't exactly helping.

Who the fuck voted for the CDi Zeldas?

[TheManWithNoName]

I've yet to actually beat Oracle of Season. I try to get into it every now and then, but I'm stuck in this one place, and the guides aren't exactly helping.

Who the fuck voted for the CDi Zeldas?

In all fairness to the CDi Zeldas, they were pretty funny.

[Mad]

Link to the Past is easily my favorite. The 2D games are faster-paced, which makes them more replayable.

Zelda II: Wow, I can't believe Nintendo had the balls to release THIS as a sequel to Zelda. In a time of such high demand and expectation for the next Zelda, I could picture a lot of people being pissed at this. That said, I really liked it. The side-scrolling gameplay, while not Zeldaish, was still very fun, and the RPG elements (magic, hp, level up) were cool.

Could it really be said that there was any "Zeldaish" quality to the series at the time that only two games had been released? It was the second game, they could go anywhere. Same for the third. It just so happens that they went back to the roots for the third game and that's what stuck.

Twilight Princess: What a disappointment. After the incredible hype, I was completely let down.

I thought TP was great. Of course, I didn't pay any attention to the hype. I wanted a new Zelda game and got a new Zelda game. And I really enjoyed the controls. The ability to run while swinging the sword offered a level of freedom that makes me hesitant to play the older 3D Zeldas for fear of being constrained to standing still while swinging. Sure, it's one move, but I grew very used to it.

I wasn't enthusiastic about the Wolf mechanic, though. (I didn't like going back to young Link in OoT, either.)

[Guardsman Bass]

The shitty CD-i games did do one thing - they had Link talk, which made him a character in his own right rather than simply a stand-in for the player. That has its upsides and downsides; I personally wouldn't mind seeing Link as a character in his own right in a future Zelda game (although it's never going to happen).

[Stark]

I think Wind Waker; it's a great game with the added bonus that nerds hate it, so you can mock them for being myopic retards. Then again, I like Link as well and think Ocarina of Time was a giant pile of shit, so I'm not the regular Zelda fanboy.

Link to the Past was my favourite for the pre-Wind Waker decade. The 3d games sucked, the handheld games sucked, but the SNES game was good shit and had decent pacing and no nagging or retarded story beyond the barest necessary.