Topic: NWR Forums Top 10 Zelda Games

[MetalMario2]

Forum newbie here. My top ten would be something like:

1. Ocarina of Time
2. A Link to the Past
3. Link's Awakening
4. The Wind Waker
5. The Legend of Zelda
6. Oracle of Seasons
7. Oracle of Ages
8. Majora's Mask
9. Twilight Princess
10. Spirit Tracks

[Agent-X-]

I think that a top 10 Zelda game ranking makes for an interesting sociological experiment. I suspect that the positioning of LttP on a person's top 10 list reveals something about their age and not necessarily how young or old they are. I find that Link's Awakening tends to poach from LttP's following.


From my encounters, the tendency is that those who played LttP on the SNES love that game and often feel it's the best or second best game. You were probably born before 1987. If you were born in 1987 or later, you may have owned a Gameboy and were exposed to Link's Awakening first before getting to fully experience LttP. If this is you, you probably heard how great LttP is and that it is the best in the entire series. You sat down to play it at some point and didn't think it was better than LA.


In fact, the younger you are, the more likely you are to see LttP as lacking in many of the qualities you are familiar with in the series. Meanwhile, there are a few of us who have wanted an experience more like LttP who feel like the later games have added concepts that just aren't very enjoyable, ie. dungeons packed full of puzzles that often rely on the item you just picked up recently, items that cease being very useful after you leave said dungeon, dungeon difficulty that mostly relies on puzzles and trickery to keep you at bay rather than good ol' fashioned difficulty.


My top list...
1. A Link to the Past
2. Ocarina of Time
3. Skyward Sword
4. Link's Awakening
5. Wind Waker[size=78%]  [/size]
6. Twilight Princess
7. The Minish Cap
8. Majora's Mask

I miss the feeling I got when I cleared another dungeon in Zelda and felt like that was a big accomplishment. If my save file was the most advanced one, that felt good. Many of these later Zelda games are designed for completionists who NEED to complete the game and then unlock every secret. I don't care about that! I freaking descended Death Mountain in the Dark World WITHOUT OUT THE MOON PEARL! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR NO MASTER SWORD! JUST TEMPER MY ORIGINAL ONE THAT MY UNCLE GAVE ME!

Heh...

[Soren]

1)A Link to the Past
2)Ocarina of Time
3)Majora's Mask
4)Wind Waker
5)Skyward Sword
6)The Legend of Zelda

[Ian Sane]

1. Link's Awakening
2. A Link to the Past
3. Majora's Mask
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Minish Cap
6. Four Swords Adventures
7. Wind Waker
8. Oracle of Seasons
9. Oracle of Ages
10. Twilight Princess

The NES games are pretty damn rough and don't hold up well and I'll be damned if those shitty touchscreen Zeldas are going to even sniff my top ten.

[Bizzy_Fatso]

I just can't comprehend why they would put Wind Waker at the top of the list.  Everyone complained about the sailing and the end-game fetch nonsense when the game came out, and they continue to complain about the latter in the new version.  What did everyone complain about when A Link to the Past came out?  I certainly don't recall anything...  What about Ocarina of Time?  Maybe the difficulty of the Water Temple, but aside from that it was universally considered to be a masterpiece.  I can understand Wind Waker being your personal favorite - I cannot understand putting it at the top of a Nintendo site's top ten list.

[UncleBob]

I think OoT suffers from a similar issue as "Sweet Home Alabama" does for Skynyrd fans.  At some point in our lives, we all really liked it, but it just got so dang overplayed, with so many people never accepting the other games in the series for what they are that we just start to overlook that it *is* a good game.

With that said, I refuse to play this game of picking my favorites (except for that #1 spot, as you all should know by now).

Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, Majora's Mask and Four Swords Adventures would probably round out my top five, in some order or another.

Four Swords, LttP, Ocarina of Time, OoA/OoS and the original would probably finish off the top ten.

Out of the main titles, Twilight Princess is probably my least favorite... not that it's a bad game, mind you...  Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, ZII all round out the games I don't think I've ever gone back and played/finished a second playthrough.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I can understand Wind Waker being your personal favorite - I cannot understand putting it at the top of a Nintendo site's top ten list.

I'll never understand why certain people cling to the illusion that games can be judged and compared objectively. Every top 10 list is subjective. In this particular case the list represents the opinions of the NWR staff collectively. If a game can be somebody's favourite in a given series, why can't it be a site's favourite? What is a video game site if not a collection of people with their own tastes and opinions?

[Bizzy_Fatso]

I'll never understand why certain people cling to the illusion that games can be judged and compared objectively. Every top 10 list is subjective. In this particular case the list represents the opinions of the NWR staff collectively. If a game can be somebody's favourite in a given series, why can't it be a site's favourite? What is a video game site if not a collection of people with their own tastes and opinions?

Most people would answer the following 2 questions differently: 

(1) What are your 5 favorite games? 
(2)  What are the top 5 games of all time?

For the latter question, most people will take into account things like lasting influence, overall public reception, etc., which wouldn't necessarily be considered for the former question.  I would put Fallout 3 in my list of my top 5 favorite games of all time, and I wouldn't put Tetris in there - but if I were trying to create a list of the top 5 games of all time, Tetris would probably make the cut and Fallout 3 certainly wouldn't.

Obviously every top 10 list is subjective, but when you're creating a top 10 list for an entire site or community, you should consider broader questions than just your own personal tastes.  I was just saying that when you consider some of these broader questions, I don't think Wind Waker can make the #1 position.  People complained about aspects of the game when it came out and continue to do so today, and it had nowhere near the lasting influence that a game like OoT had.

[Mop it up]

Hm, this is tough, the games are so different it's difficult to compare them. If you asked me tomorrow then this'd probably be different.

10. Link's Crossbow Training
9. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
8. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
7. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
6. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
5. The Legend of Zelda
4. Zelda II: The Adventures of Link
3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

I have not yet played:
Minish Cap
Four Swords Adventures
Four Swords Anniversary
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks

[leahsdad]

1.   Ocarina of Time
2.   Link's Awakening
3.   Link to the Past
4.   Wind Waker
5.   Majora's Mask
6.  Twilight Princess
7.  Skyward Sword
8.  Phantom Hourglass
9.  Spirit Tracks
10.  Oracle of Seasons

And yes, I would NOT include Zelda 2 or Legend of Zelda on my list. 

On a semi related note, a Gamestop employee just called me to let me know that my pre-order of "Legend of Zelda HD" [their words] just arrived.   Aah...Gamestop.

[leahsdad]

The NES games are pretty damn rough and don't hold up well and I'll be damned if those shitty touchscreen Zeldas are going to even sniff my top ten.

I have not yet played:
Minish Cap
Four Swords Adventures
Four Swords Anniversary
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks

Okay, I still liked Spirit Tracks, even though it was...shall we say, not as strongly inspired as we're used to seeing with Zelda games?   Still definitely worth the price of admission. 

But Phantom Hourglass was pretty darn good.   The one boss fight where the top screen was from the first person perspective of this invisible boss?   Crazy amounts of cleverness and ingenuity there.  Never seen in a game before, or since.

[MetalMario2]

Phantom Hourglass might have cracked my Top 10 if not for having to run through the entire Temple of the Ocean King at least four times. It's unnecessary, it's not fun, and it's completely unprofessional to force the player to do that. Nintendo really should have known better. The game was good in most other respects, but that one aspect alone is enough to prevent me from playing a second time. So I stuck Spirit Tracks up there instead.

[UncleBob]

I actually liked the Temple of the Ocean King.  I thought it was neat the way that you played through it differently each time with your new weapons.  I think it could have been mixed up a little better, but was still a neat concept.

[alegoicoe]

1-OoT
2-Wind Waker
3-Majorask Mask
4-Skyward Sword
5-Link to the Past

[Bizzy_Fatso]

Totally agree with MetalMario - it was actually enough to keep me from finishing the game - super annoying.

[Ian Sane]

My main beef with Phantom Hourglass is its controls.  They're unintuitive, akward, and imprecise.  Those Zelda games are the perfect example of forced touchscreen usage.  Did any living soul ever have any issue with the original Zelda controls?  D-pad moves you in the direction you press, buttons swing the sword and use items.  You couldn't come up with something easier to use.  But Nintendo just has to "prove" the validity of their gimmick controls so they came up with this utterly bizarre control method using the touchscreen.  The game makes simply moving around an utter chore.

And I was putting up with it because there was like a good game trapped inside but then I had to go through the Temple of the Ocean King again and I just thought to myself "**** this" and haven't played the game since.  I could deal with the Temple or the touchscreen controls but both?  And damn that game for introducing the Guardians which have to be by far the least welcome Zelda trope ever.  How out-of-touch can Nintendo be to think that THAT is an idea that fans want to see repeated again and again in later Zeldas?  And they've been in every new Zelda game since their debut so expect to see them poison the series from here on out.

[Mop it up]

I played only the multiplayer of Phantom Hourglass, and I didn't like the controls for Link either. Maybe they thought it'd be too easy if he had button controls, but if true then they just needed to rethink the design instead. The controls for the other player, with the guardians or whatever they were called, those made some sense.

[Wah]

OoT for the win my top five:
1. OoT
2. Majoras mask
3. Skyward sword
4. the lengend of zelda
5. twilight princess

[Phil]

1) Ocarina of Time
2) A Link to the Past
3) Link's Awakening DX
4) The Wind Waker HD
5) Oracle of Ages/Seasons
6) Skyward Sword
7) Twilight Princess
Majora's Mask
9) The Minish Cap
10) Four Swords Adventures


That was hard, as I haven't played some of them in quite a long while. Nostalgia might be clouding some of them or not giving enough accolades to some titles.

[KisakiProject]

I"m going

1) Ocarina of Time
2) Windwaker
3) Twilight Princess
4) Spirit Tracks (apparently no one loves this one as much as me)
5) The Legend of Zelda
6) Link's Awakening
7) Skyward Sword  (How people like this more than TP blows my mind)
Majora's Mask
9) Oracle of Seasons
10) LttP (Most overrated in the series IMHO)

I've barely played II, Ages, or Minish Cap.  I really didn't care for Phantom Hourglass.  And I never played 4 swords outside the GBA version.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I love how both Phil and KisakiProject have the 'cool' smilie next to Majora's Mask. It almost makes up for the fact that you guys both placed it 8th.
 
Come on people! Majora's Mask rules! Admit it!

[MetalMario2]

So, when are we going to see the results of this?

[NWR_insanolord]

Sorry, I've been in bad shape over the last few weeks. I'll try to get it up soon.

[Stratos]

Am I too late?


1 Majora's Mask
2 Link's Awakening
3 Link to the Past
4 Ocarina of Time
5 Twilight Princess
6 Oracle of Ages/Seasons
7 Wind Waker
8 Phantom Hourglass
9 Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures
10 Spirit Tracks


I have not played enough of Skyward Sword to be able to properly rate it so I will not rank it at all.

If I were to make the multiplayer of Phantom Hourglass a separate game it would be right below Twilight Princess. I loved it and it's controls. It all worked really well for me as a multiplayer experience.

[Khushrenada]

Sorry, I've been in bad shape over the last few weeks. I'll try to get it up soon.

Sorry to hear that. I was finally brought down with a virus of some sort a couple weeks ago. Up to that point, I hadn't been sick in three years. It definitely seems to be a more effective bug this year than in past seasons. On the plus side, at least I finally got to take some sick days from work.